Deadtapes vs Deadsound
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Deadtapes
Identify the Grateful Dead concert your music tape originated from. Input a sequence of up to three songs, and the app will find shows from 1972-1995 that feature that exact song order.
- Song sequence search
- Grateful Dead show identification
- 1972-1995 show coverage
- Tape origin discovery
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Finds which Grateful Dead show your dead tape was created from. You enter up to three songs, in sequence, that you hear on your tape. It reports which shows have that sequence played at the show. For all shows from 1972 through 1995.
Deadsound
Access and stream over 17,000 Grateful Dead live recordings. Search shows by date, venue, song, or source, and build a personal library of your favorite performances. Enjoy offline playback and daily historical discoveries.
- Search 17,000+ Grateful Dead recordings
- Filter by date, venue, song, or source
- Intelligent caching for offline playback
- Background playback with lock screen controls
- Gapless audio
- Favorite and track listened shows
- Daily historical discoveries
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Every Dead show. One app. We built Deadsound because finding the best tapes on should be easy. Now you can search 17,000+ Grateful Dead recordings by date, venue, song, or source, and start listening in seconds. FIND ANYTHING Search by setlist to find every "Dark Star," or every show where they played "Dark Star" plus "Estimated" and also "Blow Away." Filter by Charlie Miller transfers or Betty Boards, or by AUD/SBD/Matrix. Narrow by year, city, or venue. LISTEN ANYWHERE Intelligent caching means your music keeps playing even when your signal doesn't. Full background playback with lock screen controls, all with gapless audio. BUILD YOUR LIBRARY Favorite the shows that matter. Track what you've heard. Pick up where you left off. DISCOVER DAILY See what happened today in Dead history. A new discovery every day. Completely free. No ads. No subscription. The music belongs to everyone. Streams from Archive.org. Not affiliated with the Grateful Dead.
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Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Deadsound at 100% against Deadtapes's 0%. Deadsound also leads on rating (5.0 vs 3.0) and update cadence (fortnightly vs every 46 months). On price, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Deadsound holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Deadsound has 5 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 0% of Deadtapes's written reviews are positive against 100% of Deadsound's.
Deadtapes ships an update every 46 months, Deadsound fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Deadtapes | Deadsound |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (5 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 5 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 46 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 26.2 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 44 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Thomas Maher | James Barnes |
Customer experience
Deadtapes
Deadsound
In-app purchases
Deadtapes
No in-app purchases
Deadsound
No in-app purchases
