Deadtapes vs XLIIs
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.
XLIIs
Explore curated collections of Grateful Dead live recordings from global collectors. Each collection features historical write-ups and high-resolution photos of original cassette inserts. Discover new shows every three months, with the current season focusing on 1969-1980 recordings.
- Curated live Grateful Dead recordings
- Collections from global collectors
- Historical write-ups for each show
- Photographs of original cassette inserts
- New collections released quarterly
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Every three months, XLIIs acquires four collections of Grateful Dead live recordings on loan from collectors around the world. Each collector has spent years — sometimes decades — assembling a set of tapes around a single idea: a particular era of the band, a run of shows that changed something, a sound engineer whose work defined how the Dead were heard. They traded for multiple recordings of every show until they had the best-sounding version. That's the tape that appears here. We photograph every collector's original cassettes and J-card inserts, written in their native language. Our archivists consult over a hundred research sources per collection to write liner notes for each show — the venue, the setlist, what was happening on the tour, and why that night mattered. Each season, we commission an artist to create original artwork for all four collections. SPRING 2026 Cornell and Company — 42 shows from 1977. Rhys Morgan, Cardiff, Wales. Six Hundred Four — 37 shows from the Wall of Sound year, 1974. Anonymous, Hungary. Young Bettys — 58 shows, 1969–1973. Andrei Petrescu, Bucharest, Romania. New Animal — 33 shows, 1979–1980. Hendrik Tamm, Estonia. 170 shows. Full recordings, start to finish. Turn your phone sideways to see the J-card. Read the liner notes while you listen. Free. No ads. No account. Just tapes.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: XLIIs at 100% against Deadtapes's 0%. XLIIs also leads on rating (4.9 vs 3.0) and update cadence (every 5 days 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.
XLIIs holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: XLIIs has 33 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 XLIIs's.
Deadtapes ships an update every 46 months, XLIIs every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Deadtapes | XLIIs |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.0 (1 ratings) | 4.9 (33 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 33 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 46 months | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 26.2 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 121 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Thomas Maher | David Koch |
Customer experience
Deadtapes
XLIIs
In-app purchases
Deadtapes
No in-app purchases
XLIIs
No in-app purchases








