Comparison

Pixound vs Year One

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Pixound

Transform any image into a musical instrument and create unique songs. Explore a deep musical experience with extensive controls, over 127 instruments, and various scales. It's a fun and educational tool for all ages, allowing you to play live video and record your performances.

Highlights
  • Turn any picture into music
  • Play live video as an instrument
  • Record performances with touch playback
  • Over 65 scales and modes
  • 127+ instruments for four voices
  • Save and share creations
  • MIDI export
Features
Read full description

"Pixound Turns Photos into Musical Instruments, and It’s Better Than You Think" — Gizmodo "Pixound is a trippy music app for iOS that allows users to turn any snap into a song." — MTV Hive Enjoyed by top musical artists including: Herbie Hancock, David Byrne (Talking Heads), Mark Mothersbaugh (DEVO), Michael Shrieve (Santana) and many more. Have you ever jammed on Saturn's Rings with a whammy bar? Have you ever played the rainbow? What about you're dog's nose? What does it sound like? How about creating your own music just by dancing? With Pixound you can do all this and much more! Pixound is a revolutionary form of musical entertainment! Pixound provides a deep musical experience that lets YOU instantly create music using any picture. It's pure fun to play (at any age) and deep because it can be used to play music like you've never heard before. It's so much fun that artist Peter Max bought an iPhone just to have Pixound! Since there is no limit to what pictures you can play from art and graphics to photos and they can be combined with thousands of different musical settings, there is no limit to the music you can create and enjoy. You owe it to yourself to try Pixound!!! By the way, you will learn a lot about music just playing with Pixound so it's also an educational tool, sometimes referred to as a Deep Toy. Features: • Play any picture from snaps to outer space to art masterpieces • Play Live Video (in-app purchase) so that reality becomes a musical instrument • Record audio or use effects processors via Audiobus 2.1 or Inter-app Audio • Record performances including where you touched in the photo that plays back for others to see. • Play in any key or scale (over 65 scales/modes) • Add Bass and Drums from lots of choices • Tons of musical controls to create a huge variety of great music • Select from many different autoplay styles including device tilt • Add harmony voices • Add Song Progressions from basic to classical and more • Select from over 127 instruments for four voices R, B, G and bass • Import samples using AudioShare™ • Save your own settings to Banks and share with others via community or email • Built-in Reverb • Save MIDI files and go direct out to MIDI synthesizers (in-app purchase) • Access and share your creations with the Pixound Community

About

Year One

Experience music in a new dimension with augmented reality. Move around your space to uncover hidden sounds, build melodies, and create unique listening experiences by interacting with spatial audio arrangements.

Highlights
  • Spatial album listening
  • Augmented reality soundscapes
  • Interactive music exploration
  • Build melodies and chords
  • Dynamic audio effects
  • Create unique listening experiences
Read full description

Hear different lyrics in the corners of your room; build melodies as you walk around your couch; hear hidden parts and build your own chords just by walking through the space around you. Year One is the first spatial album, utilizing the possibilities of augmented reality technology, by D.C. group and label TCW. Upon launching the Year One app, the different sounds and instruments of the songs will populate and begin moving through the space around you. Your movement, tracked by your smartphone, will affect which sounds you hear and change how individual effects are applied to them, making for a different listening experience each time. This final release of the album contains all eight spatial arrangements from TCW, Wall of Trophies, and N.E. Hertzberg. TCW has released a how-to guide for any musician to build their own similar app independently. Alongside the guide, TCW has begun cataloging spatial composition techniques for other musicians to use and contribute to. This guide and techniques can all be found on tcwav.com. TCW released their first spatial album, Inauguration, in early 2017 using smartphone GPS positional tracking, and released a similar guide for building spatial applications. Contact the group at tcw@tcwav.com Headphones required for proper audio spatialization.

Screenshots

Pixound4 screens
Year One4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Pixound at 72% against Year One's 0%. Pixound also leads on update cadence (monthly vs every 7 months) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.0). Year One's advantage is price (Free vs $0.99) and in-app purchases (none vs 2). On ratings volume, ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Year One is free to download; Pixound costs $0.99 up front. Pixound sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Year One asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Year One holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 4.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 8 and 3 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 72% of Pixound's written reviews are positive against 0% of Year One's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pixound ships an update monthly, Year One every 7 months. The most recent releases landed on August 12, 2026 and June 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Pixound versus Year One: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPixoundYear One
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating4.1 (8 ratings)4.3 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews72.2% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings8 — better3
Update frequencyMonthly — betterEvery 7 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.6 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size1.1 GB407 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTechné MediaTCW

Customer experience

Pixound

All ratings8 ratings
Positive75.0%
Neutral12.5%
Negative12.5%
Written reviews18 reviews
Positive72.2%
Neutral0.0%
Negative27.8%

Year One

All ratings3 ratings
Positive66.7%
Neutral33.3%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral100.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Pixound

One-time2
  • Pixound Live Video$1.99
  • Pixound MIDI Features$2.99
None

Year One

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pixound free?
Pixound costs $0.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Year One free?
Year One is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Pixound or Year One?
Year One is rated higher. Pixound averages 4.1 out of 5 from 8 ratings, while Year One averages 4.3 from 3 ratings.
Do Pixound or Year One have ads?
Neither Pixound nor Year One shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pixound or Year One?
Pixound ships an update monthly, and Year One every 7 months. Most recently, Pixound was updated on August 12, 2026 and Year One on June 1, 2026.

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