SongBrief vs Sortwave
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side β with what reviewers say about each.
SongBrief
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SongBrief reads play counts, skip counts, last played dates, and other metadata from your iOS Music library to help you understand how you listen. Features - Rankings for songs, artists, and albums - Now-playing details and playback controls - Recaps and trends from daily listening records - Listening maps by release year, weekday, and genre - Rediscovery, rising tracks, rank changes, and album completion - Optional iCloud sync for listening records - Exclusion filters, export, app lock, and simple themes SongBrief is designed to keep detailed music library data on your device. If you enable iCloud sync, listening records are stored in your own iCloud account. Track names and listening history are not intentionally included in ad requests, analytics events, or crash reports.
Sortwave
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Swipe music into place. Sortwave is a focused playlist-curation companion for Apple Music. Choose a playlist, listen to each full song, and decide what belongs without breaking your flow. Swipe right to keep a song. Route it up or down into playlists you already use. Mark favorites, shuffle your session, scrub through playback, undo a decision, or stop whenever you want. Sortwave queues your choices locally and applies them together when you choose Finish & Sync. Apple Music doesnβt allow third-party apps to directly delete arbitrary library songs. When you mark songs for removal, Sortwave places them in a clearly labeled Deleted Songs playlist and shows a short guide for completing deletion safely in Apple Music. Your original library stays under your control. Features: β’ Full-song Apple Music playback β’ Fast, gesture-first playlist decisions β’ Two configurable quick-route playlists β’ Favorite and unfavorite controls β’ Interactive playback scrubber β’ Shuffle, previous, next and undo controls β’ Batched sync with a clear summary β’ Session history and resilient local queueing β’ Secure connection restoration β’ No advertising or tracking An active Apple Music subscription may be required for full-song playback and library access. Sortwave is an independent app and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Apple.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Sortwave at none against SongBrief's shown. Sortwave also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs every 5 weeks). SongBrief's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
SongBrief ships an update every 5 weeks, Sortwave every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 4, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SongBrief | Sortwave |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Every 5 days β better |
| Ads | Yes | No β better |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod β better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 β better | 17.0 |
| Further details β not scored | ||
| Size | 42 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | MIYAJI Masahiro | Sooraj Sambasivam |
In-app purchases
SongBrief
No in-app purchases
Sortwave
No in-app purchases









