Most people use the stock Apple Music app on iPhone and iPad. Apple did a seriously good job with it. However, it is rather basic and some people just want more from a music player without the hassle of a subscription. There aren’t a ton of options in this space. Most people switched to streaming music and apps like Spotify, after all. That’s an entirely different list of apps, though. There are some decent options for those looking for something a little different. Here are the best music player apps for iPhone and iPad!
All apps here are compatible with iPhone or iPad unless otherwise stated. The stock music player is still a pretty good option, even among these. You can read more about the stock Apple music player here. We don’t have it listed below, but Onkyo is another excellent music player app for hi-fi music files. Finally, you can check out the best music player apps for Android as well by clicking here!
Table of Contents
Boom Music Player
Price: Free / Up to $3.99
Boom Music Player is a decent music player app for both iPhone and iPad. It features a sleek user interface, plenty of music control options, and some other fun features. The app also accesses music from your Dropbox or Google Drive accounts as well. That makes it a handy cloud music player for those who store music there. It even has an equalizer. It worked well during our testing and we don’t have any real complaints. It’s a functional app with few bugs. After that, it’s all down to preference. The app is entirely free to use. There are in-app purchases for various theme packs. You can also pay $3.99 to remove advertising, too.
Cs: Classic Music Player
Price: Free / Up to $4.99
Cs: Music Player (once known as Cesium but still developed by the same guy) is another very competent and classic music player for iPhone and iPad. It’s also rather simple, similar to the stock app. This one features a clean and simple UI, gesture controls, various sorting options, and some light customization options like theme color and a night mode. There really isn’t much to it, but that’s okay. It functions as an excellent simple music player. It’s lighter than Apple Music and the gesture controls really do work well. This one is entirely free with no ads. The in-app purchases seem to be donations or tips for the developer.
Stezza Music Player
Price: $2.99 (no ads / no in-app)
Stezza Music Player is another solution for local music. The app features a simple, but slick UI, and includes adaptive theming for album covers. Thus, if the album color is mostly yellow, the UI is too. Some other features include video playback support, accessibility support, and support for Pioneer AppRadio. There aren’t a ton of additional features aside from that. This one is best for simple music and video playing and that’s about it. Still, that’s what some people want. The app goes for $2.99 with no ads or additional in-app purchases.
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TapTunes
Price: $1.99 (no ads / no in-app)
TapTunes is one of the flashier music apps for iPhone and iPad. It doesn’t have a whole ton of features. However, there is a decent amount of customization. You get five browsing displays, gesture controls, Apple Watch support, and a couple of dozen customization settings. You also get support for audiobooks and podcasts. The UI is its claim to fame, though. You can customize it quite a bit and it does look nice. However, in terms of pure functionality, it’s still pretty simple. It goes for $1.99 with no additional in-app purchases or ads.
VOX
Price: Free / $4.99 per month / $49.99 per year
VOX is a powerful music player for iPhone, iPad and more recently, Apple Watch. This one has a metric ton of features while doing the basics, like music playing, EQ, and all of that. It also includes a music streaming or cloud streaming option for your own music which requires a subscription. The free version is still pretty decent for local music, and the subscription service may or may not suit. But the cloud storage and support for radio stations and other streaming options kind of make it worth it, and it rates quite highly from reviews on the App Stroe. Overall, while this is last on the list, it is an excellent all-in-one solution if you like online and offline music.
