GarageScoreFree vs Music Reader
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
GarageScoreFree
Create and share band music scores on your iPad. This app displays chord names on a notation window, offering different font sets for display and printing. Easily compose original songs and collaborate with band members.
- Chord name notation
- Display and print font sets
- Original song creation
- Band score sharing
- One Page for One Song (OPOS)
- High Quality Print Out (HQPO)
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I guess your first experience (in your school life) of a music score of your band was look like this. The band score was (and still “is”) a very cool tool for us to learning for our favorite songs. Even you have created your original songs with using the band score. “Intro, A, B, C, repeat, solo, and ending…”. It was very easy to create and share music among the band members. “We still need it on iOS, don’t we?” “Why don’t we make the band score for our iPad?” Yes, we made it! GarageScore show you not musical note but chord name on the notation window. GarageScore has two font sets. Draft for display and high-reso for print out. Let’s share your band score via iPad. You can also print out the score and write down your ideal notes on that. We make the notation score for your rhythm section and so on. Important Concepts for GarageScore. OPOS~One Page for One Song~ HQPO~High Quality Print Out~ CCW~Complexed Chord Welcome~
Music Reader
This app is a comprehensive tool for sheet music. It allows users to view, learn, listen, mark, and play musical scores. It supports various music genres and instruments, acting as a portable songbook and powerful player.
- View and play sheet music
- Mark and annotate scores
- Import MusicXML and NotationPad files
- Supports dark mode
- Transposition (PRO)
- Change instrument parts (PRO)
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Music Reader provides all you need about sheet music. You could view, learn, listen, mark and play music notes and notations as you want. it is your portable songbook and a powerful sheet music reader & player. A easy-to-use painting system for you to draw any marks on sheets. From classic to popular, from rock to country, from piano to symphony, all kinds of music played well in Music Reader. *Compatible with dark mode *Supports importing MusicXML(.xml) and NotationPad(.ecz) file PRO ACCESS SUBSCRIPTION - No Ads - Transposition - Change instrument for parts - Support layers for painting marks - The subscription price is $4.99/monthly, $14.99/yearly - Payment will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase - Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period - Account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period, and identify the cost of the renewal - Subscriptions may be managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user's Account Settings after purchase - Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription to that service, where applicable - Terms of use: https://service.notationpad.com/sheetmusicplus/terms_service.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Music Reader at 4.5 against GarageScoreFree's 1.0. Music Reader also leads on review sentiment (51% vs 25%) and ratings volume (193 vs 1). GarageScoreFree's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and ads (none vs shown). On price and device support 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. Music Reader sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. GarageScoreFree asks for nothing beyond the download.
Music Reader holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 1.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Music Reader has 193 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 25% of GarageScoreFree's written reviews are positive against 51% of Music Reader's.
GarageScoreFree ships an update every 2 weeks, Music Reader every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | GarageScoreFree | Music Reader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.0 (1 ratings) | 4.5 (193 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 25.0% of reviews | 51.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 193 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 6.0 — better | 11.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 12 MB | 183 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Atsushi Uchida | 嵩 张 |
Customer experience
GarageScoreFree
Music Reader
In-app purchases
GarageScoreFree
No in-app purchases
Music Reader
- Pro Access$2.991 Month
- Pro Access7 Days trial$14.991 Year
- Pro Access$14.991 Year









