play vs BlackCandy
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
play
Stream your self-hosted music library to various devices with customizable audio settings. Enjoy lossless playback, gapless transitions, and a powerful equalizer. Browse your collection by folders, artists, or albums, and cache music for offline listening.
- Stream Subsonic-hosted music
- Lossless and gapless playback
- 10-band customizable equalizer
- Crossfade and replay gain
- Browse by folder, artist, album
- Offline caching of music
- Supports multiple servers
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Your music, from your own server, everywhere. play:Sub plays your Navidrome, Gonic, Subsonic or other Subsonic-compatible library on iPhone, iPad and Mac, in the car with CarPlay, on Chromecast or through your server's Jukebox - streamed in the quality you choose, or offline. NEW: AUTO SYNC • Keeps your starred songs, albums and artists, your newest albums or any playlist on your device, automatically • Choose per source: Download to keep it, or Cache to let it make room for other music NEVER LET THE MUSIC STOP • Auto DJ keeps playing when the queue runs out, with music related to what you started • Or pick an Auto Play mode: favorite artists, random albums, newest additions, artist radio, decade radio and more SERVERS • Navidrome, Gonic, Airsonic, Ampache, Funkwhale, Booksonic, Subsonic and more • OpenSubsonic support • Multiple servers, with easy switching • Some servers need their Subsonic API turned on AUDIO • FLAC, ALAC, AAC, MP3, OGG, WAV, AIFF, WEBM and more, without transcoding • Lossless and gapless playback, hi-res up to 24-bit/192 kHz • 10-band equalizer with presets, crossfade and ReplayGain • Playback speed from 0.5x to 2x • Audio Visualizer, and lyrics where your server has them PLAY ANYWHERE • iPhone, iPad and Mac (Apple silicon): any orientation, multitasking and resizable windows • CarPlay: your library, the play queue, server switching, and album and artist pages with play and shuffle buttons • Chromecast and Subsonic Jukebox • AirPlay, Bluetooth, headphone and car controls, Lock Screen and Control Center • Home Screen widgets you can play from • Picks up again after phone calls OFFLINE • Download music to keep it, or let the cache fill and trim itself • Played tracks are cached automatically, upcoming tracks preloaded • Download or cache single tracks or whole albums, artists, folders and playlists • Cached audio is upgraded to a better bitrate when available • Background downloads • The same app offline: browse, play, star and edit playlists, synced when you are back online BROWSE AND DISCOVER • Artists, albums, songs, folders, genres, decades and record labels • Playlists, favorites, podcasts, audiobooks and bookmarks • Recently added, frequently played and random • Artist radio, top songs and similar artists • Internet radio: your server's stations, plus 20,000+ from radio-browser.info • Search everything, filter by media folder or show only starred • Long-press anything for the actions that fit PLAYLISTS AND FAVORITES • Create, edit and delete playlists, personal or shared • Star artists, albums, songs, folders and record labels • 5-star ratings MAKE IT YOURS • Customizable tabs and library order • Light and dark themes that follow the system, or your own colors • Alternate app icons • Sleep timer CONNECTION • HTTPS, including self-signed certificates • Token authentication on Subsonic 5.3+ servers • Separate bitrates for cellular and Wi-Fi, with overrides for slow or fast Wi-Fi networks SCROBBLING • Scrobbles to Last.fm through your server, and updates Now Playing • Cached plays count too; offline plays are scrobbled when back online Requires a server with the Subsonic API 1.8 or newer (Subsonic 4.8+; Subsonic itself needs a Premium license for apps). Some features depend on your server, such as top songs, artist radio, similar artists and record labels.
BlackCandy
This application serves as a personal music center, requiring a pre-configured Black Candy server to function. It provides access to your music library through a dedicated iOS interface. More information on server setup is available via the developer's GitHub page.
- Personal music center
- Requires Black Candy server
- iOS interface
- Music library access
- GitHub for setup info
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The official Black Candy iOS app. To use this app, you must have a Black Candy server set up. For more information, please visit https://github.com/blackcandy-org/blackcandy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: BlackCandy at Free against play's $4.99. BlackCandy also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.5) and in-app purchases (none vs 5). play's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 24 months) and ratings volume (434 vs 1). On ads, device support and iOS requirement 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
BlackCandy is free to download; play costs $4.99 up front. play sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. BlackCandy asks for nothing beyond the download.
BlackCandy holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: play has 434 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
play ships an update every 3 weeks, BlackCandy every 24 months. The most recent releases landed on November 11, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | play | BlackCandy |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.5 (434 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 72.5% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 434 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 24 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #92 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 16.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 28 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Michael Hansen | 文冬 赵 |
Bugs and requests
play
Reported bugs
4 issues- Songs not playing properly
- Library desyncing issues
- Freezing during database sync
- Inconsistent behavior when switching networks
Requested features
5 requests- Repeat single track option
- Automatic theme switching
- Batch download/caching
- Apple Watch support
- Improved CarPlay experience
BlackCandy
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
play
- Generous Tip$1.99
- Amazing Tip$3.99
- Unbelievable Tip$8.99
Show 2 moreShow fewer
- Mind-blowing Tip$49.99
- Unparalleled Tip$99.99
BlackCandy
No in-app purchases








