Playlister

If you've ever spent a Sunday morning running USB sticks between classrooms or troubleshooting ProPresenter for a panicked volunteer, Playlister was built for you. It's a cloud-based presentation app designed specifically for Kids Ministry that streams curriculum and media directly to Apple TVs — no flash drives, no laptops, no complicated AV rigs.^1

CTO Kevin Smith invented Playlister in 2018 while serving at his church in Indiana. Frustrated by the cost and complexity of running ProPresenter across ten classrooms, he built a simple Apple TV app that replaced all that gear. CEO Grant Glas, a former substitute teacher who knew firsthand the chaos of managing a room full of kids with unreliable tech, saw the potential immediately. Together they launched what has grown into a platform trusted by over 10,000 churches in 53 countries, including Life.Church, Elevation Church, NewSpring, Eagle Brook Church, and The Salvation Army.^2

Playlister integrates directly with Orange curriculum so lessons sync automatically — no downloads required. But it works with any curriculum: The Gospel Project, Grow, Wonder Ink, or your own custom media. Drag content into a playlist, schedule it for your rooms, and when volunteers walk in on Sunday morning, everything is already on screen and ready to go. The Apple TV remote is the only controller they need, and training takes about ten seconds.^1

Recent case studies show how multi-site churches lean on Playlister to keep every environment consistent. The Church of Eleven22 runs Kids Ministry across 13 campuses without a single volunteer touching a remote — playlists are scheduled in advance and just show up on Sunday morning. Red Rocks Church uses Playlister to keep lobby, kids space, hallway, and back-of-house screens visually aligned across campuses. And an April 2026 case study documented how Eagle Brook Church — one of the top 10 largest churches in the United States, with roughly 43,000 in weekly attendance — transitioned from Mac Minis running presentation software to Apple TVs with Playlister, with a dramatic reduction in tech issues and a far simpler volunteer experience.^11^12^4

In May 2026 Playlister launched Church-to-Church, a feature that lets any church publish their kids ministry content inside Playlister for other churches to use. The inaugural curriculum is CKids, built by Charleston Church in Charleston, Maine — complete weekly lessons for K through 5th grade covering worship, Bible stories, memory verses, games, and closers, all free. Within 24 hours of launch, 28 churches had signed up to use it.^3

The Apple TV app receives regular feature releases — most recently an updated playlist browser with thumbnail previews, an on-screen clock overlay so teams can stay on schedule, and subtitle support.^9

"Our tech issues have really just kind of disappeared since we added Playlister. They come in on Sunday morning… it's ready to run." — Eagle Brook Church staff^4

"Playlister has transformed our Kids Ministry. Before Playlister, creating quarterly video lessons for just one department took me up to a week. Now I can create lessons for all departments — infants, preschool, and elementary — in just minutes." — Stephanie Correa^5

"The volunteers last night in the four rooms had never heard of an Apple TV and could do it. Thanks for making me look good." — David Schleyer, Executive Director at New Hope Church^1

• Official integration partner with Orange (Think Orange) curriculum^6
• Partnership with Tithe.ly — free Playlister screen for Tithe.ly customers^7
• Church-to-Church content sharing launched May 2026 with free CKids Curriculum^3
• Case studies span single-site plants to top-10 US churches (Eagle Brook, ~43K attendance)^4
• Strongly rated on Trustpilot and G2 with reviews current through 2026^5^8
• Founded in Indiana by Kevin Smith (CTO) and Grant Glas (CEO); developed by App Press LLC, an Apple-recognized top development team^2^9
• Apple TV app actively maintained with regular feature releases through 2026^9
• Offers a 30-day free trial; includes Apple TV hardware with Pro and Apex plans; 200% refund guarantee^10