Review Insights · App Store
Demo: Songwriting Studio
Demo Music · 5,541 ratings · ★ 4.6
4.6
★★★★★
5,541 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 20 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"chords"
5 negative reviews mention this · 25% of all complaints
★★★★★ "NOT a FREE “free trial”. This app IMMEDIATELY charged me through PayPal for the year subscription despite it saying a three day free trial before going through with a year subscription. MORE OR LESS COMPLETELY DISHONEST. Also, the main function of the app that I wa…" - deecdubbau
2
"free"
4 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "NOT a FREE “free trial”. This app IMMEDIATELY charged me through PayPal for the year subscription despite it saying a three day free trial before going through with a year subscription. MORE OR LESS COMPLETELY DISHONEST. Also, the main function of the app that I wa…" - deecdubbau
3
"anything"
4 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Unresponsive and unusable. If this app worked as advertised, it would possibly be 5 starts. However, it is completely unresponsive, therefore, unusable. Tapping on almost anything has no effect. Nothing happens. Deleted and redownloaded 3 times, and no change. Very p…" - Veal73
4
"didn"
4 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Not working on iPhone 11. Will not open application and keeps crashing. I didn’t have this issue 1 week ago." - Mayo_772
5
"trial"
3 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "NOT a FREE “free trial”. This app IMMEDIATELY charged me through PayPal for the year subscription despite it saying a three day free trial before going through with a year subscription. MORE OR LESS COMPLETELY DISHONEST. Also, the main function of the app that I wa…" - deecdubbau
6
"through"
3 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "NOT a FREE “free trial”. This app IMMEDIATELY charged me through PayPal for the year subscription despite it saying a three day free trial before going through with a year subscription. MORE OR LESS COMPLETELY DISHONEST. Also, the main function of the app that I wa…" - deecdubbau
7
"subscription"
3 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "NOT a FREE “free trial”. This app IMMEDIATELY charged me through PayPal for the year subscription despite it saying a three day free trial before going through with a year subscription. MORE OR LESS COMPLETELY DISHONEST. Also, the main function of the app that I wa…" - deecdubbau
8
"music"
3 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Worst UI/UX - takes the fun out of songwriting. This app has the most convoluted and clumsy user experience of any music app I have ever used (and I have used many). I won't enumerate all the issues like how difficult it is to add chords and how key signature screws up the chords you ent…" - JPriestly
9
"difficult"
3 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Worst UI/UX - takes the fun out of songwriting. This app has the most convoluted and clumsy user experience of any music app I have ever used (and I have used many). I won't enumerate all the issues like how difficult it is to add chords and how key signature screws up the chords you ent…" - JPriestly
10
"every"
3 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Worst UI/UX - takes the fun out of songwriting. This app has the most convoluted and clumsy user experience of any music app I have ever used (and I have used many). I won't enumerate all the issues like how difficult it is to add chords and how key signature screws up the chords you ent…" - JPriestly
11
"nothing"
3 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Worst UI/UX - takes the fun out of songwriting. This app has the most convoluted and clumsy user experience of any music app I have ever used (and I have used many). I won't enumerate all the issues like how difficult it is to add chords and how key signature screws up the chords you ent…" - JPriestly
12
"unusable"
3 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Unresponsive and unusable. If this app worked as advertised, it would possibly be 5 starts. However, it is completely unresponsive, therefore, unusable. Tapping on almost anything has no effect. Nothing happens. Deleted and redownloaded 3 times, and no change. Very p…" - Veal73
📋 All 20 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
NOT a FREE “free trial”
This app IMMEDIATELY charged me through PayPal for the year subscription despite it saying a three day free trial before going through with a year subscription. MORE OR LESS COMPLETELY DISHONEST. Also, the main function of the app that I was interested in trying was buried within the UI, so not immediately apparent on how to locate, and did not do very well at suggesting chords based off of a recorded melody, whether sang or hummed.
Unresponsive and unusable
If this app worked as advertised, it would possibly be 5 starts. However, it is completely unresponsive, therefore, unusable. Tapping on almost anything has no effect. Nothing happens. Deleted and redownloaded 3 times, and no change. Very poor app.
Marketing
This has a awesome first impression and I thought I was finally going to get a free GOOD music making app. But not essentially, Once you try to make your first song it doesn’t let you do anything unless you’re paid.
Gatekeeping notes
It’s absurd. You have to pay to use anything outside of basic chords. I liked the organization of the app. But it’s really not necessary when GarageBand is on every phone
This app crashes constantly
And when it does it loses all of my work.
I can’t count the hours of my life this app has thrown in the garbage. But get it fixed because it has awesome potential if it weren’t constantly crashes and losing everything.
I can’t count the hours of my life this app has thrown in the garbage. But get it fixed because it has awesome potential if it weren’t constantly crashes and losing everything.
Not working on iPhone 11
Will not open application and keeps crashing. I didn’t have this issue 1 week ago.
Sucks
Isn’t free, they grab your info and then charge you for it!!!
Not good
I am a novice song writer and wanted a tool to use while brainstorming. I have already wrote some songs and wanted to put it somewhere without recording on a full setup. Maybe I am cheap but I don’t think there should be a paywall to use 9th or 7th chords…
Disappointed
I use 6/8 rhythm a lot and the default rhythms are 4/4 and 3/4. I'm sure this can do 6/8 just fine. to get this for rhythm is so technically difficult I don't wanna mess with all this. This is a very basic request. Easier just to grab my guitar. If this really made my life better, I could pay but it certainly didn't sell me on the demo.
Instant -40 from your bank
It’s a misleading seems like you’re getting a three day trial instantly they try to charge you $40 if you don’t have the money in your account which I did not well then you can’t download apps you can’t do anything until you give them correct bank information and then again they’ll try to take the $40 instantly also they will try to take the $40 once a day once every other day and there’s nothing you can do can’t get through to the Apple Store. It’s impossible to do anything. What a scam. I have canceled my Apple coverage, which I didn’t even wanna do. I’m about to just light my phone on fire I mean this is ridiculous.
Not real song writing
This app treats you like a peasant unless you pay
You are given 2 types of chords and are instructed to make progressions that’s already been done to give the illusion of actual song writing.
Sus, aug, dim, 7 and 5 chords shouldn’t be premium feature the very commonplace, the notes app is a better songwriting app
You are given 2 types of chords and are instructed to make progressions that’s already been done to give the illusion of actual song writing.
Sus, aug, dim, 7 and 5 chords shouldn’t be premium feature the very commonplace, the notes app is a better songwriting app
Lame
Garbage
Couldn’t even get started
At first, I was interested in doing the 3 day free trial and then paying for the annual subscription if I liked it. When I went to sign up for the 3 day trial, it didn’t go through because the app was wanting to take the yearly subscription payment right then and there! Without me having tried the app, first. Then, when I clicked out of the payment screen, I got promoted with an offer for the first year to be $19.99 with all subsequent years being $39.99. So I decided to give that a go. When I got to sign up for THAT deal, again it tries to take the original $39.99. At that point, I had made up my mind and decided this app was trash but I wanted to test one more thing. I went back to the payment screen, chose the $5.99/month subscription option and lo and behold, it attempts to charge me for annual subscription AGAIN. I’ve deleted the app and am happy I dodged a bullet.
They don’t respond
Bro I just spent ages reading the negative reviews “only reviews I believe are real” and the developers have answered like 3 or 4 😭😭😭😭 but all the reviews are of the same issues that I had like Why is it unusable bro?
Worst UI/UX - takes the fun out of songwriting
This app has the most convoluted and clumsy user experience of any music app I have ever used (and I have used many). I won't enumerate all the issues like how difficult it is to add chords and how key signature screws up the chords you entered, and you cannot overwrite it... But, basically, this app fights you every step of the way and absolutely kills any creative flow. It is even more disheartening to see they supposedly improved UI/UX in the most recent update. Developers: you might be great coders, but you know NOTHING about UI/UX.
Almost great
Ahhh I downloaded this app because sometimes when I’m not home I like to make music to work on later . Yknow the app seemed really good from what I could see you could add chord progressions and drums loops and all that and it just looks great! Until I had to pay a SUBSCRIPTION to even USE it. I mean seriously everything in this app is locked behind a subscription if I want to be able to flex creativity. If I have to pay for everything once I downloaded the app you might has well have made me pay for it when I downloaded it.
Great idea, but it doesn’t work yet.
I’ve been writing songs for twenty years, and I love what this app offers. But unfortunately, not only is it clunky in practice - its custom chord feature frustratingly so - but in the first ten minutes of using the app it crashed on me four times, trying to just move chord progressions around. I regret spending money on this, and it feels predatory how it doesn’t allow you to see its functionality - or lack thereof - until after you get charged.
Great idea. Very, very disappointing execution.
Great idea. Very, very disappointing execution.
so glitchy and sometimes unusable
please fix the bugs in this app sometimes i literally can’t even open the app with how glitchy it gets and god forbid i close it and try to open it again without it glitching and becoming unusable. also it’s extremely hard to move around the tracks on the timeline area and bring it so a spot in the audio without it trimming on accident or moving to a place you never even moved it to. also maybe some voice effects would make this a bit cooler
Not worth it… Yet
Tried it, not worth it yet. They have preset rhythms that are basic and boring and the system to create your own is overly complicated to the point of making it more difficult than it needs to be. The layout of the overall system is very visually confusing and not user friendly yet. It feels lazy, like they put a bunch of elements together in a hurry and sent it out to publish. This app has a lot of potential but is still lacking many elements to make it both effective and user friendly. Maybe in like 5 more years it'll be worth it.
Good App
Cool app, but it keeps asking me to rate it even though I paid for it already. The “rating” pop up feels very spammy.
Sentiment summary
93%
Positive (4-5★)
4%
Neutral (3★)
3%
Negative (1-2★)