Comparison

Earworm vs ThoughtCast Digital Mentalism

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Earworm

This app enables a magic trick where you can seemingly predict a song or video a friend is thinking of. It works with borrowed phones and can be performed in person or remotely, with no accomplices or memory work required.

Highlights
  • Song prediction effect
  • Performable in person or remotely
  • Works with borrowed phones
  • No accomplice needed
  • Any song can be named
  • Works with multiple services
  • Supports notifications
Read full description

Earworm is a music prediction effect for professional performers. Here's what happens: - You ask a friend to take out their phone, mute the volume and open YouTube. - You then take your friend's phone and play a song, giving the phone back with its screen facing downwards. - Now you apparently mentally transmit the thought-of song to your friend. - Your friend names *any* song, turns the volume up on their phone and looks at the screen to hear and see that your prediction was correct... that exact song is playing on their phone! The entire effect happens on their phone. Earworm is built for real-world performance. It gives you multiple advanced input methods, flexible reveal options, and powerful integrations so you can adapt the routine to your style, language, and audience. Everything can be inspected afterwards, with nothing suspicious to find. Features include: - Predict songs, music videos, trailers, or almost any searchable video - Multiple input methods, including voice and covert browser input - Performable in multiple languages - No accomplice required - No memory work - Integrations with many third-party magic apps - Notification support for additional confirmation And with Earworm Pro: - Supports Bluetooth peek devices, including the PeekSmith and Lumen Duo as part of Earworm Pro - Never touch their phone with Earworm Remote - Enhanced input methods Earworm Pro is an optional purchase that brings even more advanced performance tools, including: Enhanced Voice input - Automatically detect songs mentioned in conversation. - Uses your own funded AI account and API key for best-in-class recognition. - Black mode offers a covert input with vibration cues. Earworm Remote v2 - Perform Earworm without touching the spectator's phone. - A new, even more natural way to share your video link. - Auto Redirect and WikiTest integration for pairing and redirecting. Send To Earworm - Allow supported third-party apps to submit to Earworm, letting you reveal a freely chosen song via their input methods. Peek Device Support - New support for compatible peek devices. - Live Peek support for the Notes input (to make it seem that you really did predict the chosen song!) - Native PeekSmith and Lumen Duo support is built into Earworm Pro Earworm is designed for performers who want a practical, modern, impossible-looking prediction effect. Video and audio broadcasting of any description (including TV, radio and Internet) of this effect is prohibited without the written consent of its creator.

About

ThoughtCast Digital Mentalism

Read full description

ThoughtCast, originally released in 2017, brought a multitude of improvements to the options magicians had to electronic impression pads prior. Multiple styles, multiple pen options (that were both normal/common and less than half the price of other impression pad pens), no pressure sensitivity, (almost) no paper limit, and some incredible features in an impression pad app, like touch to peek and camouflage mode, zone mode, and more. Now, the best impression pad (in our opinion) is getting even better with the brand new ThoughtCast v2.0 App! This app isn’t just an upgrade, it is a complete rewrite and overhaul of everything ThoughtCast, re-developed from the inside out. Effects with an impression pad that were never possible before are easy to do with ThoughtCast. Know the word someone is thinking of completely blinded with text to speech. Know the exact location of a word in a dictionary with Dictionary Lookup. Know the zodiac sign someone is thinking of, the drink they are thinking of, or their favorite cocktail without them ever telling anyone, or writing it down (yes, even with an impression pad) using our brand new Internal Logic system! Plus this is just the tip of the iceberg. ThoughtCast will automatically add together numbers, making it the perfect add a number pad for mentalists. It will even perform target number effects, letting you predict numbers that can add up to important values you control. The brand new detective system detects text in almost every language ever written, and it detects DRAWINGS! Your spectator can draw a picture and (depending on the quality), it will read to you the thing they drew or show it on a PeekSmith peek device! And, with the brand new Actions Toolkit, ThoughtCast now works with a wide array of other magic tricks you probably already own. Predict a thought of word on someone’s phone with the Inject Action. Know a thought of song on your spectators phone with the Earworm Action. Get a complete stranger to know your spectators thought of word with the Stranger Action. Show your spectators best friends name was written on a business card in your wallet the whole time with the Legacy Action. And several spectators thought of number can match a spectators random number they created (on their phone) with the Calculon Action. There are even more Actions available, so check out thoughtcastmagic.com/actions for all the Actions available now available now. Plus, it comes with all the features that make ThoughtCast the leading impression pad app. This system is simple enough for the casual performer, but powerful enough that professionals can let their imagination run wild. If you already own a ThoughtCast system, this app works with your hardware, no new hardware is needed! A See all the details at http://thoughtcastmagic.com)/thoughtcast-v2.

Screenshots

Earworm4 screens
ThoughtCast Digital Mentalism4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: ThoughtCast Digital Mentalism at Free against Earworm's $64.99. ThoughtCast Digital Mentalism also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 2) and device support (3 vs 1). On update cadence and ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

ThoughtCast Digital Mentalism is free to download; Earworm costs $64.99 up front. Earworm sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. ThoughtCast Digital Mentalism asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Earworm ships an update every 6 weeks, ThoughtCast Digital Mentalism monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Earworm versus ThoughtCast Digital Mentalism: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterEarwormThoughtCast Digital Mentalism
Price$64.99Free — better
Rating5.0 (130 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews92.3% of reviews—
Number of ratings130 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS18.216.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size30 MB41 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperMarc KersteinAndEtc, Inc.

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Earworm

One-time2
  • Earworm Pro$49.99
  • Earworm Remote$49.99
None

ThoughtCast Digital Mentalism

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Earworm free?
Earworm costs $64.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is ThoughtCast Digital Mentalism free?
ThoughtCast Digital Mentalism is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Earworm or ThoughtCast Digital Mentalism have ads?
Neither Earworm nor ThoughtCast Digital Mentalism shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Earworm or ThoughtCast Digital Mentalism?
Earworm ships an update every 6 weeks, and ThoughtCast Digital Mentalism monthly. Most recently, Earworm was updated on September 23, 2026 and ThoughtCast Digital Mentalism on September 9, 2026.

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