Mellow FM vs Plinth Music
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Mellow FM
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Mellow FM is a radio app that automatically plays music suited to your current moment. Time of day, activity, weather, season — the app reads multiple contexts to deliver the perfect soundtrack. Crisp jazz for your morning commute, ambient for late-night work, chill for a rainy afternoon. No need to pick a song or search. Just press play, and music that fits the moment starts flowing. [Context-Aware Selection] Combines time of day, motion detection (walking, running, driving), weather, and season to select the perfect tracks from the Apple Music catalog in real time. [Gets Smarter Over Time] Every skip or full listen teaches the app your preferences. Over time, music gets closer to what you love in the same time and situation. [Simple Gesture Controls] • Tap the logo — Play / Stop • Tap the artwork — Pause / Resume • Swipe left — Skip • Swipe up — Request a song • Swipe down — Settings panel [Song Request] Craving a specific track? Swipe up to open the request panel, search by artist or title, and add it to the queue. [Sleep Timer] Set a timer from 5 to 120 minutes using the slider. Music fades out automatically when you're ready to sleep. [Weather-Based Music (Optional)] Enable "Weather-Based Music" in settings to match your local weather conditions. [Now Playing Support] Control playback from the Lock Screen and Control Center. CarPlay supported. • Requires an active Apple Music subscription for music streaming. • Location access is only requested when Weather-Based Music is enabled. • All personal data stays on your device. Mellow FM is ad-free and tracking-free. A quiet radio that focuses entirely on your music experience.
Plinth Music
This app is a local music player for users who own their music files. It offers album browsing with full artwork, AI-powered playlist generation based on listening history, and automatic metadata enrichment. It supports various audio formats and file transfers over Wi-Fi.
- Local music playback
- Album browsing with full artwork
- AI-powered playlist generation
- Automatic metadata enrichment
- Gapless playback and crossfade
- CarPlay support
- Wi-Fi file transfer
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Plinth is a local music player for people who actually own their music. Buy it once — no subscription, no account, no cloud required. ALBUM BROWSING Browse your library as albums were meant to be seen. Full artwork, flip through your collection with a swipe. The way music discovery should feel. AI DJ Plinth builds your next queue from your actual listening history. Five providers to choose from: Claude, OpenAI, and Grok with your own API key, or Apple Intelligence and Ollama fully on-device. You pick who's listening. LIBRARY Plinth scans your tags — ID3, FLAC, ALAC — then fills the gaps automatically from multiple music databases. Missing artwork, artist photos, genre? Found and fixed. Duplicate tracks and incomplete albums surface in one place so your library stays clean. PLAYBACK Gapless playback, crossfade, lockscreen controls, and CarPlay support. IMPORT Transfer files from Mac over Wi-Fi — no cable, no drama. FORMATS FLAC · ALAC · WAV · AIFF · MP3 · M4A · AAC Your library. Your hardware. Your rules.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Mellow FM at Free against Plinth Music's $9.99. Plinth Music's advantage is update cadence (every 10 days vs every 2 months) and device support (3 vs 1). On ads, in-app purchases 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
Mellow FM is free to download; Plinth Music costs $9.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Mellow FM ships an update every 2 months, Plinth Music every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Mellow FM | Plinth Music |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $9.99 |
| Rating | — | 4.5 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 80.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 2 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 10 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | — | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Yoshiyuki Koyama | Artem Trukhanov |
In-app purchases
Mellow FM
No in-app purchases
Plinth Music
No in-app purchases









