The Best Apple Music Apps for iPhone in 2026
Updated October 2, 2026 · Marquee Guides
Quick answer
The best Apple Music apps for iPhone depend on what’s missing for you. For a different player, try Marquee, Marvis Pro, Soor, or Cs Music Pro. For listening stats, stats.fm for Apple Music, Song Stats, and PlayTally. For Last.fm scrobbling, Finale and QuietScrob. For new releases, MusicHarbor. For widgets, WidgetPod, and for a vinyl look, MD Vinyl. Marquee covers several of these in one free app.
Apple Music has one of the biggest catalogs around, but the Music app leaves gaps: no themes, no listening stats until Replay, no Last.fm scrobbling, and no way to follow new releases properly. A whole category of apps has grown up to fill them.
We make Marquee, so it’s on this list, and we’ve said where it fits. Everything about the other apps comes from their own US App Store listings, checked in October 2026. Prices and ratings change, so check the listing before you buy.
Best third-party Apple Music players
A third-party player plays your Apple Music library and the catalog in a different interface. There’s nothing to import, and you can switch back to the Music app any time.
Marquee (free; Marquee Pro by subscription or a one-time lifetime unlock). Our app. Eight Now Playing styles including Vinyl, Cassette, and CD, custom color themes, animated home screen widgets, free Last.fm scrobbling, listening stats, upcoming-release countdowns, and a CD and vinyl barcode scanner. Requires iOS 26. Best if you want your music to look the part.
Marvis Pro ($9.99, plus an optional $5.99 Last.fm⁺ purchase; 4.8 stars from about 1,300 ratings). A highly customizable Apple Music player with grid styles like Cover Flow, Smart Rules to filter and sort your library, more than 40 app icons, and Last.fm scrobbling. Requires iOS 26. Best for fine-tuning how your library is organized. See Marvis Pro vs Marquee.
Soor ($6.99, no in-app purchases; 4.3 stars from about 450 ratings). A long-standing Apple Music player with a native Mac app, CarPlay support, lyrics through Musixmatch, and Last.fm scrobbling. Runs on iOS 16 and later. Best if you also want it on your Mac. See Soor vs Marquee.
Cs Music Pro ($3.99, with optional tips; 4.3 stars from about 1,800 ratings). A reimagined take on the classic tabbed Music app, with powerful sorting and grouping, quick filters for new additions and recent plays, pinned favorites, and classic star ratings. It works with your existing Music library, with or without an Apple Music subscription. Best for big libraries.
Best Apple Music stats apps
stats.fm for Apple Music (free with ads; stats.fm Plus from $4.99 to $20.99; 3.7 stars from about 870 ratings). Top tracks, artists, and albums, recaps, and social features like comparing with friends. Lifetime stats need a one-time import of your Apple Music history. See stats.fm vs Marquee.
Song Stats for Apple Music (free; Premium from $1.99; 4.4 stars from about 900 ratings). Ranks your whole library by play count, time listened, or skips, with graphs of your top songs, artists, albums, and genres. Premium adds time filters and weekly, monthly, and yearly reports, counted from the day you install.
PlayTally ($2.99, with optional tips; 4.5 stars from about 380 ratings). A “real-time Replay” with top tracks for any date range, a day-by-day listening history synced through iCloud, badges, and CSV export. Like Song Stats, it tracks from the day you install.
Marquee’s Library Insights reads your library’s lifetime play counts, so totals appear the moment you install, and its free Your Week recap arrives every Sunday.
Best Last.fm scrobblers for Apple Music
Finale for Last.fm (free and open source; 4.6 stars from about 1,000 ratings). A full Last.fm client: automatic background scrobbling from Apple Music, charts, friends’ stats, widgets, collages, and scrobbling by listening through the microphone.
QuietScrob (free; scrobble packs or unlimited scrobbles from $0.99 to $3.99; 3.3 stars from about 320 ratings). A simple scrobbler for Apple Music that sends both library and streamed songs to Last.fm when you open it or leave it in the background, and syncs your loved tracks. Requires iOS 26.
Marquee scrobbles everything you play in it for free. See how to scrobble Apple Music to Last.fm for every option.
Best app for new release alerts
MusicHarbor (free; Premium by subscription or lifetime purchase; 4.7 stars from about 1,700 ratings). Follows artists you import from Apple Music, Spotify, or Last.fm, with a timeline of new releases, upcoming albums you can add to your calendar, widgets, music videos, concerts, and album reviews. A MacStories Selects App of the Year in 2020.
Marquee’s Upcoming Releases reads the artists already in your library, with countdowns and a release-day alert in Marquee Pro. See new release notifications for Apple Music.
Best Apple Music widget app
WidgetPod (free; WidgetPod Pro and other in-app purchases; 3.4 stars from about 780 ratings). Customizable music widgets for Apple Music and Spotify, with themes, layouts, colors, and fonts, playback controls, and live track info in small, medium, and large sizes.
Marquee’s widgets animate while music plays: a spinning record, winding cassette reels, a spinning CD, and dancing equalizer bars. See Apple Music widgets for iPhone.
Best vinyl-style player
MD Vinyl (free with ads; MD Vinyl Pro $14.99 and smaller Premium purchases; 4.6 stars from about 28,700 ratings). A record-player look for your music, with custom vinyl designs tied to albums, a 3D library browser, and sharing by QR code. See MD Vinyl vs Marquee.
Marquee’s Vinyl player spins your album on a turntable, alongside seven other player styles, including the pocket-player look of Retro.
Try it with Marquee — free
The Apple Music player with themes, Last.fm scrobbling, Library Insights, and Upcoming Releases tracking. Requires an Apple Music subscription.
Frequently asked questions
Can third-party apps play Apple Music?
Yes. Apps like Marquee, Marvis Pro, and Soor use Apple’s MusicKit to play your Apple Music library and the catalog. You need an active Apple Music subscription to stream, and you can switch back to the Music app any time.
What’s the best free app for Apple Music?
For a free all-in-one, Marquee is free to download with Last.fm scrobbling, the barcode scanner, Your Week recaps, and story sharing included. Finale for Last.fm is completely free for scrobbling and Last.fm stats.
Is there an app that shows Apple Music stats?
Yes. stats.fm for Apple Music, Song Stats, and PlayTally are dedicated stats apps, and Marquee shows stats from your library’s lifetime play counts inside a full player.