Perfect Loops vs Brain.fm
This page describes the difference. It doesn’t declare a winner: everything below about Brain.fm was read off its own pages on October 18, 2026, not lived with for a month. We make Perfect Loops, so read our column accordingly; its gaps are listed at the bottom.
They’re different kinds of thing. Brain.fm is closest to generative and adaptive soundscapes: Apps whose sound is produced by the company’s own system, in real time or from its own composers, shaped for focus, relaxation or sleep. It never ends because it is being generated. Perfect Loops is seamless loops cut from real artists’ tracks, with the artist paid from your own fee.
| Brain.fm | Perfect Loops (ours) | |
|---|---|---|
| Does the music end? | Yes: sessions run for the length you set, in modes for focus, sleep and more. | Yes: a loop repeats sample-exactly, with no gap and no click, until the timer fades it out. |
| Who made it | The company. Its pages do not name composers or artists. | Named artists, from their own finished tracks; each loop links to the artist and their platforms. Our own collections (made with Jam, and with AI music tools) are labelled as such and listed after the artists. |
| How the makers are paid | Not stated. The pricing page says nothing about who creates the music or how they are compensated. | User-centric: half of each subscriber’s $5 goes to the artists that subscriber played, split by that subscriber’s own seconds, so a listener who only plays one artist sends their whole half to that artist. Paid monthly from $20 and quarterly from $5, with us covering the payment fees. An artist who brings a fan through their link also earns 20% of that fan’s payments for as long as they stay. |
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android, desktop | Any browser; installs to the home screen as an app on iPhone and Android, with lock-screen controls. A Loops button in the header of every HiveJournal page starts one in a tap. |
| Pricing | $14.99 billed monthly, or $99.99 billed annually. A free trial (“Try for Free… Then $99.99 billed annually”); the trial length is not stated on the page. | $5 a month or $48 a year for the artists’ loops. Our own collections are free to play. Streamers and video makers may use the loops as background music free with credit. |
Where Brain.fm is ahead
A mature product on every platform with a research program behind its claims, modes for sleep and relaxation as well as focus, and nothing that ever repeats.
What Perfect Loops doesn’t do
- Small. As of October 2026 the catalog is our own two collections plus one human artist’s loops awaiting his approval and agreement; more artists are being invited. Every product above has more music.
- A loop is seconds of a track, not the track. If you want to hear the song, this is the wrong place; the artist’s links are there for that.
- The first artist payout has not run yet: the pipeline is built and the terms are set, but no statement has been paid.
- Browser-based. It installs as an app, but there is no native app, no offline mode, and on a locked phone a scheduled switch (Blend, a Path) can be delayed until you unlock.
- No sleep or health claims: the energy levels describe tempo and feel, nothing about you.
- The artists’ loops need a subscription; only our own collections are free.