Albumen vs Prelude
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Albumen
This app offers a straightforward way to browse and play music from your device's library. It organizes your songs by albums and playlists, providing a simple interface for playback control. Enjoy your music with a clean, uncluttered experience.
- View music library
- Organized by albums and playlists
- Simple playback interface
- Background playback support
- Now playing track indicator
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Albumen provides a simple interface for viewing and playing songs (tracks) in your device's music library, organized into albums and playlists. Back when Albumen was originally written, Apple's Music app truncated song title and artist information, whereas Albumen displayed that information in full. Apple's Music app no longer truncates, but Albumen remains useful for the sheer simplicity of its interface. Tap a song (track) to start playing it. The iPhone's music player is used, so you can then quit Albumen and playback will continue, and you can use the iPhone's standard music interface (including the Music app, the Control Center, and the lock screen) to pause and resume play and so forth. Albumen also includes a play/pause button and a track progress indicator. Albumen also tells you what track is currently playing: the Now button takes you to the currently playing track within its album, and the currently playing track has a note mark.
Prelude
Discover new music and artists with personalized recommendations. Track your favorite songs, artists, and albums, and save them to curated playlists. Gain insights into your listening habits.
- Track favorite songs, artists, and albums
- Personalized music recommendations
- Save music to playlists
- Music insights and discovery
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Track your favorite songs, artists, and albums. Get recommendations based on your favorite songs and artists and save them to a playlist.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Prelude at 5.0 against Albumen's 3.5. Prelude also leads on update cadence (every 5 weeks vs every 14 months) and iOS requirement (16.0 vs 26.0). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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.
Prelude holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 3 respectively.
Albumen ships an update every 14 months, Prelude every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 4, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Albumen | Prelude |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.5 (2 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 75.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 3 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 14 months | Every 5 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 10 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Matt Neuburg | Charlotte Moche |
Customer experience
Albumen
Prelude
In-app purchases
Albumen
No in-app purchases
Prelude
No in-app purchases
