An In-Depth Guide on How to Create a Music Streaming App

You often see people walking on the sidelines, wearing AirPods. A group of friends jamming to the song's rhythm during a gathering. Meanwhile, cars come to life with karaoke vocals.

Why is that so? 

Because music speaks words that don’t touch one’s mouth. Choosing a music streaming app used to be similar to picking a sports club. In contrast to Spotify, Apple Music may have had Taylor Swift, while Tidal's first focus was on hip-hop. 

Nowadays, the user interface is more important than the catalog options. All these sites' catalogs are identical, including tens of millions of well-known and unknown music. 

The features that distinguish streaming services today include the quality of music discovery, whether based on algorithms or human curation. The user interfaces of web and mobile apps, the devices customers use, and the sound quality will set your music streaming app on the top of the mountain. Most of them provide free tiers, but if you join and pay a monthly price, the experience gets better.

Additionally, premium subscriptions like Spotify and Apple Music have increased in popularity. They now account for more than two-thirds of the $4.6 billion revenue from the paid subscription industry. Notably, over 80 million paid memberships were registered for the first time, demonstrating the market's appeal and low barrier to participation.

At InvoZone, we have extensive knowledge and industrial-proven expertise to create a music streaming app from the ground up. Because of this, you'll discover all you need to know in this article about music streaming app development, from its essential components to an explanation of the whole development process.

The Music Giants Giving Euphoric Experience 

You may always improve your headphones or speaker system if you want to listen to music. However, most users choose a streaming service and remain loyal to it for many years. 

Have a glance at the music streaming app that has found a permanent place in everyone’s smartphones: 

Spotify 

The greatest music-finding algorithms and the fastest user interface are found on Spotify. It guides its subscribers down rabbit holes to discover both new artists and my old favorites.

Additionally, Spotify allows you to add an infinite number of songs to your personal library and create playlists with a maximum of 10,000 songs each. You may establish sessions where a group simultaneously streams a playlist and see what your friends have been listening to if you enable social sharing. 

Most importantly, a much-welcomed improvement over past years is the ability to listen to only the tracks by each artist you've liked on their artist page.

Source: Spotify

Tidal 

Tidal's high-fidelity, nearly lossless files attract audiophiles. Until recently, there was no free tier. But that’s history.

Now, Tidal Free allows US consumers access to Tidal's standard selection of more than 90 million tracks while limiting ad interruption and providing a more constrained 160 kbps sound quality — akin to what Spotify offers.

Additionally, you will only have the option of selecting shuffle play rather than picking particular music. It's still a fantastic introduction to the streaming service if you want to test the selection before upgrading to the commercial edition.

Source: Tidal

Apple Music

If you're an Apple enthusiast, Apple Music is still a very good option for lossless quality at $10 a month, even though Tidal knocked it off the pedestal. Audio streams at 1411 kbps for certain tracks. 

By the end of 2021, Apple achieved its aim of making all of its 90 million+ songs available in a lossless format. The company will continue to provide this sizable repertoire until 2022. 

Furthermore, certain songs are accessible in Dolby Atmos. Spotify streams music at 320 Kbps, whereas Apple Music's usual lossy version streams songs at up to 256 Kbps, barely any slower than Spotify.

Source: Apple Music 

YouTube Music 

The user interface for YouTube Music is ideal for desktops. It is sleek and organized. It doesn't try to mimic Spotify's appearance, and we appreciate how the song queue and lyrics appear in the app's vertical window, which makes scrolling faster and simpler. If there is a music video for a song, you may quickly go from listening to it to watching it.

It was scary when YouTube made music suggestions based on your location. The most recent modifications to YouTube Music have removed that, although you can still view popular song recommendations based on your general area.

A significant drawback of the free tier is that the music stops playing when you go to another app or turn off your screen. As a result, you'll need to shell out $10 a month for YouTube Music Premium, which also removes ads and allows you to download music for offline listening. On the bright side, the desktop application doesn't have the same important flaw.

Source: BBC

Amazon Music 

Amazon Music's basic, ad-free tier bundled with Prime is its strongest feature. But it's deceptive. More than 90 million tracks make up its song library, up from 75 million at the beginning of the year. 

However, you cannot access certain artists or albums unless you pay extra for Amazon Music Unlimited, which costs $10 per month for everyone else and $9 per month for Prime members (up $1 from the beginning of the year). 

Moreover, there is no longer an additional monthly charge for Amazon Music HD on top of Unlimited’s price tag. Its whole collection of currently lossless audio is a part of Unlimited. Also, Amazon Music is now much more affordable than ever, but its clumsy interface and average music discovery prevent it from being a top choice.

Source: Amazon Music

Must-Have Features of A Music Streaming App Like Spotify! 

Build a music streaming app with these astonishing features that will help you gain a competitive advantage and maximize your market share!

Registration 

The ability to identify the user and sync his music and playlists with the service is a crucial feature. You may quickly gain new subscribers by using social media authorization like Facebook or Google. Adding features like email, password and “Forgot Passwords?” makes your app user-friendly. 

Catalog 

Create your own music streaming app with a promising music catalog that will hook your customer base! 

Pro Tip: Keep an eye on BillBoard's The Hot 100 to witness whom people are listening to. It will assist you in keeping your catalog updated with the top and most loved content. 

Track search 

Give your app's users the ability to discover music they'll enjoy, and you'll attract devoted followers.

Push notifications 

This is an essential component for connecting users with the app. Through push notifications, users can benefit the most from the most recent updates from artists, the community, and friends on the app circle.

Consequently, your brand will capitalize on higher engagement across each music genre. 

User profiles 

Users should have little trouble setting up their profiles after registering or signing up. These profiles assist them in creating and maintaining their own playlists. In this manner, your developers may examine user data and discover their preferences. In addition, they may submit their tracks and share music using this account.

Artists’ profiles & albums 

Well, adding an artist page and album is optional. However, InvoZone’s business analysts discovered that people like to know more about the song they are listening to. Thus, we recommend keeping the pages straightforward while also including all the necessary details, such as well-liked songs by the same artist, the date of release, and so on.

Spatial audio 

Artists will find it simple to blend music with spatial audio to provide listeners with an immersive audio experience and let them feel the sounds deeply. This feature is already present on well-known websites like Tidal, Amazon, and Apple.

Lossless 

Lossless audio streaming allows the greatest listening experience. Its algorithm ensures that a digital audio file that has been compressed maintains the highest quality possible.

Bitrates

The song must be converted to digital form for music streaming, which may consist of a series of audio snapshots. Then, our brains interpret each of those snapshots as a continuous stream. Bitrate refers to the audio quality of streaming music.

Three different audio qualities are offered for mobile apps, as follows:

• Normal (96kbps) 
• High (160kbps) 
• Extreme (320kbps) 

User-friendly UI 

Your application's user interface may make or ruin it. You must consider delivering a smooth, accessible, intuitive, and aesthetically pleasing user experience while developing successful music streaming applications. 

Social media 

Most individuals like sharing songs they enjoy with their friends on social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and WhatsApp. This function will help raise awareness of your business as well.

Music video 

People would also like to watch videos with the audio streaming app. So, you should provide them with an amazing experience by including a function to watch videos while listening to music.

Well-Engineered Tech Stack At Your Disposal 

How to create a music streaming app in the latest tech trend? Well, the programming tools available for constructing a music app are rather diverse. Several factors must be considered:

• Developer accessibility
• The app's functionality
• Timetables and deadlines
• Data protection and security (you may want to hire firebase developers for that)
• Budget

But, first and foremost, it is dependent on the platform. For example, if you want to design a music app for Android, you should consider using Kotlin or Java, but Swift or Objective-C are typically the best choices for iOS. However, you can kill two birds with one stone by developing a cross-platform app using Flutter.

One thing we know for sure is that you need a scalable tech stack and database. Thus, we approximated what you could require when creating your own music app.

How Can You Create a Music Streaming App? 

Create a music streaming app with InvoZone, which employs a fine-tuned development process. Read below to explore the exclusivity of our services: 

Discovery and licensing

Although you have come up with the notion of creating an audio streaming app; the law came first. It means that your customized music streaming app would need the rights to stream artists' copyrighted music.

There is no other way for music streaming software to operate but to adhere to Public Performance Rights.

In a technical sense, legality and copyright are not issues; they are just things to accomplish beforehand.

Features and integrations

After you've defined and modified your idea and achieved the license, it's time to determine the core features of your application and the technology stack needed to achieve them.

For example, you should prioritize social network connections and functionalities. To make your music streaming software more community-oriented, add features like "chat" and "more personalized profile page."

Meanwhile, if you're planning to create your own music streaming app with personalized recommendations, we recommend artificial intelligence (AI) integration to your feature list.

Prototyping 

After completing all the preceding steps, you must construct a product prototype to test your hypothesis on a small group of individuals. It will assist you in gathering early product feedback and making improvements, reducing costs and lowering risks.

MVP development 

After you've tested your music streaming app prototype, it's time to construct an MVP to launch a music streaming business. An MVP (minimum viable product) is a product version that provides only the essential functionality (such as playlists, administration, and the user interface) to determine whether the programme would be successful in the market. MVP development for a music streaming service has its own standards and guidelines that your tech partner must adhere to.

Your viable product should, above all, be inexpensive. The concept is to maximize production while spending the least amount of money. Create it with care. To do so, concentrating on MVP prospecting, lead creation, testing your audience, and striking the right balance with the staff would be better.

You might be interested in Impactful Mobile Application Development Strategies for Your Startup

Custom application development 

It's time to grow your music app MVP once you've demonstrated the necessity for your product. Step by step, add new features and don't forget to test them out. Each additional feature needs commensurate technical expertise. For example, registration necessitates connecting Facebook, Instagram, and email into your programme. That is why selecting an application development company with experience in creating music streaming app features is critical. 

InvoZone can be your knight in shiny armor as we have an enriched community of more than 500 developers, engineers, architects and UI/UX designers who do not back away from a challenge. The tales of their professionalism, consistency, and teamwork are reflected in our 97% customer satisfaction. So, take the first step in creating a music streaming app by contacting us for a free consultation and a trial.

While developing an application, the following three critical components should be considered: 

• API (Application Performance Interface): It helps to make communication between the app and the back end as simple as possible. Businesses may use microservice-based architecture and suitable encryption standards to provide a scalable and secure interface for data transmission between the front-end and back-end of mobile apps.
• Back-end: It denotes the requirement to safeguard mobile app operation through database and server objects (e.g. HttpServerUtility). It must support streaming without hiccups. Your development team should take care of the data storage to achieve this aim. For example, you can use cloud services such as AWS. Another alternative is to stream from Spotify or Soundcloud using their API or SDK. However, do not skip through the Terms of Use for developer tools. It can come in handy. 
• Front-end: Mobile apps frequently contain interesting user experiences that rely on real-time data and require network connectivity between the app's front-end and back-end. In other cases, the software operates offline and requires a data storage system on mobile devices.

Maintenance and support 

The maintenance and support stage entails resolving stated issues of varying complexity, frequent monitoring and optimization of application performance, and developing new features and integrations.

Read more about A Step-by-Step Guide to Outsource App Development

Monetize Your Music Streaming App To Secure Profits

How to make your music streaming app profitable?

Of course, you need popular and quality content on your music streaming platform. But you also need to consider some monetization strategies to top up your profits. 

Here are a few ways to build your revenue stream through music apps: 

Subscription

Most music streaming platforms offer monthly subscriptions to give access to unlimited music playlists. This strategy allows you to generate regular revenue. It is one of the most popular and feasible options, as music streaming apps have to pay for licenses and copyrights on a regular basis. 

• Freemium Subscriptions

"Freemium" is an app monetization strategy with various advantages that fall within the wider umbrella of subscription applications. You can offer free music and reserve select pieces with a premium service, charging a higher price.

One of the most significant advantages of this technique is that it allows a new company to build rapidly and acquire a user base without the high overheads of traditional marketing and sales operations.

• Premium Subscriptions 

Once you have a sufficient number of freemium subscribers who truly enjoy your audio broadcasts and platform experience, you may persuade them to switch from the free ad-supported plan to the premium ad-free video subscription plan, which begins at a low cost. You can also create numerous OTT price plans for different demographics, such as students, families, etc.

Advertisement 

Create a new vision by introducing adverts into your unique music streaming platform, where you can have two revenue-generating alternatives. The first is through in-content advertising, while the second is through display advertising. So, if you have brief audio commercials, in-content advertising, or ad breaks between your audio numbers, display clicks generate many impressions, contributing to your overall stream income.

Factors Affecting Music Streaming App Development Cost

No one can provide you with a precise estimate for producing a music app since we need to consider various aspects.

The cost of developing a music app is affected by a number of things. Let's look at a couple of the most important ones:

Platforms and devices 

If you build both Android and iOS apps, i.e., cross-platform apps, the cost nearly doubles. Wondering how? 

The price of music app creation is directly related to the number of devices your app will support and the frameworks and technologies we will employ to create our app.

Features 

The features you offer in your app significantly impact the price. It is directly proportional to its complexity, influencing the app development cost.

Engagement models 

Hiring a development company or freelancer has different costs. You may:

• Hire an app development company
• Recruit freelancers.

The price plan for your app will fluctuate depending on how you design it. 

Read Everything You Need to Know about Restaurant App Development

How Can InvoZone Help You?

If you wish for professionalism and industry-proven experience, hiring InvoZone is a smart option for creating a music streaming app. With 8 years of experience in our toolkit, our developers deliver the product within time and budget. So rather than just repurpose popular music apps like everyone else, we get our hands dirty in the latest tech stacks and coding science. You are one click away from discovering “HOW”.

Frequently Asked Questions 

How do you make your own music streaming app?

There are nine main steps involved in the music streaming app development process:

• Refine your innovative idea and value proposition
• Define your target audience
• Pick features and tech stack you need to include
• Hire a dedicated app development team
• Choose your business model
• Licensing
• Craft an MVP
• Build an app
• Updates & support

How much does it cost to create a music streaming app?

The cost of developing a music app is determined by the features, technology, and design that you incorporate into your app.

Features that influence the price of a music streaming app

• UI/UX Design Elements
• Functionalities
• Engagement model 
• Technology Stack 
• Different Devices and Platforms