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ListenBrainz Review

Worth it

Should I use ListenBrainz?

Track, explore, visualise and share the music you listen to. Follow your favourites and discover great new music. - listenbrainz.org

· 2 weeks ago

Use it if you're a music obsessive who wants free, open, exportable listening data and deeper stats than Last.fm. Skip it if you want zero-setup tracking, bug-free scrobbling, or a polished iOS-first experience.

Confidence

Medium. Based on ~25 public sources; several Reddit snippets were truncated in capture.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support quality
  • Security posture

Pricing

$0 (donations welcome)

Free

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes

Best for

  • Music nerds tracking every play
  • Self-hosted server users (Navidrome, Funkwhale)
  • refugees wanting data ownership
  • Developers building on listening APIs

Not for

  • Casual listeners wanting zero-setup tracking
  • App developers needing Spotify-scale listening-data reach
  • Anyone needing feature parity today
  • iOS-first users wanting a mature app

Gotchas - check before you buy

medium

Nonprofit, donation-funded: no SLA or paid support; fixes move at volunteer pace.

medium

Scrobble counts diverge from; juggling both is not seamless.

medium

Listen-data privacy controls requested since 2019; user profiles are publicly viewable.

low

Account and authentication changes announced June 2026; some clients may need updating.

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Free, donation-funded; no paywall or ads.
  • Open source; self-hosting is possible for full control.
  • Open API with official client libraries for custom projects.
  • API proxy eases migration from clients.
  • Tracks, visualises, and recommends from your listening history.

Cons

  • Under-scrobbles compared to, even for fans.
  • Weekly Jams playlists sometimes stop updating weekly.
  • Favorites don't sync with integrations.
  • Smaller reach than Spotify's data for developer use cases.
  • iOS support arrived only in 2025; Android-first historically.

Sources & method

- 14 sources - No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

official x5review x5security x2news x2

Key stats

  • Value for money: 5/5

    Rating

  • $0 (donations welcome)

    Starting price

  • 14

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 5/5. Free, donation-funded; no tiers
  • Ease of use: 3/5. Client setup and reliability friction reported
  • Feature depth: 4/5. Stats, playlists, recommendations, API, Last.fm proxy
  • Support quality: 3/5. Volunteer community forum; no paid SLA
  • Security posture: 4/5. Publishes security page and policy; no known incidents
  • Free Price Donation-funded, no paid tiers
  • Yes Free tier Entire product is free; donations optional
  • MetaBrainz Foundation Operator Nonprofit behind MusicBrainz
  • Launched 2025 iOS app Reached production March 2025; Android came first

Pricing

Free

$0 (donations welcome)

  • Full scrobbling, stats, and playlists
  • Open API access
  • No ads or account limits

Security

No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

What users say

Enthusiasts praise the open, self-hostable data and richer stats, but report scrobble reliability gaps versus Last.fm.

“ListenBrainz is live, an open source version of the original”
Reddit, r/lastfm
“I love Listenbrainz but”
Reddit, r/listenbrainz
“I think its slightly bet”
Reddit, r/lastfm

Alternatives

Compare ListenBrainz with each alternative.

Full analysis

Based on ~25 public sources; several Reddit snippets were truncated in capture.

Free, open-source Last.fm alternative for music nerds who want to own their listening data. Casual listeners: skip.

Methodology

Based on ~25 public sources; several Reddit snippets were truncated in capture.

Read how a report is made.

Sources

  1. ListenBrainz donate pagelistenbrainz.org
    official
  2. ListenBrainz homepagelistenbrainz.org
    official
  3. Last.fm API proxylistenbrainz.org
    official
  4. ListenBrainz client libraries docslistenbrainz.readthedocs.io
    official
  5. listenbrainz under-scrobbling compared to lastfmreddit.com
    review
  6. ListenBrainz is live, an open source version of the originalreddit.com
    review
  7. Weekly Jams not updating weeklyreddit.com
    review
  8. LastFM and ListenBrainz likes sync questionreddit.com
    review
  9. How to Get User Listening Data for a Wrapped Featuretrophy.so
    news
  10. ListenBrainz iOS App – Road to Productioncommunity.metabrainz.org
    official
  11. ListenBrainz product security pagelistenbrainz.org
    security
  12. listenbrainz-labs security policygithub.com
    security
  13. MusicBrainz / MetaBrainz overviewen.wikipedia.org
    news
  14. Statistics proposal and self-hosting ListenBrainzjwheel.org
    review

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