Made for music nerds.
Criticscale is eight daily music games stitched together by one streak. Pin years. Spot fakes. Connect bands. Play one of them in 90 seconds, or sit with all eight and lose an afternoon.
Daily, not endless
One round per game per day. The clock matters. The streak matters. There's no doomscroll because tomorrow is another round.
Music, not trivia
Half the rounds use real audio. The other half lean on covers, palettes, regions, and the weird facts only people who care actually know.
Friends, not feeds
You can compare scores with friends and call anyone out 1-on-1. There's no algorithmic feed, no follower counts, no rage. Just receipts.
Why we built it
Most music apps want you to listen passively for as long as possible. Criticscale wants the opposite: a tight, daily ritual where you actually engage with what you know, what you don't, and what you're going to look up later.
It started as a year-pinning game (that's Erapin). Then we added a way to test album-cover memory (Chromevinyl). Then artist-fact connections (Criticweb). And it kept going. Today there are eight daily games sharing one streak, plus head-to-head challenges and friend leagues.
How we make it
Criticscale is a small operation. Every round is hand-curated — we pick the songs, write the prompts, and check the metadata ourselves. When something is wrong, email support@criticscale.com and a real human will look at it.
Who builds it
Criticscale is built by Carlos Salame, a software engineer who happens to be the kind of music nerd who reads liner notes and argues about original release years. The first game (Erapin) shipped in early 2026 as a personal project that turned into a daily habit for friends; the rest of the catalog grew from there. Today Criticscale is a one-person operation — every game design, every round of metadata, and every email reply comes from the same person who wrote the code.
That means a few things. Decisions are fast — there is no committee. Bug reports get human responses, often the same day. The product is opinionated where it could be vague, and the games are built for people who actually care about music, not as a generic puzzle wrapper.
Music rights
We use short clips of music for editorial gameplay purposes — they help you guess a year, a country, or an artist. Album covers, artist names, and metadata appear for the same reason. All trademarks and rights remain with their owners. If you're a rights-holder and want to talk to us, email support@criticscale.com.
Get in touch
General questions: support@criticscale.com
Privacy / data requests: privacy@criticscale.com