Comparison

Discrete vs Show Primer

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

Head to head
About

Discrete

A sleek and lightweight music player designed for Jellyfin servers. Enjoy your music library directly from your server with features like offline playback, playlist management, and CarPlay support. Optimized for minimal resource usage and a smooth user experience.

Highlights
  • Jellyfin server integration
  • Offline playback and downloads
  • CarPlay support
  • Playlist creation and management
  • Transcoding options
  • Background playback
  • Sleep timer
Features
Read full description

Discrete is a carefully crafted native music player for your Jellyfin library, made for iPhone and iPad. Enjoy a clean interface, thoughtful controls and layouts that feel at home on your device. Stability and performance are central to the design, with cached library views, progressive loading and background downloads to support everyday listening. MADE FOR IPHONE DUO Thoughtfully adapted library navigation and a dedicated player make the most of iPhone Duo. Enjoy artwork, playback controls and your queue or lyrics together on its expanded screen, with layouts that respond as you rotate or fold the device. YOUR LIBRARY, CLOSE AT HAND - Browse albums, artists, playlists and All Tracks, with artwork and useful music details. - Find songs, albums, artists and playlists in one search. - Rediscover your collection through Home suggestions, new releases and recently added music. - Keep favorites close and revisit your listening history. LISTEN YOUR WAY - Play a song next, add it to the queue, or drag upcoming tracks into the order you want. - Save your queue and playback position between app launches. - Shuffle, repeat, set a sleep timer, or start a Jellyfin Instant Mix from a song, album or playlist. - Follow synced lyrics and tap a timed line to jump to that part of the song, when lyrics are available on your server. - View audio format, bit depth and sample rate while listening. TAKE YOUR MUSIC WITH YOU - Download tracks, albums and playlists for offline listening. - Browse and search downloaded music without a connection. - Let audio downloads continue in the background and follow their progress in a Live Activity. - Stream original files or use automatic or custom Jellyfin transcoding, with separate preferences for cellular, Wi-Fi and downloads. MADE FOR IPHONE, IPAD AND CARPLAY - Enjoy player layouts for portrait and landscape, with support for iPad multitasking. - Swipe between tracks in the mini player, listen in the background, and use Lock Screen controls or AirPlay. - Browse your library, play downloaded music and manage Up Next in CarPlay. MAKE THE COLLECTION YOURS Create and rename playlists, add or remove songs, and reorder them with a drag. Playlist changes and favorites are saved to your Jellyfin server. FREE TO ENJOY. PRO TO SUPPORT. The core listening experience is free, including playback, downloads, playlists, lyrics and CarPlay. Optional Discrete Pro supports continued development and adds multiple accounts, alternate app icons and accent colors. Pro is available through monthly or yearly auto-renewing subscriptions, or a lifetime purchase. You can manage or cancel subscriptions in your App Store account settings. Requires access to a Jellyfin server with a music library. Format support and transcoding depend on your device and server. Privacy Policy: https://discrete.app/privacy/ Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Show Primer

Create an Apple Music playlist based on an artist's recent setlists. Learn every song before a concert by discovering what they've been playing on tour and easily adding them to your music library.

Highlights
  • Create Apple Music playlists
  • View artist setlists
  • Learn songs before concerts
  • Discover expected and rare tracks
  • One-tap playlist creation
Features
Read full description

Get ready for the show! Show Primer builds you an Apple Music playlist from a band's recent setlists — so you can learn every song before the show. Here's how it works: 1. Search for the artist you're going to see 2. Show Primer pulls their latest setlists and figures out what they've been playing on tour 3. Pick your songs — or just grab them all 4. One tap creates an Apple Music playlist, ready to play on repeat until showtime Songs played at every show? They're in there. Deep cuts that only come out once in a while? Those too. You'll know which songs to expect, which ones to hope for, and — most importantly — you'll know all the words. Stop scrambling to Shazam songs at the venue. Start showing up prepared!

Screenshots

Discrete4 screens
Show Primer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Show Primer at none against Discrete's 3. Show Primer also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 2 weeks) and rating (5.0 vs 4.7). Discrete's advantage is ratings volume (55 vs 4) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Discrete sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Show Primer asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Show Primer holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Discrete has 55 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 92% of Discrete's written reviews are positive against 100% of Show Primer's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Discrete ships an update every 2 weeks, Show Primer every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on November 12, 2026 and November 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Discrete versus Show Primer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDiscreteShow Primer
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (55 ratings)5.0 (4 ratings) — better
Positive reviews91.7% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings55 — better4
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size52 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAleksandr OrlovJoshua Larson

Customer experience

Discrete

All ratings50 ratings
Positive96.0%
Neutral2.0%
Negative2.0%
Written reviews36 reviews
Positive91.7%
Neutral8.3%
Negative0.0%

Show Primer

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Discrete

Subscriptions2
  • Discrete Pro [Monthly]$0.991 Month
  • Discrete Pro [Yearly]$9.991 Year
One-time1
  • Discrete Pro [Lifetime]$19.99
None

Show Primer

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Discrete free?
Discrete is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Show Primer free?
Show Primer is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Discrete or Show Primer?
Show Primer is rated higher. Discrete averages 4.7 out of 5 from 55 ratings, while Show Primer averages 5.0 from 4 ratings.
Do Discrete or Show Primer have ads?
Neither Discrete nor Show Primer shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Discrete or Show Primer?
Discrete ships an update every 2 weeks, and Show Primer every 2 days. Most recently, Discrete was updated on November 12, 2026 and Show Primer on November 9, 2026.

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