SideBand vs Bagpipe Player
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.
Bagpipe Player
Learn, play, and compose bagpipe music with this app. It supports popular music file formats, offers authentic sounds, and provides tools for practice and creation. Manage your tunes, export them, and sync across devices.
- Play bagpipe music with authentic sounds
- View sheet music for BWW, BMW, ABC files
- Compose new tunes with a graphical editor
- Practice tools: section repeat, playback delay
- Export music as PDF or MIDI
- Organize tunes with folders
- Sync files via iCloud
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The Bagpipe Player is app for IOS uses very popular format BWW, BMW, ABC files for writing music of the bagpipe . Basic functions: show bww file as musical notes sheet, for playing and printing. The app useful for learning a new tunes and writing a new tune. Bagpipe Player play tunes like Great Highland Bagpipe with drones and embellishments. Authentic sound sampled from real GHB and Practice chanter. Ability to choose: - sound of the practice chanter or bagpipe ; - sound of the drones; - volume sound of drones and chanter; - duration of grace notes; - tempo change; - tone of sound on +- 5 halftone; - height of the music staff; - background for the sheet of notes; There is an ability: - create PDF, print it, send it email ; - create folders in main folder to store certain tunes; - to delay begin of playback for training; - highlight a section of the tune and repeat it; - turn on sound of the metronome; - use demo tuner; - create midi file of the tune and to send it to the email; - create own bww file in the graphical editor. The Bagpipe Player contains some .bww files for demonstration purpose. This is tunes from Tutor 1 and Tutor 3 The College of Piping and also my favorite tunes. Remember tap on button (i) you get info about control in the app. Your files can to download to iPad from a PC using iTunes file sharing or download from DropBox, attachment email, websites and etc. Posibility to sync files between devices using iCloud. Can to upload files from the app to the DropBox folder. Count of files is not limited. The preferred source to produce files .bww is a lot of network resources. I think, app Bagpipe Player will be useful for beginners and professional bagpipers for purposes learning new tunes and writing new tunes. The Bagpipe Player created for everybody who want, learn, plays and to loves sound of the bagpipe.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: SideBand at $2.99 against Bagpipe Player's $14.99. SideBand also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 4) and review sentiment (80% vs 62%). Bagpipe Player's advantage is update cadence (every 2 months vs every 22 months) and ratings volume (25 vs 5). On rating, 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
SideBand costs $2.99 and Bagpipe Player $14.99 up front. Bagpipe Player sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. SideBand asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.0 for SideBand against 4.0 for Bagpipe Player. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bagpipe Player has 25 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 80% of SideBand's written reviews are positive against 62% of Bagpipe Player's.
SideBand ships an update every 22 months, Bagpipe Player every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and September 16, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SideBand | Bagpipe Player |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 — better | $14.99 |
| Rating | 4.0 (5 ratings) | 4.0 (25 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 80.0% of reviews — better | 61.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 5 | 25 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 22 months | Every 2 months — 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, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 15 MB | 76 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Wil Macaulay | Aleksey Vasilyev |
Customer experience
SideBand
Bagpipe Player
In-app purchases
SideBand
No in-app purchases
Bagpipe Player
- Unlock save$0.99
- Tip Jar 1$0.99
- Tip Jar 2$1.99
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- Tip Jar 3$2.99









