Comparison

No Cover Charge vs lydia.live

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

No Cover Charge

Learn guitar with a comprehensive training system designed by professional musicians. Access structured courses, a vast lesson library, and jam-ready backing tracks. Connect with a supportive community and track your progress with engaging practice tools.

Highlights
  • Structured guitar courses
  • Extensive lesson library
  • Jam-ready backing tracks
  • Community forum
  • Progress tracking with badges
  • Adjustable playback speed
Features
Read full description

No Cover Charge is your backstage pass to learning guitar. Step past the velvet rope and into a full training system built by working session musicians — from your very first chord to the licks you've been chasing for years. No intro fees. No gatekeeping. Just plug in and play. Choose Your Path Structured courses that take you from absolute beginner to advanced technique. Blues, metal, theory, rhythm, lead — pick a lane or tour them all. The Lesson Library Hundreds of standalone lessons you can search, filter, and favorite. Learn what you want, when you want. Backing Tracks Jam-ready tracks across every style and tempo. Loop them, slow them down, and play along until it clicks. The Backstage A community of players sharing wins, questions, and gear talk. Post a clip, ask a question, trade tabs — no trolls at the door. Track Your Progress Daily streaks, practice stats, and badges that celebrate real milestones — First Riff, Lesson Marathoner, Shred God, and more. Pick up exactly where you left off, on any device. Built for Real Practice Adjustable playback speed for dialing in tough passages Download-friendly video streaming Clean, distraction-free player Syncs across iPhone, iPad, and web Whether you're learning your first open chord or finally nailing sweep picking, No Cover Charge puts a world-class guitar education in your pocket. The stage is open. Step up. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://www.nocovercharge.com/privacy

About

lydia.live

Connect local musicians, venues, and fans to discover and create live music experiences. Artists can find bandmates and gigs, venues can book talent, and fans can find shows happening near them.

Highlights
  • Artist profiles with streaming and social links
  • Direct venue booking applications
  • Gig management for artists and bands
  • Venue talent discovery and booking
  • Live show map with filters
  • Follow artists, bands, and venues
  • Save upcoming shows
Features
Read full description

Lydia is the app for your local music scene. Fans, artists and venues, all in one place. Something changes when they're all in the same app. A coffee shop that has never booked a band can host one this week. A bedroom guitarist can start playing in public. The drummer your band has been missing turns out to live three doors down. And the show you'd never have heard about is right there on your map. FOR ARTISTS AND BANDS Build a profile that's about your music — streaming and social links, genres, where you're based. Apply to venues directly instead of sending cold emails and hoping. Accept invites to bills and keep every upcoming gig in one place. Search artists near you by instrument, genre and location, connect with them, and start a band together — with real admin controls over who's in it. FOR VENUES You don't need booking experience or a promoter's contact list. If you have a room and a night, you can put music in it. Open your venue up to applications and receive applications from local acts. Or browse talent and reach out to the ones you want to play at your spot. Invite the artists and bands you already trust, build the bill, and confirm it — the show goes public the moment you do. FOR FANS See what's on tonight, this weekend or next month on a map of your city. Filter to find the perfect spot. Follow the artists, bands and venues you care about and hear about shows as they're booked. Save the shows you don't want to miss. Lydia is built one scene at a time. If yours isn't on the map yet, it's up to you! Start building it!

Screenshots

No Cover Charge4 screens
lydia.live3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: lydia.live at none against No Cover Charge's 2. No Cover Charge's advantage is ratings volume (302 vs 1) and update cadence (weekly vs monthly). On price, rating, review sentiment and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. No Cover Charge sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. lydia.live asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for No Cover Charge against 5.0 for lydia.live. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: No Cover Charge has 302 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 99% of No Cover Charge's written reviews are positive against 100% of lydia.live's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

No Cover Charge ships an update weekly, lydia.live monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 11, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
No Cover Charge versus lydia.live: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNo Cover Chargelydia.live
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (302 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews98.5% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings302 — better1
Update frequencyWeekly — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.0 — better15.1
Further details — not scored
Size83 MB64 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperLarson Media LLCKD Creative LLC

Customer experience

No Cover Charge

All ratings302 ratings
Positive98.3%
Neutral0.3%
Negative1.3%
Written reviews135 reviews
Positive98.5%
Neutral0.0%
Negative1.5%

lydia.live

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

No Cover Charge

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • App freezing or crashing on some devices
  • Compatibility issues with older operating systems

Requested features

3 requests
  • More content on specific techniques like hybrid picking
  • Ability to create custom practice schedules
  • Integration with other music apps or devices

lydia.live

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

2 purchases

No Cover Charge

Subscriptions2
  • Guitar Super System Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Guitar Super System Yearly1 Year trial$49.991 Year
None

lydia.live

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is No Cover Charge free?
No Cover Charge is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is lydia.live free?
lydia.live is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, No Cover Charge or lydia.live?
lydia.live is rated higher. No Cover Charge averages 4.9 out of 5 from 302 ratings, while lydia.live averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do No Cover Charge or lydia.live have ads?
Neither No Cover Charge nor lydia.live shows ads.
Which is updated more often, No Cover Charge or lydia.live?
No Cover Charge ships an update weekly, and lydia.live monthly. Most recently, No Cover Charge was updated on November 11, 2026 and lydia.live on October 31, 2026.

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