Crankshaft vs Blendcast
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Crankshaft
This music app learns your taste by analyzing how you listen, not through manual input. It creates personalized music stations based on your volume adjustments, skips, and playback duration, offering a unique way to explore your library and discover new music.
- Learns taste from listening behavior
- Personalized music stations
- Explores Apple Music catalog
- Discovery dial for new music
- On-demand album picks
- Parent Mode for separate profiles
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Crankshaft learns your taste from how you actually listen — how you move the volume, when you skip, what you let run to the end. Full CarPlay support, which is where it makes the most sense: hands busy, eyes on the road, so what you do to a song actually means something. Requires an active Apple Music subscription — Crankshaft plays through your existing Apple Music library. No separate account, no sign-up, and Crankshaft never sends your listening data anywhere. It stays on your device unless you choose to export it. Most music apps only know what you tell them. Crankshaft takes that too — crank a song you love, freeze one you never want to hear again — and then it reads everything else: the volume you reach for, the song you kill at four seconds, the one you let run all the way to the end. Those signals cost you nothing to give, and nearly every other app throws them away. Every session shapes a living profile of your taste that gets sharper over time. Give it real sessions and you'll feel the difference within a week. The app is free, you just bring your own Apple Music. The data is all yours, so there's no risk to you. HOW IT WORKS Crankshaft sits on top of your Apple Music library. Hit Ignite and it plays from your personal affinity ledger: a behavioral map of every song, scored by how you actually interacted with it. Crank the volume on a song you love and it learns. Skip something in the first ten seconds and it learns that too. Let a song play to the end and that quiet signal counts. Five behavioral zones, from instant skip to full completion, score every track on a curve. Buttons when you want them, physics the rest of the time. IT PLAYS LIKE A STATION YOU CAN STEER Crankshaft doesn't shuffle. It holds a mood — an era, a genre, an energy — the way a great radio station does, and keeps it there until you signal you want to move. Skip to steer: nudge it toward a different sound and it follows you down the rabbit hole; leave it alone and it holds the vibe. It's built to walk you around your own library, not loop your ten favorites. REACH BEYOND WHAT YOU OWN Declare the artists you love — even ones your library never captured — and Crankshaft opens their catalog and works them into your rotation. A single discovery dial sets how adventurous the engine gets, from comfortable and familiar to wide-open exploration. FEATURES The Crank — Turn up the volume with intent and Crankshaft feels it. That one gesture tells it more than a like ever could. Affinity Ledger — Every song earns a score from real listening behavior. Scores rise and fall with your habits, not just your clicks. CarPlay — Full CarPlay integration with Crank, Freeze, Up Next and Parent Mode controls on the dash. Station & Drift — Crank a song and Crankshaft builds a station around that vibe, holding it and drifting naturally through your library and the Apple Music catalog. Declared Artists — Name the artists you love and Crankshaft reaches their whole catalog, even music you don't own yet. Discovery Dial — Blend new and unfamiliar music into your rotation at exactly the level you choose. Pick an Album — On-demand album picks drawn from your affinity ledger, weighted toward what you love with a wildcard from deep in your library. Parent Mode — A completely separate universe with its own ledger, scoring, and visual theme. Your kids' listening never touches your profile. Road Trip Mode — A pre-cached 60-track queue built for long drives. Works offline. PRIVACY BY DESIGN Your data stays on your device. Crankshaft has no cloud sync, no ad targeting, no social graph, and no tracking pixels. Your affinity ledger lives in your app's local storage and never leaves your phone. Built on Apple MusicKit.
Blendcast
Combine music from Apple Music and podcast episodes into a personalized listening experience. Create custom "Builds" with specific timings for music breaks and podcast segments, then let the app seamlessly transition between them.
- Mix music from Apple Music playlists and albums
- Add individual songs and podcast episodes
- Arrange content order
- Set podcast segment lengths
- Define music break song counts
- Edit and share custom listening sequences
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MUSIC AND PODCASTS. ONE FLOW. BlendCast brings Apple Music and podcasts together in one listening session, with the timing controlled by you. Want 30 minutes of a podcast, then 4 songs, then back to your podcast? Set it once and let BlendCast handle the switching. Create a Build using podcasts, Apple Music playlists, albums, and songs. Choose your timing, press Play, and keep listening without constantly reaching for your phone. BUILT AROUND YOUR APPLE MUSIC BlendCast is a powerful companion for Apple Music, giving you a new way to organize and combine the music you already love with your favorite podcasts. • Mix multiple Apple Music playlists and albums • Add individual songs and podcast episodes • Choose how long podcasts play • Choose how many songs play between podcast sessions • Arrange your listening order • See what’s playing and what comes next • Edit and share your Builds YOUR CONTENT. YOUR RHYTHM. BlendCast automatically moves between podcasts and music based on the timing you choose. Use it at work, while driving, studying, exercising, or whenever you want music and podcasts to flow together throughout your day. Think of it as your own personal radio station, built from the content you already enjoy. FREE TO DOWNLOAD Download BlendCast for free and give your Apple Music a completely new way to play. An active Apple Music subscription is required to play Apple Music catalog content. Music and podcast availability may vary by country or region.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Crankshaft at every 9 days against Blendcast's every 3 weeks. On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Crankshaft against 5.0 for Blendcast. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 5 and 2 respectively.
Crankshaft ships an update every 9 days, Blendcast every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 28, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Crankshaft | Blendcast |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (5 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 5 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.5 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 7 MB | 29 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Crankshaft LLC | Azaerra Studios LLC |
Customer experience
Crankshaft
Blendcast
In-app purchases
Crankshaft
No in-app purchases
Blendcast
No in-app purchases









