MusicMachine vs StarTone
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
MusicMachine
This app functions as a digital jukebox, letting users select songs for playback. It's designed for social gatherings like parties, allowing multiple people to contribute to a music queue. Users can manage the queue, control playback, and create playlists.
- Select music for playback
- Manage song queue
- Full playback controls (seek, skip, pause, stop)
- Background playback
- Create and save playlists
- Share/export non-DRM songs
Read full descriptionHide full description
A Jukebox app that allows you to choose your music while you are listening. Ideal for parties, where there are a number of people who would like to choose some songs. *note* no music is supplied with this app. Features - Queue - you can see what songs are in the queue, and delete some if needed, or even touch a song in the queue and the player will jump to it. Control - full seek, skip (forwards and backwards), pause, and stop control (the stop button will clear the queue). Plays in background - leave the app and play a game and the music will continue. Create and save playlists. Share / export non DRM protected songs.
StarTone
This music player allows you to rate songs with stars and love statuses directly from your device's library or audio files. It offers convenient rating options via widgets and Apple Watch, with iCloud sync for your ratings.
- Rate music with stars and love statuses
- iCloud sync for ratings across devices
- Rating support on Today Extension and Apple Watch
- Play and rate common audio formats including Flac and MIDI
- Embed lyrics and support for .lrc files
- Smart playlist creation
Read full descriptionHide full description
StarTone is a music player which can play songs in your "Music" library and audio files stored in your device, including common format like mp3 and lossless format of Flac, also it support MIDI playback and support customize sound bank. StarTone was came out for rating music with stars and "love" statues. The rating bar stands out in the main page, so it just need one touch to make the rating, no need to open many submenus. In addition, StarTone provides Today Extension and Watch app, so you can also make music ratings on the Widget Screen and your Apple Watch. StarTone now also equips some handy features to make the music listening easy and happy. Please try to play with them. Features: 1. Quickly set star and love ratings for music on your local library, Apple Music or audio file. 2. Sync music ratings with other devices or iTunes via iCloud on the go. 3. With iCloud Sync enabled, love / dislike rating are available. 4. Support rating on today extension (widget). 5. Share music ratings with family and friends. 6. Support embed lyrics, .lrc lyrics file and online lyrics. 7. Support automatically play when launch the app. 8. Support star music rating on Apple Watch. 9. Play and rate audio files of general format and Flac lossless format. 10. Support MIDI playback. 11. Smart playlist for both Music Library and audio files. 12. Play audio files on Apple Watch. 13. Scheduled music playback.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: StarTone at 4.0 against MusicMachine's 3.0. StarTone also leads on update cadence (every 5 weeks vs every 3 months) and ratings volume (17 vs 1). MusicMachine's advantage is review sentiment (75% vs 67%) and iOS requirement (14.0 vs 18.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
MusicMachine costs $0.99 and StarTone $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
StarTone holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: StarTone has 17 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 75% of MusicMachine's written reviews are positive against 67% of StarTone's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
MusicMachine ships an update every 3 months, StarTone every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | MusicMachine | StarTone |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 | $0.99 |
| Rating | 3.0 (1 ratings) | 4.0 (17 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 75.0% of reviews — better | 66.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 17 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 5 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 9 MB | 24 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Jason Santos | 乃波 黄 |
Customer experience
MusicMachine
StarTone
In-app purchases
MusicMachine
No in-app purchases
StarTone
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is MusicMachine free?
Is StarTone free?
Which has better reviews, MusicMachine or StarTone?
Do MusicMachine or StarTone have ads?
Which is updated more often, MusicMachine or StarTone?
Other comparisons
