Crankshaft
Finally. Music makes sense.
Free · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.
Music that learns you. Crankshaft reads how you actually listen — volume, skips, completions — and builds a taste profile that sharpens every session. All on your device.
Crankshaft learns what you love by watching how you listen — not what you tell it.
Requires an active Apple Music subscription — Crankshaft plays through your existing Apple Music library. No separate account, no sign-up, and Crankshaft never sends your listening data anywhere. It stays on your device unless you choose to export it.
Most music apps ask you to pick genres, tap hearts, and thumb songs up and down. Crankshaft ignores all of that. Instead it reads the physics of how you actually listen: how hard you turn up the volume, how long you let a song play, when you skip, and when you come back. Every session shapes a living profile of your taste that gets sharper over time.
Give it real sessions — not a quick test — and you'll feel the difference within a week. The app is free, you just bring your own Apple Music. The data is all yours, so there's no risk to you.
HOW IT WORKS
Crankshaft sits on top of your Apple Music library. Hit Ignite and it plays from your personal affinity ledger — a behavioral map of every song, scored by how you actually interacted with it. Crank the volume on a song you love and it learns. Skip something in the first ten seconds and it learns that too. Let a song play to the end and that quiet signal counts. Five behavioral zones, from instant skip to full completion, score every track on a curve. No thumbs. No hearts. Just physics.
IT PLAYS LIKE A STATION YOU CAN STEER
Crankshaft doesn't shuffle. It holds a mood — an era, a genre, an energy — the way a great radio station does, and keeps it there until you signal you want to move. Skip to steer: nudge it toward a different sound and it follows you down the rabbit hole; leave it alone and it holds the vibe. It's built to walk you around your own library, not loop your ten favorites.
REACH BEYOND WHAT YOU OWN
Declare the artists you love — even ones your library never captured — and Crankshaft opens their catalog and works them into your rotation. A single discovery dial sets how adventurous the engine gets, from comfortable and familiar to wide-open exploration.
FEATURES
The Crank — Turn up the volume with intent and Crankshaft feels it. That one gesture is worth more than a hundred likes.
Affinity Ledger — Every song earns a score from real listening behavior. Scores rise and fall with your habits, not your clicks.
Station & Drift — Crank a song and Crankshaft builds a station around that vibe, holding it and drifting naturally through your library and the Apple Music catalog.
Declared Artists — Name the artists you love and Crankshaft reaches their whole catalog, even music you don't own yet.
Discovery Dial — Blend new and unfamiliar music into your rotation at exactly the level you choose.
Pick an Album — On-demand album picks drawn from your affinity ledger, weighted toward what you love with a wildcard from deep in your library.
Parent Mode — A completely separate universe with its own ledger, scoring, and visual theme. Your kids' listening never touches your profile.
Road Trip Mode — A pre-cached 60-track queue built for long drives. Works offline.
CarPlay — Full CarPlay integration with Crank, Freeze, and Parent Mode controls on the dash.
PRIVACY BY DESIGN
Your data stays on your device. Crankshaft has no cloud sync, no ad targeting, no social graph, and no tracking pixels. Your affinity ledger lives in your app's local storage and never leaves your phone. Built on Apple MusicKit.
Ratings & Reviews
- This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
The developer, Crankshaft LLC, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Crankshaft LLC
- Size
- 7 MB
- Category
- Music
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 17.5 or later.
- iPhone
Requires iOS 17.5 or later. - iPad
Requires iPadOS 17.5 or later. - Mac
Requires macOS 14.5 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. - Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 1.2 or later.
- iPhone
- Languages
- English
- Age Rating
13+
- 13+
- This app has an age rating of 13+ with content restrictions.
Some content may be rated higher, and may therefore be restricted and managed by the developer through in-app controls. - In-App Controls
Parental Controls
Infrequent
Profanity or Crude Humor
Alcohol, Tobacco, Drug Use or References
- Copyright
- © 2026 Crankshaft LLC