Band vs Extrack
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Band
Create professional backing tracks instantly from chord progressions. Choose from thousands of styles and hear real musicians play your music. View chords, notation, and tabs, and even generate solos for improvisation.
- Instant backing track generation
- Thousands of musical styles
- RealTracks with live musicians
- Chord sheet and notation display
- Generated solos for improvisation
- Interactive instrument displays
- Record melodies via MIDI
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Band-in-a-Box® for iOS – Your Personal Backing Band! Band-in-a-Box for iOS is a powerful music creation tool that works as a standalone version of the popular award-winning desktop software. Now, you can create, play, generate, and transfer songs directly on your iPhone or iPad—anytime, anywhere! Includes chords, professional lead sheet and notation display and print out of chords, melody, lyrics, tab and more! Create A Professional Arrangement in Two Minutes Building a song from scratch takes less than two minutes! Simply type in any chord progression using standard chord symbols (e.g., D, B7, C/E), choose from thousands of styles, and press play—Band-in-a-Box instantly generates full backing tracks that sound incredible, thanks to our industry-leading RealTracks, featuring real musicians playing real instruments. Not only can you hear your song, but you can see it too—watch it play on the guitar fretboard, in tab, or in standard notation. Key Features: Band-in-a-Box® for iOS is so easy to use! – Create, play, and arrange great sounding songs easily. Includes chords, professional lead sheet notation, and the ability to display and print chords, melody, lyrics, tabs, and more. Thousands of Styles – Choose from an extensive library of genres: jazz, rock, pop, country, blues, hip-hop, EDM, punk, Americana, world, and more! Instant Backing Tracks – Generates MIDI and RealTracks accompaniments in seconds. RealTracks & RealStyles – Enjoy high-quality, real-instrument backing tracks. Generated Solos – Band-in-a-Box not only creates backing tracks, but will also generate solos based on your custom chord progression—an excellent tool for learning and improvisation! Chord Sheet & Notation – View songs on the chord sheet, professional notation, tablature, and drum notation. Interactive Instrument Displays – Watch MIDI notes being played on the guitar fretboard or piano keyboard in real-time. Seamless File Management – Load and save individual or zipped song files. Export, print, and share via AirDrop, Messages, Email, and more. Customizable Display Options – Works in both portrait and landscape mode, with a choice of dark mode or light mode. Record Your Own Melodies – Capture your ideas by recording directly to the melody or soloist track using a MIDI controller. Mixer & Editing Tools – Adjust instrument volume, edit chords, and fine-tune your tracks with the Chord Sheet Editor. Song Demos – Browse and listen to demo songs in different styles to find the perfect sound for your track. Built-in Help & Tips – A handy HELP button provides guidance and useful tips on using the app. …and much more! Perfect for Musicians, Songwriters, and Educators Band-in-a-Box for iOS is the perfect tool for practicing improvisation and music theory, songwriting, and music production. Whether you’re learning your favorite songs, experimenting with different musical patterns, or composing new tracks in minutes, this app is for you! Band-in-a-Box® for iOS – Your Ultimate Songwriting & Practice Companion!
Extrack
Instantly split songs into individual instrument parts and analyze chords in real-time. Adjust volumes, practice "minus one" style, and visualize chord fingerings for guitar or piano. Perfect for musicians of all levels looking to jam along with their favorite tracks.
- Instrumental stem separation
- Real-time chord analysis
- Adjustable instrument volumes
- Practice 'minus one' mode
- Visual chord fingering guides
- Tempo and key adjustment
- Section looping
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Play along with your favorite tracks. Extrack, an app that lets you split instruments and analyze chords, instantly. -You can use the basic features for free with no time limit. Subscribe, and you can unlock more advanced features. ・Separate songs into different instrument parts (vocal, guitar, piano, bass, drums, wind instruments) and freely adjust their volumes. ・Practice "minus one" style (mute one part and play it yourself). ・See the chords and how to play them on guitar or piano in real time while the song plays. ・Change the tempo, keys, or repeat specific sections easily. The app is very easy to use, even for beginners. ■When you feel like jamming with a band! -Load any song from your smartphone or tablet, and Extrack automatically separates it into each instrument part — such as guitar, drums, bass, piano, and wind instruments like saxophone. You can adjust the volume of each part freely, just the way you like. -If you’re a guitarist, turn down the other instruments and focus on the guitar sound to pick up even the most subtle phrase by ear. Then, switch the mix up, mute the guitar part and jam along with the rest of the band. It’s the closest thing to being on stage with your favorite artists! Want to tighten your rhythm? Turn up the drums and bass for focused practice. Or mute the vocals and enjoy singing along karaoke-style with real band sound! ■When you feel like jamming to that song you love! -Extrack automatically analyzes and displays the chord progression of any song. Even if you’re not good at figuring out chords by ear, you can enjoy jamming while watching the chords in real time. -It also shows how to play each chord on guitar or piano visually so even beginners who can’t read sheet music can feel confident. -Just load a song, and you can start practicing right away! If the song has chords that are too difficult, simply change the key or set a capo to make them easier to play. ■When you’re stuck on a part you’re having trouble with. -Want to play just one phrase over and over? -Want to slow down the tempo and practice carefully? -With Extrack, you can do it all easily. Simply select the section you want to repeat, skip by measure, or adjust the playback speed to match your pace. Plus, Extrack comes with a built-in metronome that automatically syncs with the song’s tempo, perfect for training your timing and rhythm. ■Just load your favorite song, and enjoy practicing with all of Extrack’s features. -Works with : MP3, AAC, FLAC, and more. -Add songs from iTunes or your CDs and start playing! - You can even import songs directly from cloud storage services.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Band at none against Extrack's 2. Band also leads on iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.0). Extrack's advantage is review sentiment (37% vs 23%). On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence 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. Extrack sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Band asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 3.9 for Band against 4.0 for Extrack. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 38 and 29 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 23% of Band's written reviews are positive against 37% of Extrack's.
Band ships an update every 2 months, Extrack every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 27, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Band | Extrack |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.9 (38 ratings) | 4.0 (29 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 23.4% of reviews | 36.8% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 38 — better | 29 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 6 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Freemium — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 771 MB | 604 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | PG Music Inc. | Yamaha Corporation |
Customer experience
Band
Extrack
Bugs and requests
Band
Reported bugs
17 issues- App crashes when saving songs
- Changes to chords, styles, and form not applied to playback
- Cannot generate RealTracks, only MIDI output
- Notation feature shows whole bar rests instead of arrangements
- Playback sync lag with chord display (2+ measures behind)
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- Cursor position out of range during playback
- App freezes when touching song title area
- Files not saving to local storage or Files app
- Song data loss after updates
- Instrument settings not persisting
- Server connection failures and timeouts
- Transpose function disappeared in recent updates
- Style gets stuck and won't change
- Inconsistent RealTracks generation
- Pick server option missing in some versions
- Screen controls hidden on iPhone due to notch design
- App doesn't rotate to landscape mode
Requested features
16 requests- Loop function for specific song segments
- Transpose functionality for practice in all keys
- Multiple chords per measure entry
- Ability to change key automatically for transposing instruments
- Mute individual instruments
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- Change instrument types (electric to acoustic)
- Adjust instrument volume levels
- Go To and Loop conductor features
- Change number of choruses on mobile device
- Landscape orientation support
- Offline editing capabilities without server connection
- Manual and comprehensive documentation
- Export to email and messaging apps
- Better Mac OS compatibility
- Rotate portrait orientation 180 degrees
- Standalone functionality without desktop BIAB required
Extrack
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Band
No in-app purchases
Extrack
- Monthly Plan7 Days trial$5.991 Month
- Yearly Plan7 Days trial$39.991 Year









