Have you ever wondered what life would be without music?

Well, there are never-ending definitions of music that are difficult to be construed in a single word. 

To put it simply, music is something that we all are connected by, something that can buoy your mood and fend off depression. 

Most of our days kick start by listening to music and end with the same. Whether it’s at home, morning workout sessions, walking on the street with headphones, travelling, workplace and also in the eternal waiting, the music is pervasive. 

In the last few years, the music industry has grown exceptionally, and all credit goes to technology.  Managing to listen to music on Radio or television are things of the past. Today, in the mobile-dominant world, we are all known as the streaming generation that uses mobile apps like Spotify, Amazon Music, Tidal and iTunes to listen to music.   

In a nutshell, the advent of modern technologies with stellar internet speed only complements this trend!

So, if you are curious to know more about Music Streaming apps or how to make a music app, you are at the right place. Below are the insights from the music streaming industry followed with steps to how to make an app like Spotify.

Why Consider The Music Streaming Industry?

If you are considering music services, typical online radio stations and music streaming services, like Spotify, are available. 

That’s actually how people enjoy the quality and easy-accessibility sound spots nowadays.  

What’s more? 

People across the globe are inching more towards mobile devices to do pretty much anything. Making calls only use a fraction of the time people spend on their smartphones. 

But, there is more!

• The Global Music Streaming Market Is Growing Significantly – In 2020, the total revenue of the recorded music industry amounted to 23.1 billion U.S dollars. Unsurprisingly, the music streaming apps made 56% of the amount, which amounts to 11.9 billion dollars globally. 

• Q1 of 2020 witnessed a whopping number of streaming subscribers worldwide, amounting to 400 million, up from just under 305 million at the end of the first half of 2019. 

• According to Statista, 14% of the population used paid music streaming services several times a day. 

• Spotify has 345 million users in Q4 2020, with 155 million subscribers. 

Did I mention, 72% of Spotify users are millennials, who, it seems, were born with smartphones in their hands.

So, driven by promising technologies, the music streaming industry continues to grow. And who knows, developing your own music streaming app like Spotify with the best mobile app developers in Dubai proves to be a great idea.

The Fore-Runner Of The Music Streaming Market – “SPOTIFY”

Spotify is globally the most significant music streaming platform according to the number of subscribers. The app users just need to register to access one of the biggest-ever collections of music in history, podcasts and other audio content. 

Spotify works on a freemium model, but Free Spotify access comes with lower sound quality and ads; besides, it also needs an internet connection. The one who purchases Spotify premium can listen to uninterrupted high-quality recordings and download songs to any device on which they have installed the Spotify app. 

Spotify is a Swedish rooted Audio streaming mobile app founded by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon in 2008, finally after convincing record labels to share content in return for an aggregate of 20% stake. At present, Spotify is dominating the music streaming digital market with a mind-boggling number of users. The objective behind creating a legal digital music platform was to respond to the growing challenge of online music piracy in the early 2000s. 

Besides, it was a wham with a Facebook partnership helping it proliferate to prominence. Thriving the transition to mobile technology, Spotify rolled out publicly in April 2018, with a market capitalization of $26.5 billion just after the first day of trading. 

In a nutshell, the total revenue of Spotify was $10.8 billion in 2020. And, still, you are wondering where to start. 

Consider Developing A Music Streaming App?

First – The Amazing Idea Behind Spotify 

To offer you a clean idea of how to start a music streaming service, first and foremost is to discover the inside out of Spotify.

• Spotify stores music on several servers.
• To stream a random track on your mobile, Spotify finds it on one of the myriad servers and sends it directly to your device. 
• Servers, in this case, are computers and all other devices of Spotify’s subscribers. 

This idea is more effective than hitting servers with requests to download the track. Simultaneously, you become an important link for the global social music sharing network, which is interactive too. Besides, it allows users to listen to all this music legally by paying royalties to the author. 

So, without any ado, let’s learn how leading app development companies in Dubai create successful music streaming apps and make them profitable. 

Second – How To Make Money From Your App

Music streaming services like Spotify, have two core ways of earning: 

• Premium accounts
• Running ads

So, let’s check how Spotify implies these strategies. 

• Premium Services 

The premium Spotify account offers users free access to unlimited music across all the other devices. Besides, the app allows temporary downloading of songs for offline access and also plays the highest quality music. 

There are different types of paid plans, including: 

• Family plan –    $14.99/month
• Regular plan –  $9.99/month
• Student plan –  $4.99/month

• Ad-supported Services  

The app users with a free account have access to a limited number of songs on demand, which may be interrupted by an ad. So, by using this business model, Spotify charges advertisers a cost-per-click and cost per mile fee. 

Besides, Spotify spends a significant chunk of money to pay royalty rewards to artists. 

Third – How A Music Streaming App Like Spotify Works

Spotify app ran seamlessly on all operating systems, including iOS, Windows and supported Smart TV. Also, users can access their favourite tracks from over 30 million tracks and songs for free by signing or logging into the account. 

Initially, Spotify is proffering a free and premium account that carries different properties. In the free account, you are not allowed to download songs to listen in offline mode, and also you will get unwanted ads while listening to music.

However, premium accounts are not limited. The monthly subscription for a premium is just $9.99. This cost sheath unlimited access to a big vault of music.

Fourth – The Features To Consider In Your Music Streaming App

If you are in the lookout for ideas on how to make an app like Spotify, pay attention to the below mentioned features:

• Signing Up

The crucial and foremost thing is for a user to register to use the app. Users are allowed to register and sign in to Spotify through email or social media accounts like Facebook. 

So, when you start with your app development in Dubai, ensure you make this step very effortless for users. Connect it to social media, and you get new subscribers in just a few steps. 

• Easy To Discover Music 

To inspire users to interact more with your app, you need to offer them customized content. And here is where Spotify comes in the big picture, offering a competitive advantage over other services.

Spotify works on an AI-based recommendations algorithm that selects songs for the Discover Weekly section. Spotify developers craft their own powerful discovery engine.

Let’s have a look at its working. 

For weekly updates or discovery music recommendations, Spotify uses three types of recommendation models. It includes:

• User crossovers with the listening history of other users. 
• Deep learning technology to analyze the raw tracks. For this, Spotify implies a convolution neural network. This deep neural network learns from the experience using only raw data input. 
• NLP (Natural Language Processing) in Spotify works on the Echo Nest API. It learns about the music genres by analyzing the text and finding similar terms related to the artist across the internet. Kafka manages the data in real-time. 

• Music Organizing 

The app should offer an exclusive array of features to group one’s favourite music. It allows users to create a playlist for different moods, like other genres and various activities. 

• Making It Social 

This feature allows users to share songs with friends and also highlight their favourite tracks on a social feed. It’s also going to serve your app with the best deal of word-to-mouth advertising at the same time. 

• Exclusive Music Library

To your surprise, this feature is absent in Spotify. 

Because of this, users can not host or upload their tracks and craft a music library. The only option is to create a personal playlist and subscribe to music channels created by other users. 

Simultaneously, this feature is available in Apple Music. It lets users add and synchronize songs on their device and in-app playlist. Users can easily store a specific amount of songs on their app for free or upgrade to a premium plan. 

So, to give you a clue of how to develop a music app and a much better version of the app than Spotify, ask your app developer in Dubai to consider this function as well. 

• Push Notifications  

Push notifications is a decisive factor for such social community-based follow-ups and spreading content. People wait for news from their favourite sources; that’s how it works now – users wish to have valuable customized benefits from your service.

Where to Start: Your Comprehensive Guide To Build A Music App like Spotify

Now, it is high time to dig a little deeper into the process of music streaming app development. Below is your step-by-step guide on how to make a music streaming app, together with the cost estimations. 

Ideas Are The Primitives 

To develop a music streaming app like Spotify, you need to be specific about the complete concept of the app. To do so, find a similar app, and for sure, think of some USP (Unique Selling Point) that makes your app extra special. 

Get Licensing Done 

While building a music streaming app, getting your app licensed is an imperative part of development to offer subscribers with legal audio content. 

Considering Spotify, the platform has two types of licenses for music distribution, like: 

• Musical Composition License Agreement

These types of licenses cover the rightful owners of the songs, managed through two main firms in the U.S, BMI and ASCAP. 

• Sound Recording Licenses Agreement

 This sheath covers recording rights. Spotify uses licenses received from the renowned three record labels – Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment Group, and Warner Music Group.  

So, the time you will start working on your own music app, remember to get a license first.

Find The Right App Developers

Whether you hire a web developer in Dubai or partnered with the best app development companies in Dubai, choose a team that has experience in developing app like Spotify. There are several factors for you to pay attention to estimate how much it costs to develop a music app like Spotify, have a look at the developers cost among different regions:

• India                                              – $25- 49/hr 
• USA/Canada-based developers – $ 50-99/hr
• Australia                                       – $ 125-149/hr
• Western Europe                           – $50-99/hr
• Dubai                                            – $ 25-49/hr

On the contrary, you should check the portfolio of your potential app development company. From the beginning, interact with your team to make sure you are on the same page. At Xicom, the experts usually pay utter importance to communication and transparency with their clients on a regular basis.  

Plan & Estimate

Undoubtedly, this market has significant potential, but that’s not enough to run and spend all you have for a ground-breaking app. It would be best if you did a little homework – “study about your target audience preference”. 

Next, communicate your business idea to your development team. The team will come up with some technological solutions, project requirements and cost estimation.   

The Final Step – Development 

• Develop UI/UX Design

Now, you and your development team should agree on how the future app will look like. 

If still, you are perplexed, you can also offer the design team some intuitive ideas if you have them. 

The crucial process of the music app streaming design includes the following stages: 

• Wireframe – The team will craft a black and white app that shows the general concept of the app. 
• Prototype – Your partnered team will develop an interactive model of the app that shows how the app will function. As the thumb rule, the prototype gives you a choice to tap, swag, drag and see the result. 
• Mockup – The team will develop colourful but static screens of your app. Usually, Mockups include icon design, button shapes, spaces etc. 

• Choose The Right Tech Stack 

To build a clone app like Spotify, consider Spotify developer tools like Python and JavaScript. Besides, Spotify uses PHP for the server-side and opted Java for the back-end structure. 

As said, Spotify stores all the music files on the device cache. And for this, you can choose Cassandra, PostgreSQL, as well as a general memory caching system. 

Here’s your clue on how to choose the ideal technology stack to create a music streaming app. 

• Objective-C for iOS version of video streaming app
• Java for Android version
• C++ for Windows/Mac clients
• Bootstrap For web app development
• Chromium embedded framework for developing UI for desktop app
• Ngnix as open-source HTTP and also as proxy server
• Amazon S3 for cloud-based music streaming 
• Dataproc for platform infrastructure

The Final Thought…

The music streaming app is emerging rapidly, with its revenue predicted to reach $17.50 billion by 2025. And, Spotify being the forerunner among the music streaming apps, it’s a little daunting to craft a niche of your own. 
But, with the right app developers in Dubai, thriving in this competitive space is made possible. All you need to do is get started ASAP.