Comparison

AO vs Melon Music

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

Head to head
About

AO

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AO-ringo Player is a music player designed specifically for continuously playing albums from your Apple Music library. [Key Features] ・Continuous Album Playback: When the last track of an album ends, the app automatically transitions to the next album and continues playing. ・Seamless Transitions: Preloading minimizes wait time when switching between albums. ・Offline Mode: Automatically detects tracks saved on your device and keeps playing without interruption even without a network connection. ・Library Integration: Works directly with your Apple Music library and playlists. ・Favorites: Add artists and playlists to your favorites and quickly access them sorted by play count. ・Custom Themes: Choose from Auto (follows OS settings), fixed Light/Dark, or custom color themes from the appearance settings (※ options other than Auto require an in-app purchase).

About

Melon Music

Features
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Melon Music rethinks what should a local music player should be. It is designed to be a minimalist, refined and singular experience free from bloat and distractions. An elegant canvas for your personal curated library, add external folders and files directly without copying, enable or disable folders to quickly change up your collection. It focuses only on what's playing, and what's upcoming, all accessible with a minimum number of gestures. Sort and manage your library, create playlists on the fly all with significantly less input than other applications. ReplayGain Melon Edition is a custom loudness equalization algorithm that preserves the dynamics of quiet songs and the energy of loud songs. It saves you from manual volume adjustments while preserving artistic intent. The app also applies gain in a way that sacrifices significantly less dynamic range compared to standard approach. Melon Music has many Japanese-specific sorting features, it supports sort tags commonly used for Japanese music. For files that don't have sort tags, it features a built-in lookup table which you can fill in effortlessly leveraging on-device and third party AI*. For example an artist only needs to be sorted once to work with all existing and future songs. Unlock customization options through an in-app purchase, which features custom accent color and background images, with beautiful gradient options to assist with readability. Paid users can also apply ReplayGain Melon Edition tags to their files to be used elsewhere. Features: -Simply tap any song to play, or if one is already playing, it will be played next, safe from interruptions. -The persistent playlist can be easily saved, shuffled or cleared. -Timer to stop after set number of songs. -Quick shuffle randomly picks a few albums to play. -Regret button when changing songs during play. -Adaptive Replay Gain equalizes volume with less loss of dynamic range than regular approaches. -ReplayGain Melon Edition provides better volume consistency than standard algorithms. -iPad exclusive multi-panel interface rather than enlarged iPhone interface. -Surface most common Chinese characters to scroll index for easy access. -Sort Kana as Romaji or by 50 Kana order. -Sort Chinese characters by Pinyin order. -Exported Japanese kanji reading guide can be filled in by any frontier AI models in one simple inquiry. -It is possible to sort Chinese and Japanese correctly at the same time by utilizing sort tags for Japanese, and pinyin for the rest. *Apple Intelligence requires iOS 26 and compatible device, model performance depends on iOS version and device. The user is required to query a third-party AI provider on their own, Melon Music does not communicate with any remote devices or services.

Screenshots

AO4 screens
Melon Music4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: AO at weekly against Melon Music's every 5 weeks. On price, ads, in-app purchases 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

Both are free to download. AO sells 3 one-off in-app purchases and Melon Music sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

AO ships an update weekly, Melon Music every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 5 level
AO versus Melon Music: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAOMelon Music
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 5 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS17.6 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size13 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFujishima TomokazuChen Gong

In-app purchases

3 purchases

AO

One-time3
  • Coffee Support$0.99
  • Premium Coffee Support$1.99
  • Coffee & Cake Support$3.99
1 purchases

Melon Music

One-time1
  • Unlock Customization2 variants$2.99

Questions

Is AO free?
AO is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Melon Music free?
Melon Music is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do AO or Melon Music have ads?
Neither AO nor Melon Music shows ads.
Which is updated more often, AO or Melon Music?
AO ships an update weekly, and Melon Music every 5 weeks. Most recently, AO was updated on October 25, 2026 and Melon Music on October 31, 2026.

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