CBC Listen vs The New ClassicalFM
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
CBC Listen
Stream live CBC Radio, explore popular CBC Podcasts, and discover curated music playlists. Enjoy a vast library of Canadian content, all for free. Features include offline listening, personalized recommendations, and playback controls.
- Live & On Demand CBC Radio
- CBC Podcasts
- CBC Music Playlists
- Offline Listening
- Personalized Recommendations
- Playback Speed Control
- CarPlay Support
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Listen to live CBC Radio, the best in CBC Podcasts and curated playlists from CBC Music with the free CBC Listen app. Your local and national CBC Radio One and CBC Music shows are right at your fingertips, live from anywhere. Listen to critically acclaimed series from Canada’s #1 podcaster with shows like Uncover, The Secret Life of Canada, Front Burner, and Someone Knows Something. Discover the best in true crime, investigative reporting, fiction and more. Tune in to over 100 curated music streams featuring brand new releases from Canadian artists and different genres. CBC Listen features: • Live & On Demand CBC Radio • New and Popular CBC Podcasts • Hundreds of CBC Music Playlists • 100% FREE, no fees or subscriptions • Favourites Library for easy access • Recommendations personalized just for you, based on your listening history • Playlogs from CBC Music shows • Reminders so you never miss a beat • Podcast Downloads for Offline Listening • Bookmarks to save and listen to later • Playback Speed control for On Demand content • Frequency Finder • Sleep Timer • CarPlay support • SplitView and SlideOver support on iPads • Widgets • Shortcuts (customizable for the things you access frequently) • Companion Watch App Also, available on Mac (M series), visionPro, tvOS *On Demand and Music Playlists are subject to geo-fencing.
The New ClassicalFM
This app offers a curated selection of beautiful classical music to help you relax and refresh. Enjoy timeless hits, interviews with renowned artists, live performances, and arts news.
- Classical music streaming
- Artist interviews
- Live performances
- Arts news and information
- Relaxing music selection
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The New Classical FM plays Beautiful Music For A Crazy World. Relax, refresh and recharge with the greatest classical music hits of all time, interviews and live performances with the biggest artists on the world stage today, plus arts news and information.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: CBC Listen at 4.8 against The New ClassicalFM's 3.1. CBC Listen also leads on review sentiment (59% vs 26%) and ratings volume (720 vs 14). The New ClassicalFM's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). On price, in-app purchases and iOS requirement 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.
CBC Listen holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: CBC Listen has 720 ratings behind it against 14, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 59% of CBC Listen's written reviews are positive against 26% of The New ClassicalFM's.
CBC Listen ships an update every 5 weeks, The New ClassicalFM every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | CBC Listen | The New ClassicalFM |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (720 ratings) — better | 3.1 (14 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 59.0% of reviews — better | 26.4% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 720 — better | 14 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 67 MB | 85 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 17+ |
| Developer | CBC | MZMEDIA Inc. |
Customer experience
CBC Listen
The New ClassicalFM
User reviews
CBC Listen
From 720 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use
- 🎶 Wide variety of content
- 🔍 Helpful for finding local news
- 🌍 Allows listening from anywhere
- 🔊 Good audio quality
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs
- 🔑 Constant need to log in
- 🗺️ Issues with location detection and defaulting to wrong region
- 🔀 Difficulty finding and organizing favorite shows
- 🔍 Poor search and navigation
The New ClassicalFM
From 14 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🎶 Great music selection
- 👍 Generally good app functionality (historically)
- 🎵 High-quality sound
Room to improve
- ❌ App frequently not working
- ❌ Frequent buffering/stopping
- ❌ Outdated interface
- ❌ Video playback issues
- ❌ High data usage (video)
Bugs and requests
CBC Listen
Reported bugs
5 issues- App crashes when switching between WiFi and cellular
- Playback randomly stops or skips back
- Favorites and settings not saving properly
- Outdated or missing content
- Unreliable live stream updates
Requested features
5 requests- Add CarPlay support
- Improve podcast management and playback controls
- Allow customization of playback controls (seek forward/back)
- Provide more options to browse and discover content
- Fix issues with live stream reliability and connectivity
The New ClassicalFM
Reported bugs
45 issues- ObjectMapper failed to serialize response
- App no longer working
- Station will not broadcast
- Cannot get station to play
- Error message when trying to send notifications
Show 40 moreShow fewer
- App tries to play two audio streams at once
- App won't stop playing
- Playback stops when app is minimized or phone is locked
- App randomly starts playing
- No more playback in iOS 18
- Video not working in full screen
- Video no longer working after website update
- Website version gets interrupted
- App doesn't load
- No reception at all
- Forces video streaming
- Cannot stream using satellite internet
- Constantly buffering
- Live stream takes too much data
- Cannot check other apps while listening
- Video player goes on automatically
- No option for radio only
- App is very limited
- No 'what's playing now' feature
- App stopped working mid-October
- App not working after update
- Station keeps pausing
- Cannot get AM or FM to stop buffering
- Cannot listen to radio stations
- App is cut off at the top and bottom of the phone
- Signal drops after several minutes
- Does not play stations
- App isn't working at all
- App constantly shuts off
- App hangs when using email link
- Feed keeps dropping
- App is buggy
- Cannot get 'last song' feature to work
- Cannot see current pages of the Last Song
- App doesn't work on Wi-Fi
- App crashes or drops if other apps are open
- Broken feed in 'what was that song' feature
- Cannot get alarm to go off when set
- Alarm doesn't go off when stop streaming is pressed
- App stops streaming all the time
Requested features
6 requests- Add a sleep timer
- Option for audio-only streaming
- Show what music is playing
- Optimize for newer iPhone screens
- Add a timer for automatic pausing
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Improve website playlist functionality
In-app purchases
CBC Listen
No in-app purchases
The New ClassicalFM
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is CBC Listen free?
Is The New ClassicalFM free?
Which has better reviews, CBC Listen or The New ClassicalFM?
Do CBC Listen or The New ClassicalFM have ads?
Which is updated more often, CBC Listen or The New ClassicalFM?
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