"Stop paying Spotify": Apollo Music grew through Reels from Indian creators, got pulled three times and changed names three times
What it is A free music app that streams songs pulled from YouTube, with an interface modeled on Apple Music, available on both iPhone and Android.
Why it took off Indians don't want to pay for Spotify every month, and iPhone lookalikes Musi and Demus were both pulled from the App Store one after another; Indian creators pushed it with "free Spotify alternative" Reels plus "comment for the link", one Reel drew 27k comments, and it brought in 100k installs within weeks.
DHow you could follow it Don't build another YouTube-wrapper music app; take its acquisition playbook and apply it to a compliant app aimed at India and South Asia: a one-line money-saving pitch, a camera-friendly interface, and multilingual co-launches with mid-tier tech creators plus a "comment a keyword to get the link" mechanic.
- Data (updated daily) · first launch 2026-08-23 · 11-04 installs 69,061
Android · Total installs worldwide Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-04 (7 days, 6 observations). Google's detail page only refreshes install counts every other day, so a flat day doesn't mean nobody installed.Android · Ratings count (cumulative) Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-04 (7 days, 6 observations)
Apollo Music is a free music app wrapped around YouTube, with an interface modeled on Apple Music. It has no catalog of its own and hasn't run any visible ads; its reach came from a group of Hindi, Malayalam and Tamil-speaking tech creators on Instagram in India. On Google Play it has already been pulled twice, and this package is the third; the iPhone version has never gone down and is the larger half. This piece covers how it got started, where the money comes from, and why the path isn't worth following.
A Reel with 27k comments
In 2026 July 6, Indian creator Brij Vishal Rajput (@bvrbreezy) posted a Reel with a single line of caption: "Listen music without ads using this apollo music app🤷♂️", tagged #tech #music #tricks #app, with a slowed-down Brazilian funk track as background. The Reel has 26,904 comments, nearly all "App" and "Link". This is a common Indian tech-creator play: ask people to comment a keyword and you DM them the download link. The comment count gets pushed up this way, and the algorithm then shows it to more people.
Six days later, Apollo's Play package at the time (com.xspace.playx) passed 10k installs; by July 18 it passed 50k, and by August 9 it passed 100k (AppBrain). Two days after that, on August 11, the package was pulled from Google Play.
What it is
A free "Spotify alternative" with background playback and few ads. The songs are pulled from YouTube / YouTube Music, wrapped in a polished shell: four player styles, a vinyl turntable, 20 theme colors, synced lyrics, a 10-band equalizer, CarPlay, Android Auto, Dynamic Island, and playlist import from Spotify and YouTube.
Traces of its origin remain in a few corners: the iPhone version's bundle id is com.litetube.app, and its privacy policy link is still called litetube-privacy-policy; the description of the now-removed playx on Play still ends with "Get LiteTube today and start watching your favorite video creators right away!" In other words, it was modified from a YouTube video client called LiteTube. The iPhone version's developer is Thuong Ngo (the website says Radiation Studio), listed in 2025 January; the Play developers are X-SPACE STUDIO and IDHRA, INC. There is no direct evidence these names belong to the same people, but the website and privacy policy list X-SPACE STUDIO and Radiation Studio together (inferred).
How fast it grew
Google Play, three packages:
| Bundle ID | Developer account | How long it lived | Scale |
|---|---|---|---|
| com.xspace.playx | X-SPACE STUDIO | Listed 2025-04, took off 2026-07, pulled 08-11 | 100k+ installs, 5,202 ratings |
| com.appletmousec.kouenmtr | IDHRA, INC. | About 08-15 to 10-18 | About 40k downloads |
| com.apollostation.music | X-SPACE STUDIO | 08-23 to date | 69.8k |
The current package: in Sep 27 about 2,600 installs, Oct 12 about 36k (both third-party estimates), Nov 6 69,844 (Google Play install count). As of Nov 4, the 7-day gain is about 14k, but the daily rate is falling: at the end of October it was 1,000 to 4,000 per day, and in November it's only 6 392. 4.5 stars, 1,575 ratings. It has never appeared on any country's Play chart; all of its volume came from outside the store.
iPhone version: ratings across storefronts total about 8,400, 5,420 of them from India. In the India storefront its best showing on the free Music chart was #8 (10-31), and in Nov 6 it was #27; its best in Nepal and Malaysia was #5. On the grossing chart, it ranked #7 in Nepal's Music category and #32 in India, showing that people do buy subscriptions (App Store charts, 10-28 to 11-06).
The three Play packages add up to about 210k installs. On Play it has been taken down over and over and reopened over and over; on the App Store it has never been pulled, and that's where most of the money comes from.
Why now
Indians don't want to pay for music, and the free version isn't good enough. Spotify's standard plan in India is ₹139 a month, and the free tier has ads and limits skipping; YouTube Music's free tier can't play in the background. "Free, no ads, plays in the background" travels well on Reels. One Indian user wrote in Hindi in Oct 12: "This app is great, I'm enjoying listening to music, I've already deleted Spotify."
The iOS lookalikes were just vacant. The category's iOS pioneer Musi was pulled from the App Store in September 2024; its successor Demus was pulled in the UK in December 2025 and in the US in October 2026 14. Apollo's official Instagram posted in July 14: "Demus users, meet Apollo. Make the switch today." This called out a rival's users by name.
Good-looking UI, makes for good video. Indian store reviews often say "BETTER THAN APPLE MUSIC UI" and "a mixture of Spotify and Apple Music." For an app that spreads through screen recordings, the vinyl turntable and theme colors are the content.
Where the traffic comes from
- Indian multilingual tech creator Reels: confirmed, and the main driver. Besides @bvrbreezy, in mid-July the Malayalam creator @ft.ezdee posted "Stop Wasting Money on Spotify Premium! Meet Apollo Music," and the Hindi creator @techdefiner posted "Spotify ka Free Alternative." On Jul 30, a Kerala creator @plx.info linked directly to the Play and App Store listings. There's also a Tamil creator and a Hindi YouTube tutorial, "Apollo Music + AdGuard DNS to block ads."
- Co-published with the official account: confirmed. The posts from @ft.ezdee and @techdefiner show they were co-published with @apollomusichq, so it was an official partnership. Whether it was paid, and how much, can't be seen.
- Fixed entry points survive takedowns: the website apollostation.app and the bio.site page stay the same. The package name changed, but "link in bio" in old creator videos still leads people to the new app. However, as of Nov 6, the Play link on bio.site showed "Invalid Link," so each package switch requires manual updates, and those can break.
- Official accounts: small. TikTok @apollomusichq started posting in April, with 100 to 8,000 views per post. Instagram has 1,787 followers.
- Paid ads: no evidence found, can't rule it out.
- Press, X, Reddit: almost none. Only one self-promotional Reddit post.
Where the money comes from
Get people in for free first, then move features behind membership once there's volume. On iPhone: €3.99 monthly, €22.99 yearly, €34.99 lifetime. On Play: in-app purchases from $3.99 to $19.99. Non-payers watch ads. Early Play reviews still praised "no paywall." By October, the India store reviews looked different:
"They gave you all the premium features at the start to build buzz. Once it blew up, high-quality audio stopped being free, and so did the equalizer." (India store, 10-03, one star)
"Every time I open the app, the first thing I see is a membership popup." (India store, 10-03, two stars)
"Instead of buying your membership, I'd rather just buy Apple Music." (India store, 10-22, one star)
Other negative reviews point to its foundations: "next song takes 12 to 15 seconds," "the song and cover don't match," "it freezes after the ad." The songs are scraped from YouTube, so when YouTube changes its API, playback breaks.
Revenue isn't public. It only charted in small countries' Top Grossing (#7 in Nepal), and #32 in India's Top Grossing. Total revenue is probably modest (inference).
Who it's competing with
In the "free Spotify wrapped around YouTube" category, Apollo is the small player:
| Product | Platform | Scale | Compared to Apollo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Youtify | iOS | India store rating 130k, #5 in the Music Free chart | Also wraps YouTube, also pushed by Indian creators using "comment for the link." Its volume is 20 times Apollo's iPhone version |
| Echo Music | Android | 1.13M installs, +67k in 7 days | The largest new player in the Play same-category space, 16 times Apollo's volume |
| Demus and name-copycat packages | iOS / Android | iOS version removed in the UK and US; copycat packages on Play with 199k installs | After takedowns, users look for replacements everywhere |
| Copycat packages riding on SimpMusic, Metrolist, and others | Android | 10k to 320k | Riding the names of open-source clients |
| Open-source clients like SimpMusic, Metrolist, InnerTune | Sideloaded | Tens of thousands of stars on GitHub | Free, no ads, but requires sideloading, so it doesn't work on iPhone |
| Spotify / YouTube Music / JioSaavn | Legitimate | Top 3 in India's iOS Music chart | Official, with a paywall. This is the segment Apollo captures: people unwilling to pay |
Apollo differs in three ways: it's on both platforms, it installs directly on iPhone, and its interface looks better than its peers. The package name has changed three times, but the "Apollo Music" brand has stayed the same. That puts it mid-pack in its category, but it's not a moat.
If it were you
Verdict: Don't build a second Apollo. Its core product gets around YouTube's terms by scraping streams. Musi, Demus, and Apollo's own two Play packages have all been taken down. The category already has players dozens of times bigger, like Youtify and Echo, and the Indian creator scene has already been saturated with "free Spotify alternatives." What's worth taking is its acquisition method, applied to a legitimate product.
Who it's for: teams with a compliant consumer app aimed at India or South Asia (tools, education, or entertainment) that can look good on camera and want low-cost cold starts, with 1 to 3 people.
Who it's not for: anyone wanting to build another YouTube-wrapper music app. Accounts get banned, linked accounts get caught in the crossfire, and the iPhone version can be pulled by Apple at any time, like Musi and Demus. You'd also be competing with Youtify and Echo for the same creators and the same selling point.
How to do it: Borrow three tactics, not the product. First, a one-line money-saving pitch: Apollo didn't sell a feature list, it sold "stop paying Spotify." Second, make the interface camera-friendly: vinyl, theme colors, scrolling lyrics, so a 15-second screen recording tells the whole story. Third, keep the brand and entry points fixed: website, bio page, and brand name never change, so old content keeps driving people even when store links have to be swapped.
How to acquire users: Find mid-tier tech creators in Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, and other regional languages, and do co-published posts (the post appears under both your account and theirs). Have them collect engagement with "comment a keyword, DM for the link." Following Apollo's pattern, one good Reel can pull tens of thousands of comments and bring in 100k-level installs within a few weeks. Start by testing 5 to 10 creators to find which language and which line drives the most volume, then scale up (inference).
Is there a deadline: No fixed one. This creator playbook has worked in India for a long time, and the window doesn't depend on Apollo itself. But the more apps the same creators promote, the more numb audiences get, so doing it earlier beats later.
What would mean this read is wrong: If Apollo licensed legitimate catalogs or connected to official APIs (for example, if its store listing starts naming content partners), or if the current Play package keeps growing past 2027 years, then it's more than a shell that's going to get cleaned up, and worth looking at again. Conversely, if the iPhone version is also pulled by Apple, the category is left with sideloading only.
Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report
- Competitors
Name Where Launched Scale How it differs from this one Spotify / YouTube Music / JioSaavn Big-company features Early on Top 3 in India's iOS Music Free chart Official; the free tier has ads and doesn't allow skipping or background play at will. This is the demand Apollo captures Youtify iOS 2021-10 India store rating 130k, +7 in 1,213 days, #5 in the Music Free chart Also a Vietnamese team, also wraps YouTube, with 20 times Apollo's volume. Apollo wins on newer UI and being on both platforms Demus iOS 2024-01 Removed in the UK from 2025-12, and in the US from 2026-10-14 The top successor after Musi. Apollo posted "Demus users, meet Apollo" on IG to target its users directly Musi iOS Removed around 2016,2024-09 Very popular among US students at the time The originator of this category, now gone Echo Music Android 2025-09 1.13M installs, +67k in 7 days The largest new player in the Play same-category space, Android only SimpMusic / Metrolist / Demus name-copycat packages Android 2026 10k to 200k Riding others' names; Apollo has always used its own brand Open-source YouTube Music clients like SimpMusic, Metrolist, InnerTune Open source From ¥2022 Tens of thousands of GitHub stars (not verified individually) Free, no ads, but requires sideloading and doesn't work on iOS; Apollo can be installed directly from the store - Where users come from
- Verified Indian tech creators on Instagram Reels (comment-to-get-link): @bvrbreezy's Reel 2026-07-06 got 26,904 comments, all reading "App" or "Link"; over the same stretch, playx installs went from 10k (07-12) to 100k (08-09)
- Confirmed Co-published with creators (multilingual collab): @ft.ezdee (Malayalam) and @techdefiner (Hindi) posts show "co-published with apollomusichq." Tamil and Kerala creators also promoted it. Whether these were paid partnerships hasn't been verified
- Confirmed Taken down, then relisted under new package names and developer accounts: com.xspace.playx (X-SPACE STUDIO) removed 08-11; com.appletmousec.kouenmtr (IDHRA, INC.) 08-15 to 10-18; com.apollostation.music (X-SPACE STUDIO) 08-23 to present. The website and bio.site serve as fixed entry points
- Confirmed Named competitor users in marketing: the official IG posted "Demus users, meet Apollo. Make the switch today" on 2026-07-14
- Confirmed Official TikTok / IG / FB accounts: TikTok @apollomusichq started posting on 2026-04, with 100–8,000 views per post. IG has 1,787 followers, driving very little volume
- Inference Paid acquisition: Meta and Google ad libraries not checked
Why Apollo Music: Your Music Hub (com.apollostation.music) is taking off
Channel: Google Play (the same product also has an iOS version, id 6740073883) | Research date 2026-11-06
One line
It's a free third-party music app wrapped around YouTube: no catalog of its own, it streams from public sources (in practice YouTube / YouTube Music), with an interface copied from Apple Music and Spotify (four player styles, a vinyl turntable, 20 theme colors, synced lyrics, CarPlay). Most of its growth comes from Reels by Indian Instagram tech creators, with titles like "a free alternative to Spotify." Whenever the Play package gets pulled, they switch to a new package name and a new developer account and relaunch. The iOS version has never gone down, and it's the bigger half.
1. Basic data
Current Google Play package com.apollostation.music (developer X-SPACE STUDIO, listed 2026-08-23)
- Cumulative installs: 2026-09-27 2,573 → 10-04 12,909 → 10-12 35,791 → 10-26 55,096 → 11-04 69,061 → 11-06 69,844 (googleplay library app_day / app_day_ext; the points before November are AppstoreSpy estimates).
- +13,958 over the last 7 days (as of 11-04); daily adds dropped from 1,000–4,000 at the end of October to 400–900 in the most recent days (11-06 only 392).
- 1,575 ratings, 4.5 stars, version 2.2.6 (9-21 updates); labeled as containing ads, in-app purchases $3.99–19.99.
- It has never charted on the Play overall or category charts in any country (0 rows in googleplay library chart_rank).
The product's two earlier Play packages (both delisted)
| Bundle ID | Developer account | Timeline | Scale | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| com.xspace.playx | X-SPACE STUDIO | AppstoreSpy records the launch as 2025-04-03; 2026-08-11 delisted | 100k+ installs, 5,202 ratings, 4.55 stars; 2026-07-12 passed 10k, 07-18 passed 50k, 08-09 passed 100k | AppBrain, AppstoreSpy |
| com.appletmousec.kouenmtr | IDHRA, INC. (a different developer account) | About 2026-08-15 listings (v1.0.0), 2026-10-18 delisted | 40,500 downloads | chrome-stats, APKPure |
| com.apollostation.music | X-SPACE STUDIO | 2026-08-23 to date | 69.8k | googleplay library |
The end of the playx description still reads "Get LiteTube today and start watching your favorite video creators right away!" (cached Play page, via Exa). This suggests the app was adapted from a YouTube video client called LiteTube.
iOS version id 6740073883 (developer Thuong Ngo; the website says Radiation Studio; bundle id com.litetube.app, and the privacy policy link still points to litetube-privacy-policy; first launched 2025-01-07)
- Across all storefronts, roughly 8,400 ratings in total, of which India has 5,420; India added +205 in the last 7 days, and the global total is about +380 (appstore library app_profile, 11-06).
- India Music Top Free category chart: best rank #8 (10-31), 11-06 #27; Nepal and Malaysia best at #5, Brunei #7, Malta #9.
- Top Grossing category: #7 Music in Nepal, #24 in Malta, #32 in India, #42 in the UAE (appstore library chart_rank, 10-28–11-06). So people are actually buying subscriptions.
- Where similar apps sit on the India iOS Music free chart: Youtify (Vietnamese developer Thai Huy Nguyen, also wrapping YouTube) is #5 with 130k ratings and +1,213 over 7 days; Demus is #14; Apollo is #27.
So the iOS side is the bigger and steadier half of this product (the App Store has never delisted it), while Play is the side that keeps getting taken down and keeps being relaunched.
2. Competitors
It does the same thing: "free, no subscription, background play, no (or few) ads, and YouTube music repackaged as Spotify."
| Product | Platform | Launched | Scale | How it differs from Apollo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spotify / YouTube Music / JioSaavn | big tech | Early on | Top three on the India iOS Music chart; Spotify's India iOS rating is 5.38M | Official. Spotify's free tier has ads and limited skipping; YouTube Music's free tier can't play in the background. Apollo targets exactly this demand. 2026-05 Spotify India dropped Premium Lite and cut the standard plan to ₹139/month (Medianama), which shows the paywall is still there. |
| Musi | iOS | Around 2016, 2024-09 was pulled by Apple | Very popular among US students at the time | The original of this category on iOS; after it was pulled, users went looking for replacements (Digital Music News). |
| Demus | iOS / Android | On iOS, 2024-01; Play has a crowd of same-name copycat packages, and the AERONOXA one was listed 2026-07-28 | The iOS version was pulled in the UK from 2025-12 and in the US from 2026-10-14 (applecensorship); copycat packages on Play have 199k installs and +23k in 7 days. | The top replacement after Musi. Apollo's official IG posted "Demus users, meet Apollo" on 2026-07-14, directly targeting Demus users. |
| Youtify | iOS | 2021-10 | India iOS rating 130k, +1,213 over 7 days, #5 on the Music free chart. | A Vietnamese team with the same YouTube wrapper, with 20 times Apollo iOS's volume; Indian creators also push it with the "comment Music and I'll send you the link" method. |
| Echo Music(Sabe Wasulone) | Android | 2025-09 | 1.13M installs, +67k over 7 days, #8 in the South Africa category chart. | The biggest new player in its category on Play, with 16 times Apollo's volume. |
| SimpMusic / Metrolist / RaMusi and other name-riding copycats | Android | 2025-11 ~ 2026-10 | 10k to 320k | They borrow the names of open-source YouTube Music clients (SimpMusic, Metrolist); Apollo uses its own brand. |
| The genuine SimpMusic, Metrolist, InnerTune, ViMusic, Harmony Music | Open source | From ¥2022 | Tens of thousands of stars on GitHub (not verified one by one) | Free and ad-free, but you have to sideload it, and it doesn't work on iOS. Apollo's advantage is that it installs directly from the App Store and Play, so iPhone users can use it too. |
| Apollo (apollomusic.app, "Music Tuned to You") | iOS / Android / web | Not verified | Not verified | Another music app with the same name, "Free. No ads. No limits." Its relationship to this product is unverified and it may be a name-rider. |
Bottom line: this is a crowded gray-area category, and Apollo is a small player in it. It doesn't own anything exclusively.
3. Growth tactics (evidence)
- Reels from Indian Instagram tech creators, many as Collabs (confirmed)
- 2026-07-06 Brij Vishal Rajput (@bvrbreezy) posted a Reel, "Listen music without ads using this apollo music app", with 26,904 comments (Jina search summary). The comment section is almost all "App" and "Link", the classic "comment a keyword and I'll DM you the link" pattern. The timing lines up with playx's takeoff: 07-12 with 10k installs, 07-18 with 50k, 08-09 with 100k (AppBrain).
- In mid-2026-07, @ft.ezdee (tagged #malayalamtech, in Malayalam) posted "Stop Wasting Money on Spotify Premium! Meet Apollo Music"; @techdefiner (Himanshu, in Hindi) posted "Spotify ka Free Alternative | Apollo Music App." Both were Collabs with @apollomusichq (the posts show "ft.ezdee and apollomusichq"), which suggests an official arrangement, and they may well have been paid (unverified).
- 2026-07-30 @plx.info, a creator from Kerala, posted in Malayalam with the com.xspace.playx Play link and the iOS link attached directly.
- There are also Tamil creator Satheesh Chandran KR (reposted on Facebook), @mrtechinside, Techkalakars Pro (who has viewers comment a keyword to get the link), livemobiles2020, and a Hindi YouTube tutorial, "Apollo Music + AdGuard DNS to block ads and listen free."
- The official accounts (confirmed, but small effect)
- TikTok @apollomusichq has been posting since 2026-04-24, with single videos getting 100–8,000 views; IG @apollomusichq has 1,787 followers; the Facebook page's single videos get dozens of views. The official accounts alone can't drive volume; the volume comes from creators.
- On 2026-07-14 the official IG posted "Demus users, meet Apollo. Make the switch today," aimed squarely at competitors' users.
- On 2026-10-29 / 10-31 TikTok posted "Connect / Switch your Youtube account with Apollo Music," starting to offer migration from YouTube playlists.
- When delisted, change the package name and re-list under a new account (confirmed)
- playx was delisted on 08-11. Before that, another account, IDHRA, INC.'s kouenmtr, was already preparing (listed v1.0.0 on 08-15). X-SPACE STUDIO then listed com.apollostation.music on 08-23.
- The official site apollostation.app and bio.site/apollomusic are a fixed entry point. The package name changed, but creators' old "link in bio" still leads people to the new package. Right now the Play link on bio.site shows "Invalid Link" (Jina crawl, 11-06), which means the redirect has to be updated by hand after each package change, and it breaks when it isn't.
- 10-18 kouenmtr was delisted, and 10-21 the current package's daily adds spiked to 4,046 (AppstoreSpy estimate), possibly users who switched over (unverified).
- Paid acquisition: Meta and Google ad libraries were not checked; there's no direct evidence the creator collabs were paid (unverified).
- Store search: the name "Apollo Music" and the Play short description's "background play & 10-band EQ" pick up some search traffic, but the app has never charted on Play, so search is probably not the main source (inferred).
4. Why users come, why they stay, why they pay
- Come: More young Indians are using iPhones, but they don't want to pay ₹139 a month for Spotify. "No payment for no ads, background play, and skipping freely" travels well on Reels, and creators who trade links for comments also boost engagement numbers.
- Good: the UI really is nicer than the competition. It looks like Apple Music, with a vinyl turntable and 20 accent colors, plus synced lyrics, CarPlay, Android Auto, Dynamic Island, widgets, and playlist import from Spotify / YouTube. Reviews often say "BETTER THAN APPLE MUSIC UI", "mixture of Spotify and Apple Music", "I deleted Spotify" (appstore library, India store reviews). There are few ready-to-install alternatives on iOS to begin with (Musi and Demus were both pulled).
- Monetization: give it away free to pull people in, then move features into Premium once there's volume. On iOS: €3.99/month, €22.99/year, €34.99 lifetime (checked during recall, not re-verified this time). Play in-app purchases: $3.99–19.99. Free users see AdMob ads, and subscriptions run through RevenueCat (per the website privacy policy). Indian reviews complain: "Just for the hype they give pro features… high quality music is not anymore free and eq is also not free", "subscription popup every time I open it", "too greedy" (10-03 ~ 10-22). Early Play reviews for the playx build also praised it for having "no paywall" (AppBrain 07-30).
- Weak spots: lag, a 12–20 second wait before the next song, the wrong cover art for the playing track, and freezes after ads (India store, 1–2 star reviews). These all trace back to unstable YouTube stream extraction. iOS reviews also mention "because YouTube changed something, lots of iPhones can't play songs" (summary from the Philippines store review page).
5. Differentiation
- Against the official apps: free, fewer ads, background playback. The whole gray-market category offers this, so it isn't a differentiator.
- Against similar gray-market apps:
- Same brand on iOS and Android, so iPhone users can install it straight from the App Store (Echo Music and SimpMusic, which borrow names, are Android-only);
- Polished UI, aimed at the look of Apple Music and Spotify (Liquid Glass, vinyl, accent colors). Screenshots and screen recordings play well in Reels;
- One brand, "Apollo Music", throughout. The package name changed three times but the brand didn't, so creator content and word of mouth carry over.
- Is that why it took off? Partly. The real volume came from Indian creator Reels. The good-looking UI gave creators something to film and kept the iOS rating at 4.5. But it trails Youtify by a factor of 20 or more, so the differentiation isn't a moat. It just put it in the middle of the pack.
6. How many people have seen it
- No press coverage. On X: 0 posts over 90 days (x-radar). Revenue is not public. On Reddit there's just one self-promo post in r/droidappshowcase.
- But within the tech-creator scene on Indian Instagram it has been pushed repeatedly (multiple languages, multiple creators, single comments with tens of thousands of likes). The "free Spotify alternative" play is also crowded (Youtify, Echo, Demus name-borrowers). So: it's circulating in a small circle.
7. What to borrow
- A matrix of tech creators on Instagram across India and South Asia (Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil). The method: joint posts plus "comment a keyword to get the link". A single post can pull in tens of thousands of comments, and within weeks it can drive 100k installs, at a cost far below paid acquisition.
- How gray-market apps survive takedowns: one brand plus a website and bio page as a fixed entry point; several developer accounts on hand; backup packages ready before a takedown; both iOS and Android covered, so if one side gets shut down the other keeps earning.
- Give the app away free to build a user base, then move EQ, high-quality audio, and ad removal into subscriptions and lifetime one-time purchases. The cost is bad reviews ("bait and switch").
- Watch takedown events among similar apps (Musi → Demus → Apollo) and call out their users on social media to poach them.
8. Still unclear
- Whether the creator deals were paid, and how much; whether they ran ads on Meta or Google (ad libraries not checked).
- Are Thuong Ngo (iOS), X-SPACE STUDIO and IDHRA, INC. (Play), Radiation Studio, and ra2lab.io the same people? The website and privacy policy list X-SPACE STUDIO and Radiation Studio together. IDHRA, INC. was matched through the same description and brand, but there is no direct evidence.
- Revenue scale: on iOS it only reached the top-grossing charts in small countries (Nepal, #7). It reached #32 on the India top-grossing chart. Total revenue is likely small.
- How long the current Play package can last: the first two packages lasted about 4 months (from when they got traction) and 2 months. Daily installs have been declining recently.
- The Play rating histogram shows only 1-star and 5-star ratings (for example [196,0,0,0,1378]). That could be an API quirk or incentivized five-star reviews. Not verified.
Sources
- googleplay library (app, app_snap, app_day_ext, chart_rank, 2026-10-29 ~ 11-06); appstore library (app_profile, app_day, chart_rank, review, 2026-10-28 ~ 11-06)
- AppBrain: appbrain.com/app/apollo-music-your-music-hub/com.xspace.playx (scraped via Exa)
- AppstoreSpy: com.xspace.playx page; chrome-stats.com/d/com.appletmousec.kouenmtr; APKPure com.appletmousec.kouenmtr
- apollostation.app, apollostation.app/privacy; bio.site/apollomusic; iTunes lookup id 6740073883
- Instagram: @bvrbreezy reel Dac_zvttCPR (2026-07-06,26,904 comments), @ft.ezdee DasetHVprgM, @techdefiner DavDO8RJq_h, @plx.info DbbRQC8jYP3, @apollomusichq Day4aMcCOoK ("Demus users, meet Apollo", 2026-07-14)
- TikHub: TikTok search for "apollo music app" (the @apollomusichq series, @samnarora97 with 31k views)
- applecensorship.com (Demus 6474685600, Apollo 6740073883); Medianama 2026-05-14, Music Business Worldwide 2026-05-18 (Spotify India price changes); Digital Music News 2024-09-27 (Musi takedown)