SideBand vs Media Assistant
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
SideBand
This app helps musicians learn songs by ear. It allows users to slow down music, loop sections, and change the key to match their voice or instrument. Import music from various sources like the Music app or iCloud.
- Adjust tempo
- Transpose key
- Change tuning
- Loop sections
- Import unprotected music
- Supports iPhone and iPad
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Learn tunes by ear - slow down and loop sections of a tune. Change the key to fit your voice or instrument. Import any unprotected music from the Music app, from the iCloud Files application or drag tunes from your desktop. Support for all iPhone screen sizes as well as iPad. Use slide-over while listening to your Music files to quickly import on iPad Use split screen to listen while viewing music • Adjust tempo - change the speed from half-speed to double speed • Transpose - change the key by semi-tones up to an octave higher or lower • Change the tuning - Adjust the pitch of an out-of-tune recording • Import from any other app that can export an audio file - wav, mp3 and AAC files are supported.
Media Assistant
Manage your media files, play audio offline, and edit audio with various tools. This app also includes a web browser with a built-in player to enhance your listening experience.
- File and folder management
- Offline media playback
- Audio editing and tagging
- Web browser with audio player
- File transfer over WiFi
- Batch file renaming
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Media Assistant is a file manager, offline media player, audio converter, audio editor, audio tagger, media joiner, a web browser with a built-in audio player so that you can apply audio effects to enhance your listening experiences [FREE FEATURES] TRANSFER & MANAGE FILES & FOLDERS • Manage your files and create folders for all of your needs • Partly integrated Dropbox Drive, Onedrive Drive • Transfer files and folders between two iDevices OR between your iDevice and PC. Fast and easy transfers over WiFi • Import videos from Photos app • Batch rename files (prefix, suffix, leading zero, regex). Great for naming sample sets (Dance_Vol1_Cm_100bpm_SynthLeadMelody, EDM_Vol2_Kick_909, etc.) AUDIO & VIDEO & MIDI PLAYER • Listen to music offline • Batch Play: Long-press a folder to bring up the menu. • Fully functional MIDI file player with a built in GM Soundfont player, and ability to add custom Soundfonts • Gapless loop • Loop mode, one-shot mode, playlist loop mode, shuffle mode • Simple tap to play audio, video or MIDI file. Tap multiple files to queue them, then shuffle or reorder. • Supports AirPlay, Lock screen controls, PiP(Picture in Picture) • Apply audio effect to enhance listening experience (reverb, simple vocal removal ...) BROWSER • Auto detect streams audio from many websites • Build-in stream player allows you to apply audio effects and buffers streams for playback • Capture multiple streams at once in the buffer and then play back in any desired order • Download files from websites directly into File Manager • Block ads & tracking _/_/_/_/_/ Add-on features _/_/_/_/_/ AUDIO EDITOR BASIC IAP • Free to try - purchase to unlock export to file option. • Edit ID3 tags metadata such as Title, Artist, Album… • Edit markers, play from marker, split at marker • Displays the audio file in 3 modes: waveform, spectrogram, or both • Zoom-in at the audio sample level • Export entire file or export slices • Open multiple files at once • Support history, undo, redo • Spectral editing AUDIO EDITOR UTILITY IAP • Free to try some modules. Preview playback with changes to waveform. Requires purchase to allow saving changes. • Apply Fade,Gain,Normalize,Time stretch,Pitch shift,Reverb • Other audio editor utilities added in the future will be included with this lifetime purchase AUDIO EDITOR VOCAL REMOVAL IAP • Required iOS17 • Vocal Removal using AI • Remove/Isolate vocals AUDIO EDITOR DE-REVERB IAP • Required iOS17 • De-reverb using AI • Remove/Isolate reverb AUDIO TAGGER IAP • Free to try - All features work with a limited number of files. Requires purchase to drag/drop/export files and run as AUv3 module • Manage audio files with tags - e.g Hats, Kick, Percussion, etc • Edit meta-data in-place • Filter list by include/exclude, select multiple tags • Support auto tagging files • Support files in local AAHome, iCloud, AADropbox, AAOnedrive, Mac or Window directories • Built-in Audio player supports simple timestretching/pitch shifting/fade in,out/crop and export with edits (no extra IAP required) • Drag and drop files to other applications such as Logic and Koala, add multiple files to a queue and copy in a single action • Support copy to PasteBoard WEB BROWSER IAP • Free to try - Requires purchase to run as AUv3 module • Run as AUv3 plugin inside DAW host app such as AUM, Logic Pro, Cubasis • Auto detect audio stream from Web Audio API (onemotion chord player, websdr, samplette ...) READ ALOUD IAP • Requires purchase to run as AUv3 module. • Reads text content from web pages • Read aloud with hundreds of voices (including robot, bell, organ) then save to file for offline listening • Can adjust speed and pitch • Great for listening to free ebooks on the web or reading articles aloud AUDIO CONVERTER/JOINER IAP • Extract audio from video files to many different audio file formats • Supports common formats • Select bitrate, sample rate, stereo/mono, dithering • Concatenate multiple audio files or video files
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Media Assistant at Free against SideBand's $2.99. Media Assistant also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.0) and update cadence (every 8 days vs every 22 months). SideBand's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 8). On ads, device support 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
Media Assistant is free to download; SideBand costs $2.99 up front. Media Assistant sells 8 one-off in-app purchases. SideBand asks for nothing beyond the download.
Media Assistant holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 5 and 24 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 80% of SideBand's written reviews are positive against 90% of Media Assistant's.
SideBand ships an update every 22 months, Media Assistant every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and August 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SideBand | Media Assistant |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.0 (5 ratings) | 4.7 (24 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 80.0% of reviews | 90.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 5 | 24 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 22 months | Every 8 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 15 MB | 190 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Wil Macaulay | Duc Anh Nguyen |
Customer experience
SideBand
Media Assistant
In-app purchases
SideBand
No in-app purchases
Media Assistant
- Read Aloud & AUv3$1.99
- Audio Converter & Joiner$2.99
- Audio Editor Basic Features$3.99
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- Audio Editor Utilities$3.99
- Audio Editor De-Reverb$4.99
- Audio Editor Vocal Removal$5.99
- Audio Tagger & AUv3$9.99
- Browser AUv3 + IAA$12.99









