Comparison

Muse Amp vs Spindle

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

Head to head
About

Muse Amp

A local-first music player for managing your personal music library. Organize playlists, view lyrics, and search your downloaded songs and connected catalogs. Enjoy a fast, organized, and offline-ready listening experience.

Highlights
  • Local music playback
  • Playlist creation and organization
  • Synced lyrics display
  • Search local library and connected catalogs
  • Offline music availability
  • Network song transfer
Features
Read full description

Muse Amp is a local-first music player for people who keep their own music library. Play downloaded songs, build playlists, browse albums, read synced lyrics, and search across your on-device library and connected catalog sources in one focused app. Muse Amp is designed for a personal music workflow that stays fast, organized, and available on your device. Connect a Subsonic-compatible server to browse catalog data, fetch artwork and lyrics, and choose the music you want to keep offline. Muse Amp centers around downloaded playback, so your library stays ready wherever you listen. With Muse Amp, you can: - Play downloaded music with a queue-based listening experience (must be downloaded/imported) - Build and organize playlists - View cached and synced lyrics - Search your local library and connected server catalog - Transfer songs across your local network, including Apple TV handoff (after TV app get approved) Current import support: - m4a files exported from Muse Amp Current Subsonic compatibility target: - Numeric album IDs and track IDs - m4a audio delivery for /rest/stream.view and /rest/download.view - Song metadata with suffix=m4a and contentType=audio/mp4 Muse Amp keeps your music workflow simple, personal, and local-first.

About

Spindle

Rediscover your owned music with a dedicated player that prioritizes your curation and control. Enjoy a tactile jog wheel interface, support for all lossless formats, and seamless integration with your existing library. No algorithms, no accounts, just your music, your way.

Highlights
  • Tactile jog wheel for navigation
  • Support for all lossless audio formats
  • No algorithmic feed or account required
  • Import music via Wi-Fi, AirDrop, or Files
  • Gapless playback and AirPlay 2 support
  • Customizable themes
Features
Read full description

The dedicated music player you miss, rebuilt for iPhone — and it plays your own server. For those with a spot of nostalgia for click wheels and MiniDiscs: those little machines played the music you owned, in the order you chose. No feed. No account. No algorithm deciding what came next. Spindle brings that back. Your whole server, in your pocket. Run Navidrome, or any Subsonic-compatible server? Point Spindle at it and your entire collection is there — thousands of albums, browsable and playable, without filling up your phone. A library far bigger than your storage, on a device that fits in a pocket. It stays your server. There is no Spindle account and no cloud of ours in the middle: your phone talks to your machine, and nobody else is involved. If you don't run a server, none of this appears — Spindle is a local player first, and stays one. Take it offline. Download any album to keep it on the phone. Offline Mode then shows only music that plays with no connection at all — on a plane, on the subway, off-grid — and quietly collapses duplicates when you own a copy of something you also stream. A player you hold. A real jog wheel: drag to scroll, flick to coast, spin to scrub. Hold a scrub and it accelerates, the way a proper transport does. Eyes-up and thumb-driven. Not another screen of flat buttons. Your collection, one turn away. Albums, artists, songs, genres, and folders: on a shelf you can spin through. Loved and most-played stay close to hand. You bring the curation. The music you own, in the order you meant it. Spindle just plays it back. And it plays it properly. FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF and MP3, played through Spindle's own engine at the file's native sample rate. Gapless playback for albums that were meant to run together. A 10-band EQ if you want to shape it. CarPlay, AirPlay, and Last.fm scrobbling if you use it. Free for 7 days, then buy it once. The whole app for a week, nothing withheld. After that it's a one-time purchase — not a subscription. No account. No subscription to us. No feed. Your library, your order.

Screenshots

Muse Amp4 screens
Spindle4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Spindle at 5.0 against Muse Amp's 2.3. Muse Amp's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and device support (4 vs 1). On price, ratings volume, update cadence 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Spindle sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Muse Amp asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Spindle holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 2 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Muse Amp ships an update every 3 weeks, Spindle every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 5 level
Muse Amp versus Spindle: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMuse AmpSpindle
PriceFreeFree
Rating2.3 (3 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Number of ratings3 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV — betteriPhone
Requires iOS16.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size19 MB8 MB
Age rating17+4+
Developer子衎 王Raindog LLC

Customer experience

Muse Amp

All ratings2 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

Spindle

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Muse Amp

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Spindle

One-time1
  • Unlock Spindle$6.99

Questions

Is Muse Amp free?
Muse Amp is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Spindle free?
Spindle is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Muse Amp or Spindle?
Spindle is rated higher. Muse Amp averages 2.3 out of 5 from 3 ratings, while Spindle averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Muse Amp or Spindle have ads?
Neither Muse Amp nor Spindle shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Muse Amp or Spindle?
Muse Amp ships an update every 3 weeks, and Spindle every 2 weeks. Most recently, Muse Amp was updated on October 31, 2026 and Spindle on October 28, 2026.

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