Tunebook vs Score Reader Lite
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Tunebook
This app is a viewer for music written in the ABC format, a text-based notation popular for folk music. It allows users to import tunes from the web, organize them into collections, search by title, key, or time signature, and view them in musical notation. Users can also play the tunes with various voices.
- ABC music format viewer
- Import tunes from websites
- Search tunes by title, key, time signature
- Display musical notation
- Play tunes with various voices
- Organize tunes into tunebooks
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Tunebook is now identical to the Tunebook for iPad application - don't buy both! I keep both on the App Store because it's not possible to provide an upgrade path to a single app without forcing some users to pay twice. Tunebook is a viewer for music expressed in the ABC format. ABC is a simple text-based notation for music and many thousands of tunes are freely available in this format on the Web. ABC is also supported by many music applications. See http://abc.sourceforge.net/ for more details on the ABC format. The format is primarily geared towards traditional folk music where tunes fit on a single page. Tunebook allows you to import files in the ABC format from websites into its database. You can then list the tunes, search for tunes by words in the title, by key and by time signature. Selecting a tune will display it in musical notation and allow you to play it in a variety of voices. You can also create tunebooks to organize your tune collection. Tunebook is based on the well-known abc2ps and abc2midi applications, and licensed under the GPL. The source code is available from http://www.jhlabs.com/tunebook.
Score Reader Lite
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Reading orchestral or band scores to an advanced level takes years to master. With so many instruments and their specific clefs and transpositions, it’s not straightforward to identify what the notes actually are! This app is a handy tool for checking how written notes translate to sounding notes. - Intended for music students, conductors, composers and anybody who wants to get quicker at sight reading scores - Choose from over 50 instruments to explore - many with configurable transposition options - Includes guidance on the fundamentals of reading transposing instruments - Supports dark and light themes If you find this app useful and want to take your transposing skills to the next level, please check out Score Reader Pro! - Test yourself by transposing randomly generated notes - Unlocks over 50 extra instruments - Supports 4 clefs, double flats/sharps, and key signatures with up to 7 flats/sharps - Includes options to set instrument ranges, and the training session length - See how much you’ve improved on the detailed session history page - Completely ad free!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Score Reader Lite at fortnightly against Tunebook's every 2 months. Tunebook's advantage is iOS requirement (9.0 vs 16.3). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Tunebook ships an update every 2 months, Score Reader Lite fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on July 8, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Tunebook | Score Reader Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.0 (6 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 75.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 6 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 9.0 — better | 16.3 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 32 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | JH Labs | Matt Welch |
In-app purchases
Tunebook
No in-app purchases
Score Reader Lite
No in-app purchases







