SilentBonusTrack vs StarTone
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
SilentBonusTrack
Relive the nostalgic experience of listening to music on cassette tapes. This app simulates the physical characteristics of tape players, including reel movement, tape wrapping, and operational sounds. Organize your music library with cassette-style index cards and enjoy a unique way to play your albums.
- Cassette tape reel animation
- Tape wrapping and end animation
- Player with counter and auto-reverse
- Cassette index card song list
- Album title lettering
- Random album selection
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This is a cassette player for albums. I have reproduced experiences of listening music with a cassette tape. For example, changing rotation speed of reels based on tape amount, animation of wrapping end of the tape to reels, the player with counter and auto reversing, a sound of operation, song list like cassette index cards, lettering album title. Would you listen to albums like you did in old days? What you can do You can strain to hear before the first song starts. On skip operation, The tape may run over the position you want to set at. You can skip efficiently with referring the counter. If difference occur in counter, you have to back to top of side A and push the reset button.(*) While you see the song list, you can realize which order the current song is on its side, and connections to a previous or next song. You can switch a song experimentally by pressing the button to play the other side. If you cannot get a current song name, you can infer which song is playing from the amount of tape on each reel. You can look at the tape that seems to be about to end but doesn’t readily end. The sound of changing side makes you feel renewing and expectations of a new side. You have to push the start button again if auto reverse doesn’t work as the setting. With albums released in CD, you can bother which boundary separates it into A and B. You can verify changing speed of rotation while fwd or rev processes. You can be deep in lingering of the album with reels rounding after the last song played. The mechanical sound at end of tape makes you feel a sense of achievement and a little missing. (*)The ways that avoid time and trouble are included. How to use Select an album and play it. Features An album is divided into two sides automatically. If a result of auto dividing is not desirable, songs can be transferred by an operation. Auto reverse(none, A to B only, both ways). Index cards represent song information as cassette tapes do. You can now use handwritten fonts for the characters of index cards. Selecting an album at random If you do with “random” button. Index card colors are sourced from album artworks. Album title lettering which is like a printing sheet. Caution This app imports music included in the device as an album. Cloud sources don’t be selected. The button drawn right direction on the player is assigned playing side A. Left direction is side B. Auto dividing executes as even as possible. A result of dividing may differ from actual dividing of an album. You can’t change song order. This app plays songs with using the iPod function on iOS. Another app using it as same may courses problems. Playing time is one minute longer than displayed time.(In case of 46minutes tape, each side has 23+1=24minutes) Lengths of tapes are about 10 kinds as actual. Albums having over 120 minutes songs are added a few blank minutes. After you change song division, the length of tape change to fit time. This app uses year data set in a song. If a set year is newer and an actual year is older, it is treated as a new one. When an album you played once is selected, it is set the previous position. But you can’t know which side played last time. Sound effects like tapes(hiss noise, warm high frequency) don't be installed. About playing in background You can listen to music behind another app by two ways. 1: Close this app by pushing the home button(as you usually do) - it plays songs in the current side only. 2: Before you close this app, change to BGM mode - it plays blank time after the last song, plays machine sound at end of side, obeys setting of auto-reverse. To change to BGM mode, you tap the button(drawn browser and musical notes) in the bottom while playing a song. In case setting of auto-reverse is endless, it plays whole songs a few times. While you listen to an album with a tape, blank time is part of it. This is the concept. This app divides the album into side A and B and adds blank time on each end.
StarTone
This music player allows you to rate songs with stars and love statuses directly from your device's library or audio files. It offers convenient rating options via widgets and Apple Watch, with iCloud sync for your ratings.
- Rate music with stars and love statuses
- iCloud sync for ratings across devices
- Rating support on Today Extension and Apple Watch
- Play and rate common audio formats including Flac and MIDI
- Embed lyrics and support for .lrc files
- Smart playlist creation
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StarTone is a music player which can play songs in your "Music" library and audio files stored in your device, including common format like mp3 and lossless format of Flac, also it support MIDI playback and support customize sound bank. StarTone was came out for rating music with stars and "love" statues. The rating bar stands out in the main page, so it just need one touch to make the rating, no need to open many submenus. In addition, StarTone provides Today Extension and Watch app, so you can also make music ratings on the Widget Screen and your Apple Watch. StarTone now also equips some handy features to make the music listening easy and happy. Please try to play with them. Features: 1. Quickly set star and love ratings for music on your local library, Apple Music or audio file. 2. Sync music ratings with other devices or iTunes via iCloud on the go. 3. With iCloud Sync enabled, love / dislike rating are available. 4. Support rating on today extension (widget). 5. Share music ratings with family and friends. 6. Support embed lyrics, .lrc lyrics file and online lyrics. 7. Support automatically play when launch the app. 8. Support star music rating on Apple Watch. 9. Play and rate audio files of general format and Flac lossless format. 10. Support MIDI playback. 11. Smart playlist for both Music Library and audio files. 12. Play audio files on Apple Watch. 13. Scheduled music playback.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: StarTone at 67% against SilentBonusTrack's 0%. StarTone also leads on ratings volume (16 vs 2) and price ($0.99 vs $2.99). SilentBonusTrack's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.1) and iOS requirement (15.5 vs 18.0). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
SilentBonusTrack costs $2.99 and StarTone $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
SilentBonusTrack holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: StarTone has 16 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 0% of SilentBonusTrack's written reviews are positive against 67% of StarTone's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
SilentBonusTrack ships an update every 6 weeks, StarTone every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 5, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SilentBonusTrack | StarTone |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 | $0.99 — better |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | 4.1 (16 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | 66.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 16 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Every 5 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 15.5 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 17 MB | 24 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Motonari Hibi | 乃波 黄 |
Customer experience
SilentBonusTrack
StarTone
In-app purchases
SilentBonusTrack
No in-app purchases
StarTone
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is SilentBonusTrack free?
Is StarTone free?
Which has better reviews, SilentBonusTrack or StarTone?
Do SilentBonusTrack or StarTone have ads?
Which is updated more often, SilentBonusTrack or StarTone?
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