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Whether you’re a musician or just like to listen to music, there are plenty of apps out there that can make your experience better. And there are more than enough music apps, even those built just for musicians, but we wanted to focus on the wild breed of musicians who like to pour their hearts out with an audience surrounding them. If that's you, then this article on the best apps for performing musicians had you in mind all along.

Determining the Top 5 Apps for Musicians

The average smartphone has 80 apps installed - let that sink in for a second. And each app has a varying degree of purpose - even within your music folder on your phone, you may have 5 music apps that do different things.

One to listen to music, another to record, another one to listen to indie music, etc.

When sitting down to write this article, the need for clear criteria became clear. It wasn't good enough to just list out the coolest music apps - there needed to be something more concrete. The goal is to ultimately save you, the performing musician, time on finding diamonds in the rough.

Focus on Live Musicians

So right off the bat, the recommendations needed to have the live musician in mind. That means an essential music app that is portable because a live musician is on the road or at least away from home quite a bit. And adds value - be it monetary or creative, something that makes it worth your while to use with frequency and helps you advance your music career.

Intuitive User Experience

Usability, in the context of not being at home, or even being in front of a live audience, was also an important factor. If an app in question was needlessly complex or resource-intensive, it probably wasn’t going to cut it.

Each App is Unique

Additionally, it became important to make sure that each recommended app offered something unique compared to the other apps on the list. This helped to add more value and cater to a wider range of performing musicians.

The Performing Musician's Journey

Using the criteria above, a final list was formed that naturally accounted for the entire journey of a performing musician. From practicing, songwriting, and recording, to live shows and the all-important utility tool.

In this article, you'll find the 5 apps that you need to install if you are a live musician. You'll get a clear read on what they do, where each excels, the favorite features of each app, how much it costs, and where it's available. Plus, for full transparency, we've added why it made the list specifically.

Feel free to jump around the article with the Table of Contents below.

What are the 5 Best Apps for Musicians?

GarageBand

Best App For Creating Music

Garageband has been a staple on Macs, as a desktop app, for years. It's always given musicians and tinkerers access to an incredible music creation tool - and John Mayer is famous for supporting its initial launch as "democratizing" music creation.

It's got all the features of the desktop app but with a seriously impressive multitouch interface that will make you think GarageBand started with iOS or iPad.

You can create, play and record music and effects using the Touch Instruments - which is exactly what it sounds like. Fire up the keys, drum set, guitar, and synth apps - they are all included in the app, and using them is probably as close to playing the real instruments as you can currently get in an on-screen environment.

It's simple to view tracks as notation as well - and easy to generate sheet music from your projects.

You can make any kind of music you want using this app and it'll sound incredible. Plus it's easy to set up if it's your first time. The possibilities are endless - and GarageBand continues to change the game even a decade after they hit the scene.

The magic behind this whole app, beyond just its features and usability, has to be that it's just fun to mess with. As a musician, you'll go down some paths you wouldn't normally go, which can be rewarding, even if it doesn't make the final cut.

Standout Feature: Everything + It's a Free App

Ok, this is a bit of a cop-out, but it's worth reiterating that this is free... and absolutely the best option given that price tag.

Other Favorite Features

Live Loops - Super intuitive since it's touch-based, but this is a fun one added to the experience.
Smart Instruments - virtual instruments that can play chords and autoplay as needed (piano, strings, guitar, and bass)
Syncs with iCloud - so any Apple device can pick up where the other left off
Tons of Tracks - Up to 32 tracks - an impressive amount

User Experience

If you're a performing musician, you're probably on the go a lot - time for creating or recording can be difficult to pencil in.

And when you do have time at home, you may not have the energy to fire up some creative juices - and if you have any sort of relationship, your partner may not appreciate your "at-home time" spent face down in a screen.

If you have a creative pulse during any precious downtime, GarageBand should be your go-to. It's the easiest way to access everything you need to create music, and you don't skip a beat between the desktop version and the portable version.

Pricing:

Free: That's right. Free app.

Logic: $200 (this is an upgraded version)

Availability:

Mac and iOS devices only - Sorry Windows and Android folks - there are some solid alternatives though.

Why GarageBand Made the List

It's pretty amazing to think that such a powerful piece of tech is not only a free app, (there is an upgraded version available with more features) but also extremely easy to use. When GarageBand migrated to iOS, and most recently to iPad, there was concern that the usability might suffer. But it's just the opposite.

Making a full-fledged studio free and one of the most intuitive apps on the market is why it made the list here.

Songwriter's Pad

Best App for Songwriting

Songwriter's Pad is the best thing that has happened to music since Purple Rain. That may be a bit biased, but that album is ridiculously solid.

As the creative name suggests, this app was built specifically for songwriters. Topline, this music app is on a mission to improve the quality of your writing, and it does that by streamlining the process while adding some creative gasoline to your song fire.

There is a nice creative assistance element in the app, such as the idea generation, which pumps out song ideas to get over the writer's block hurdle. And as you know, sometimes the perfect lyric requires the perfect rhyme - it includes a rhyme lookup function built exactly for that purpose.

It also includes chord notation, in case that's how you write, and also has recording and backing track functions so you can give it go live.

You never know when inspiration strikes, and having something like this in your pocket can make all the difference. The beauty here is that there's a massive difference in jotting lyrics down vs detailing the feeling and intention of lyrics.

The comprehensive setup naturally fosters everything from song ideas to a rough recording with context.

Standout Feature: Generating Song Ideas

Writer's block is real, and sometimes you just need a nudge. The idea generator is top-notch and nudging, but also feels more intuitive than other web apps that help you concept.