Everybody likes music. The pace of life is getting faster. Often, there isn’t time to go through a full list of music tracks and buy the ones you like. Fortunately, audio streaming apps have changed the way we listen to music.
With modern technologies, we get an effortless user experience and receive music within a matter of clicks. Mobile devices and a stellar-speed Internet connection only complement this trend.
If you want to learn more about music streaming apps or create a music app, this article is right for you. Below, we share music streaming market statistics, song streaming app monetization strategies, and how to build a music app like Spotify.
Keep reading!
5 Steps to Create an App Like Spotify
Step 1. Consider the Main Features of the Spotify-Like App
A music streaming app includes features such as registration and enrollment , music organization, music discovery, social sharing, push notifications, and a music library.
Step 2. Choose the license type
As for Spotify, the platform has two types of licenses, including Sound Recording License Agreement and Sound Recording License Agreement. music composition.
Step 3. Find music app developers
Choose a team to create an app like Spotify for you. There are many factors that you should consider. You should also look at your music app development company’s portfolio.
Step 4. Develop a Streaming Audio App UI/UX Design
Now you and Your development team must agree on how the future application will look like. For that, you need to create a Wireframe, Mockup and Prototype app.
Step 5. Create the MVP of the streaming audio application
At this stage, you will decide your MVP (minimum viable product) and all other details with your development team and you are ready to use.
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Why Consider Streaming music
If we talk about music services, there are typical online radio stations and music streaming services, such as Spotify. That’s how people enjoy quality, easily accessible sound points.
Plus, people around the world switch to their mobile devices to do just about anything. Phone calls only use up a fraction of the time people spend on their cell phones.
But there’s more!
- The global music streaming market is growing steadily : Global subscriber base is expected to reach 2.81 billion by the end of 2025.
- The music streaming app market is expected to reach $17.50 billion by 2025
- Statista said 14% of the population use services of paid music streaming several times a day.
- There are 186.7 million of digital music users in the US
- Spotify has more than 200 million active users, more than 109 million paying subscribers and about 40% of the global music streaming market
Music streaming continues to grow. Therefore, developing your live audio streaming application might be a great idea.
Current Leaders in the Audio Streaming Market
There are three leaders in the audio streaming market. audio streaming, including
- Spotify with a 31% market share
- Apple Music with a 15% market share
- Amazon Music with a 13% market share
Now, let’s take a closer look at each of them.
Spotify
Being a pioneer in the music streaming market, Spotify is the most well-known music app. The app has 109 million premium subscribers and 232 million monthly active users.
Users of the app are given access to different music services. They include Discover Weekly playlists and other experimental ones, such as the Australia-only station.
Spotify has Facebook integration, allowing users to share with their Facebook friends. Also, this feature allows Spotify users to share their music more easily than the competition.
[Sample Spotify interface]Apple Music
Apple Music is the second most popular music streaming app. It provides users with many features and a discount for families and students.As of June 2019, Apple Music had more than 60 million paid subscribers and 50 million songs in its library. All Apple devices including Apple HomePod are compatible with this app. Still, unlike Spotify, the app doesn’t have robust sharing options.
[Sample Apple Music UI]Amazon Music Unlimited
Amazon Music is an advanced version of Amazon Prime Music, provided to Prime subscribers for free. For an additional payment, users receive access to an expanded catalog. Amazon Music recommends playlists grouped around artists the user has already listened to. Also, the app displays song lyrics on the “now playing” screen.
[Sample Amazon Music interface]To conclude, Spotify isn’t alone in this online music business. Other major players are Apple Music and Amazon Music.
All music streaming services have many benefits, including:
- Quick access to music
- Affordability
- Unlimited Storage
- Social Engagement
As you can see, all of these services seem to be outstanding due to these common characteristics: they are effortless, intuitive and easy to use.
The Big Idea Behind Spotify
To give you a clear idea of how to start a music streaming service, let’s discover the inner logic behind Spotify.
- Spotify stores music on multiple servers
- To stream a random track on your mobile, Spotify finds it on one of millions of servers and sends it to your device
- The servers, in this case, are computers and all other devices of Spotify subscribers.
This concept is more effective than sending requests to the servers to download the track. At the same time, you become an essential link for the global music sharing social network, which is also attractive. And it allows users to listen to all this music legally by paying royalties to the authors.
Now, let’s learn how to create a music streaming app and make it profitable.
How to make money with a Spotify-like app
Music streaming services , like Spotify, has two main ways to earn; premium account and posting ads. Let’s see how Spotify applies these strategies.
Premium Services
Spotify Premium Account gives users free access to unlimited music on other devices. In addition, the application allows temporary downloading of songs for offline access and plays music of the highest quality. There are several types of paid plans, including:
- Student plan is $4.99 per month
- Individual account – $9.99 per month
- Duo account – $12.99 per month
- Family Account – $15.99 per month
Ad-supported services
Users of the application with a free account can listen to a limited number of songs on demand, which may be interrupted by an ad. Using this business model, Spotify charges advertisers a cost-per-click and cost-per-mile fee.
According to their site, Spotify spends a lot of money to pay royalties to artists.
Also read: How do apps make money?
This concludes how to earn with your Spotify clone. You have to become part of the “get back to paid music” preachers, deal with authors, and provide your users with a lot of music value for their membership.
Critical Features to Include in an App similar to Spotify
If you are looking for ideas on how to create an app like Spotify, consider the following features of the app:
Registration/Subscription
First , a user must be authorized to use your system. Users can sign up for Spotify via email or social networks like Facebook.
Make sure to make this step effortless for your users. Connect it to social networks and you will get new subscribers in a matter of taps.
Music organization
The application must provide functions for grouping music, etc.
Then users can create playlists for different purposes, such as activities and current genres.
Music Discovery
To motivate users to interact With your app more often, you need to provide them with personalized content. And this is where Spotify has a huge competitive advantage over other services.
Spotify uses an AI-based recommendation algorithm to select songs for the Discover Weekly section. Spotify’s developers built their own powerful discovery engine.
Let’s see how it works.
For the Weekly Discovery recommendation, Spotify uses three types of recommendation models, including:
- Matching users with the listening history of other users
- Natural language Processing. On Spotify, this technology works on the Echo Nest API. Learn about music genres by analyzing the text and searching for similar terms associated with the artist on the Internet. Kafka manages the data in real time.
- Deep learning to analyze the raw tracks. To do this, Spotify applies a “convolution neural network”. This deep neural network learns from experience using only raw data input.
All Things Social
This feature allows users to share songs with friends and highlight your favorite tracks on a social network. feed. It will also give your app a lot of word of mouth advertising at the same time.
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Push Notifications
Push Notifications are a characteristic decision for a social community of this type based on following and dissemination of content. People want news from their favorite sources; Here’s how it works now: users want valuable personalized benefits from your service.
Music Library
Unfortunately, this feature is not available on Spotify. Due to this, users are unable to host or upload their tracks and create a music library. The only option is to create personal playlists and subscribe to music channels created by other users.
At the same time, this feature is available in Apple Music. It allows users to add and sync songs across their devices and playlists in the app. Users can store a certain number of songs in their app for free or upgrade to a premium plan.
To give you an idea of how to make a music app, and even better than Spotify, consider this feature too.
Now, let’s find out how to build a music app.
Where to start: Your guide to building a music app like Spotify
Now, let’s dig in in the process of developing music streaming apps. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to build a music streaming app, along with cost estimates.
Check it out.
Ideas are everything
For music application development, you must specify the entire concept of the application. To do this, find a similar app and, of course, think of something that makes your app special.
Licensing
When developing a music streaming service, you must obtain a license to provide your subscribers with legal audio content.
As for Spotify, The platform has two types of licenses for music distribution, such as:
- Sound Recording License Agreement, which covers recording rights. Spotify uses licenses received from the Big Three record labels: Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment Group, and Warner Music Group.
- Music Composition License Agreement. This covers the rightful owners of the songs, managed through two major firms in the US: BMI and ASCAP.
When looking for an answer on how to create your own music app, music, don’t forget to get such a license.
Find music app developers
Now is the time to get down to business and choose a team that will create an app like Spotify for you. There are many factors that you should consider. To estimate how much it costs to develop a music app like Spotify, check out cross-region developer fees:
- US/Canada based development teams: $50 to $250 per hour
- Western Europe – $80 to $170/hour
- Eastern Europe – $50 to $150/hour strong>
- Australia – $80 to $150/hour
- India –$30 to $80/hour
You should also check your music app development company’s portfolio. Early on, check in with your team to make sure they’re on the same page. At APP Solutions, we usually hold regular meetings with our clients via Skype.
See also: How to outsource app development?
Plan and estimate
This market has significant potential, but that’s not enough to run and spend all you have on a great app. You must carry out a study and know the preferences of your target audience. Then, communicate your business idea to your development team. The team will propose some technology solutions, cost estimate, and project requirements.
Develop an Audio Streaming Application
UI/UX Design
Now, you and your development team must agree on what the future application will look like. Here, you can offer some ideas to the design team, if you have any.
The process involved in creating the music app design includes the following steps.
- Metallic structure.The team will create a black and white app that shows the general concept of the app.
- Mockup. The team develops colorful but static screens of the upcoming app. Mockups include icon layout, button shapes, spaces, etc.
- Prototype. The team creates an interactive model of the app that shows how the app works. As a general rule, prototypes give you the option to tap, swap, drag and see the result.
Choose the technology stack
To develop your Spotify-like app, consider Spotify’s development tools, such as Python and JavaScript. Also, Spotify uses PHP for the server side and Java for the back-end structure. As we said, Spotify stores all music files in the cache of the device. To do this, use Cassandra, PostgreSQL, as well as a general caching system.
When looking for a clue on how to create a music streaming service, keep in mind that Spotify uses the following technologies:
- Kafka software for real-time data processing and management
- GraphWalker for model-based testing and Python integration
- Amazon S3 for streaming cloud-based music
- Dataproc for the platform infrastructure
- Chromium embedded framework for creating a user interface for desktop applications
- Bootstrap for the web application development
- Nginx as open source HTTP and proxy server
- C++ for Windows/Mac clients
- Java for Android music streaming application
- Objective-C for iOS Music Streaming App
How to create a music streaming website ?
You can power your app with Spotify players by integrating the Spotify Player SDK. This library contains classes for streaming management and audio playback. It takes over all the back-end dealing, digital rights management, and decoding of Spotify.
[Spotnews screens]We did that integration for our recent project, SpotNews. SpotNews is an audio streaming platform that provides personalized music content. The idea behind the app is to allow users to listen to their favorite songs while reading the news sections.
We also use:
- Spotify SDK for authorization via Spotify user profile
- Java SDK for Android, Retrofit, Fresco , Crashlytics and Realm to provide smooth application performance
- PHP, Silex, MySQL, Composer HTML5, CSS3, Twitter BootStrap, Jquery, Bower, Less, Nginx to moderate news via admin panel
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Creating the Audio Streaming App MVP
At this stage, you’ll work out your MVP (minimum viable product) and all other details with your development team and you’re ready to go.
When looking for ideas on how to build a music app, consider the following features for your MVP music streaming app:
Feature
Integrations
Estimate in hours as
Sign up / register
- Google+
Since 32 hours
User profile
- Edit user profile
- Choose gender
From 36 hours
Sharing on social networks
From 15 hours
Personalization
Fetching algorithm that will choose the next music track for each individual user. Use ML to find appropriate songs for users
From 100 hours
Music player
- Key image
- Functionality of the music player
- Play, stop, pause, fast forward, etc.
70
Search for tracks
<ul
From 32 hours
Playlist manager
- Create playlist
- Edit playlist
From 60 hours
Total
From 345 hours
The average development cost of a music player application like Spotify is about $40 – $50,000 per platform.
For a more detailed estimate, you can use our project cost calculator. Now you know how to create a music application like Spotify.
You may also be interested in: HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO MAKE AN APP?
Try it
Once the application is app is ready, the team does extensive testing to ensure the app runs smoothly. We typically roll it out right after the app is ready and approved. Also, three months after launch, our developers can fix any issues free of charge.
Conclusion
The music streaming app market is growing and its revenue is expected to reach $17.5 billion by 2025.
Spotify is the leader among music streaming apps. It uses a lot of modern technologies to provide users with relevant music content.
While music streaming is a hot trend, it has an opportunity to grab its share of the music streaming market, as what made Spotify.
But to be successful with your app and get ahead of the competition, you need to get started as soon as possible.
The last thing left is to find a development team. And we are here to help.
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