How To Develop A Feature-Rich Music Streaming App? Complete Guide

Last Updated on June 15, 2022

Music is a therapy that is utterly relaxing for the brain. It eases out the daily life stress and brings us into the space of peace and joy. Such is its power.

Now with the advent of technology, there are a plethora of apps marking their presence in the app stores, and there are myriads of music streaming apps out there as well on the app stores, for both iOS & Android Platforms. And today the data is also available at minimal rates which allows music lovers to head to the app instantly whenever they feel like listening to their favorite track. This is the reason behind the growing demand for music streaming apps and hence more and more businesses are looking to enter into this lucrative domain to cash-in the audience’s demands.

Understanding How Music Streaming Apps Work?

Wondering, how to build a music streaming website and how it works? Well, the process is pretty simple. These apps offer convenient access to their users allowing them to listen to their favorite music or tracks. As people lead a very busy life these days, they hardly have time to go through this entire list of available songs, sort them and make a playlist, and then begin listening. Rather what they prefer is simply open the app, and get to listen to their much-liked music or tracks with just a few taps. In the music streaming apps, the music available to stream can be easily customized as per the user’s likings and they just need to access the internet and immerse themselves into the music world.

In fact, the users are offered seamless connection on low bandwidth and this is one of the major reasons behind the ever-growing prominence of music apps.

Market Statistics Of Music Streaming Platforms & Apps

If the recent stats have anything to go by, from the year 2014-2020, the music apps revenue has crossed 500%. Not just this, but since the year 2019, the growth in terms of revenue is expected more than 100 billion USD on a year-to-year basis going up to the year 2023. This constant increase in the number of app users ensures recurring revenue for the music app business.

How You Can Benefit By Creating A Music Streaming Mobile app?

As technology is taking onto the world, the music lovers’ charm for the music stream apps has evolved as well. These days we hardly see people collect cassettes, records of their favorite music artists as they prefer to rather listen to it on their phones which they are carrying with them 24×7.

Not just the convenience, but these apps also offer abundant options to music lovers satisfying their tastes and preferences in music.

Also, if you are looking to enter into the music streaming app business, then know that the opportunity here is massive and you can easily start your own music streaming service. The demand for digital music is here to stay with more and more people showing interest in it every day.

Number of Music Streaming App Users Worldwide 2015 to 2020

The online music streaming market across the world is expected to rise to more than $10 billion by 2023. With the rise in technology in past few years, music streaming apps have been among the most sought after apps and here it not just offers on-demand music but allows to captivate the audience via music reviews, movie reviews, podcasts, audio interviews, motivational lectures, and a lot more, hence increasing customer retention. In the music apps, the users get a synchronized music library as per users’ likes. With the use of technologies like artificial intelligence and Big Data, the app suggests favorite tracks and music to the users.

Also, the easy access to the internet across the world has further increased the consumption and demand for online music. Hence, the time is just right to enter the market and reap the profits.

Monetization Opportunities For Music Streaming Services & Apps

There are many monetization opportunities available even if the app developed by you is available for free. However, mainly there are two major strategies to monetize music streaming app, i.e.:

• Subscription
• Advertisements

These are also the two revenue models for Pandora and Spotify as well. Here the app offers free & premium app versions to the users. According to their listening preferences, the users can choose the version that suits them the best. The music or audio streaming apps are one of the most prominent in the app stores, thus they provide higher user retention rates and this attracts a lot of advertisers.

As an app owner, you can even choose to mix the monetization models.

Popular Music Streaming Mobile Apps

There are a number of leading online music streaming platforms, but here we have discussed three of them.

Spotify

This app platform is available for free and by subscription. It is a leading app in the online music industry and is currently delivering content to its 100 million subscribers. It offers both music and desktop apps and has wide-ranging functionalities that enable the users to stream single tracks, as well as albums, and also create the customized playlists. On the free account, there is a “Shuffle Play” option and if you choose to switch to the $10 per month service, then you can listen offline and ad-free music and other content. There are also a few subscription pricing plans for the students and their families.

YouTube Music

This music app is available by subscription and it incorporates Google’s giant database. It is an amazing streaming music service offering multiple options which enhances the overall listening experience. This app allows its audience to search songs with the use of snippets of the lyrics and to easily switch the audio track to a video with just a tap. For the users looking for a great listening experience, this app completely serves the purpose with its fine audio quality. The users can access the Explore section where they get to explore new releases and find about the hot trends in music, despite the user is into recorded or live performances. This service costs $9.99/month.

Pandora

This app is available for free and by subscription. One of the leading players in the streaming industry, Pandora has around 76 million monthly users and enjoys a 70 percent share of the American internet radio market offering a personalized radio service. With the “For You” feature, in the app, the users are able to create playlists of new music & podcasts. Here the recommendations of music and tracks are based on the likes and dislikes of the users. For those preferring offline radio as well as listening to the individual tracks, the app offers Pandora Plus, which can easily be subscribed to for $5 a month. This app is available in the U.S, and its premium version costs $10 and allows to create shared playlists and listen to the app content without being interrupted by the advertisements.

Know Your Target Audience

For the success of any app, it is vital to understand the target audience and offer content as per their needs and preferences. After all, these are the people who would be using your app and getting you the big profits. Hence, having a minute understanding of them would be greatly helpful in the long run. As you look to get the app developed, first start by understanding the people who will use your app, so learn about their age, location, music preferences, and all the other information that is relevant. Like a major part of your user-base must come from a particular country, so consider providing them with the relevant local music recommendations and see how much these users would be keen to pay and accordingly decide on the pricing strategy for the additional features.

What Are The Different Types Of Music Streaming Services?

Most of the prominent online music streaming mobile apps are out there in a number of formats and they offer various listening options, however, the most popular music services are mentioned below:

Music Media Libraries

Apps like Amazon Music HD, Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, SoundCloud, YouTube Music comes under this type of app. Here the users get unlimited song access with a monthly subscription payment basis. Hence, there would be no expenses on purchasing individual songs/albums/music. When the user opts for Amazon Music HD, they unlock up to 50 million files that can be streamed at 850 kbps. This would be twice more than the other services. Here the files can even be streamed in uncompressed, 24-bit lossless FLAC files.

Cloud Storage Based Music Players

CloudPlayer, pCloud, AudioBox, Beat comes under this category of apps. Usually, the big platforms are known to offer cloud storage to organize and manage the media files. For instance, pCloud in particular is known to offer 10GB of free online storage and it enables its users to play the media files online and even has a locally encrypted secure option.

Radio Streaming Services

AccuRadio, iHeartRadio, SiriusXM are best known for this app category. The radio stations are known to focus on the automated search for music to be delivered to the users instantly as genre playlists, artist-centric lists, curated lists, and a lot more. In the iHeartRadio, they offer ad-free custom stations. Not just they are easy-to-use, but the app even offers an Offline feature available for the iOS & Android versions of the app. Meanwhile, the price differs for both the platforms, as to access iHeart All Access for the web & Google Play Store signup, the price is $9.99/month, whereas $12.99 for the iOS App Store signup.

Licensing Requirements For A Music Streaming App

This is one of the crucial factors of music streaming app development. It is vital before the development of a music streaming app to consider the laws applicable to offer music to the users. Like, for each of the music stream, the app owner would require compensating their legal owners. Not following licensing will end up being in legal trouble as the owner would certainly face copyright penalties.

Now, mainly a song has two copyrights. First is associated with the sound recording which the record label owns. Then, the second copyright is associated with composition, which includes lyrics and melody. This type of copyright is owned by publishing companies or songwriters. US-based users can contact organizations like BMI, ASCAP, SESAC.

For acquiring licensing for the sound recording, get in touch with the record labels to lock a deal. For indie music streaming, contact some of the digital rights agencies offering a license for the independent labels, like Merlin Network.

General Features of Music Streaming Mobile Apps

User Panel for Music Streaming Subscribers

• Register with Social Media or eMail
• Create a User profile
• Search & filter music style, album, artist, track name
• Search covers, music artists, albums & songs
• Listen radio streaming
• Add tracks on the personalized playlist
• Counter plays tracks
• Connect with smart speakers
• Background remote control
• Download audio tracks and listen offline
• Like & Share track and share on social media networks
• Create Private and public playlists
• Background music play
• Lockscreen info (artist, track, cover)
• in-app purchases(remove ad), add a playlist, access to offline music

Admin Panel For Music App Owners

• Secure login to the admin dashboard
• Manage and Upload tracks (mass upload)
• Create playlists based on artists, category, etc.
• Prelisten track
• Manage Users, music artists
• Publication of the track in one click
• Manage/Edit/Add track, album, style, artist
• Run advertising/promotions/discounts/offers
• Manage subscriptions & memberships

Advance Features Of Music Streaming Apps & Websites

Social Media Signup/Login

The users can easily login or signup into the app without having to fill in the details while signing up, as well as each time they open the app to listen to the music.

User Profile

Upon registration, the users must have a profile that allows them to manage & update their playlists. At the same time, the functionality would allow them to not just share the tracks but even upload their own songs.

Search For Music Tracks & Playlists

Having this functionality allows the users to search and sort the music on basis of different artists, genres, years, and more. It should allow the users to easily navigate around the platform to search for their favorite tracks. In fact, the navigation is one area on which the app users can effectively work up to offer a better experience to their years, thus setting the app apart from the other apps in the same category. After all, users crave a smooth, speedy, and convenient experience where they can listen to their favorite songs with just a few taps. As a music app owner, you can also consider providing several customization options that help in creating and editing the playlists.

Share Music & Audio Playlists

The app can allow its users to follow other musicians, bands, and users, in this way they would be able to share tracks with a like-minded audience.

Push Notifications

This functionality can be useful for the app as it allows to inform users about new song releases, app updates, when available, and a lot more. This is a good way to ensure that everyone is aware of the happenings within the app.

Audio Streaming

By integrating special streaming software into the app, it allows converting audio into a streaming format to instantly deliver media to the listeners.

Music Library & Playlist

With the organization of the music and tracks into the digital libraries & playlist categories, app users can search for the media on the basis of artist, genre, and album.

Offline Access To Audio Tracks

The music lovers definitely love being able to listen to the downloaded media even when they are offline. This paves way for customer loyalty and allows the users to feel connected with the brand.

Recommendation For Music To Listen

When the app shows recommendations as per the users’ choices, this adds to their connection with the app. After all, nothing can be better than offering a great app experience for app success.

Social Sharing

Integrating this feature into the app will allow the users to share their created playlists with their friends and contacts via social networking platforms. This can be path-breaking in audience engagement and grabbing the attention of other music lovers.

Uploading Media

Just a few taps to easily upload files (irrespective of the number of songs a single file containing) across any device. This will offer a seamless listening experience to the users.

Required Team Structure To Build A Music Streaming Platform

Once the research process is done and you know what you really need from the app and after acquiring the necessary licenses, it is then time, to begin with, the development work of your on-demand music streaming app. And this requires you to look for a good app development firm. Execute research to find a reputed company known for delivering successful app projects, and then hold meetings with them to learn about their skills, expertise, and past experience.

In order to get an app built for iOS and Android platforms, it is important to hire an experienced team. Usually, the app development team should consist of:

• Project Manager
• A team of Android developers
• A team of iOS Developers
• Back-end Developer
• UX/UI Designers
• Quality Analysis (QA) Experts

Technology Stack Needed For Music Streaming App

• For Backend Development: Python
• For Frontend Development: JavaScript
• Frameworks: Hadoop, Apache Storm, Hub Framework
• For Music files storage: in device cache using Cassandra/PostgreSQL
• For Server-side and back-end structure: PHP and Java
• For Real-time data management and processing: Kafka software
• For model-based tests and Python integration: GraphWalker
• For platform infrastructure: Dataproc
• For cloud-based music streaming: Amazon S3, Google BigQuery
• For building UI for the desktop application: Chromium embedded framework
• Open-source HTTP and proxy server: Nginx
• For web development: Bootstrap
• For Android Music Streaming App: Java
• For IoS Music Streaming App: Objective-C
• For Windows/Mac clients: C++
• Third-Party Libraries for stream management and audio playback: Spotify Player SDK
• For Utilities: Google Analytics, Twilio SendGrid
• For Business Tools: G Suite

and more such as jQuery, Retrofit, Datastax, Fresco, Crashlytics, Realm Silex, MySQL, Composer HTML5, CSS3, Twitter Bootstrap, Bower, Less, etc.

Cost For Creating A Music Streaming Service & App

There are a number of factors on which the app development cost of a music streaming app depends on and here we have discussed a few of them, such as:

Hourly Rates of App Development Firm

The cost of an app is determined by the number of hours spent on its development. However, the hourly rates of the app development process differ from country to country. Usually, the hourly rate for app development is higher in the countries of the USA, Europe, whereas a lot less in India. Hence, if an app owner chooses an Indian app development firm, the app can be developed at affordable rates.

Platforms & Devices

This is again an important factor on which the app development cost would depend on. To create an app for a single platform would cost less, while to create it for multiple platforms (for instance both iOS and Android) would double the cost of app development. If the app is developed for two separate platforms then two separate teams would be required to be hired and this would increase the cost of the development procedure.

Features & Functionalities

When the app is built with basic features without the integration of the third-party APIs, the cost would be comparatively lesser when an app is developed with advanced features and third-party APIs are integrated.

UX/UI Design

An app designing process goes through several stages like prototyping, wireframing, testing, and development. When the app has a complex design structure, it costs more to develop, while the app with a simple design, costs less to develop.

Backend Integration & Testing

Again a major factor to affect the app cost. When the app is integrated with third-party service for better performance and functionalities, it increases the app development cost. Also, the app testing by the Quality Analysts experts to find bugs and errors also affects the app development cost.

Maintenance

Even after the app has been developed, it needs constant revisions, bug-fixing, enhancements, version updates, code optimization, and for this separate budget needs to be kept side, which is usually one-fifth of the app’s original development price.

All in all, to develop an app for a single platform with the basic features, should cost somewhere around $25000-$35000, whereas an app with advanced features, third-party APIs integrated and for more number of platforms and devices should cost between $50000-60000.

Wrapping Up

To conclude, with the development of a music streaming mobile app one can say that there is a lot of potential in this app idea. You could launch your own on-demand music streaming service app and capture a large market share with the aid of an experienced app development company and a good marketing strategy.