Music Streaming App Development 2023: A Quick Guide

Friedrich Nietzsche’s assertion that life would be a mistake without music holds true as music has a powerful influence on human beings. It can lighten our moods, boost our memories, and serve as a much-needed stress buster.

Throughout history, people have enjoyed listening to music from artists such as Queen, Whitney Houston, Madonna, Beyonce, Boney M., Michael Jackson, Celine Dion, and Wham, among others. From purchasing cassettes to downloading songs on our Bluetooth devices, music has come a long way. With the advent of technology, music has become even more accessible.

In recent times, music apps have become the easiest way to stream our favorite music. Prominent players in the market include Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music, among others. These apps provide users with a wide selection of music from different genres and artists to choose from, making it easier for music lovers to explore new music and enjoy their favorite tracks anytime and anywhere.

Market overview of the Music Streaming App Industry

Let’s look at some interesting statistics.

As per research, music streaming apps generated $25.1 billion in revenue in 2021 which was a 32% increase from the year prior. 

Almost half of the music streaming application revenue was from the US. 

Out of all music apps out there in the market, Spotify tops the list of most popular streaming services in terms of subscribers. 

YouTube still remains ahead with 2.5 billion subscribers in terms of overall usage. 

The music streaming app industry is an ever-growing market with gigantic players such as Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and so many other brands doing great business after spending more than five years developing a huge user base and reaching the pinnacle of success. They are investing significant capital in artificial intelligence and machine learning to make their music-streaming apps more efficient in suggesting relevant songs, artists, and albums to users. 

Let’s dive in to learn more about these market players-

The most famous apps in the Music Streaming App Industry

Spotify 

Spotify is the name that tops this list. With more than 109 million premium subscribers and 232 million monthly active users, the Swedish audio and media services provider was founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon.

Spotify allows users to stream music through their mobile as well as desktop app. The application has a variety of functions that enables users to stream single tracks, and albums, as well as curate customized playlists. There is also an option of ‘Shuffle Play’ that mixes up what plays next. It is a great option for switching up your listening. 

Apple Music 

Apple Music is a music, audio, and video streaming service built by Apple Inc. The service was launched on June 30, 2015. The service has over 60 million subscribers but does not allow sharing music.

The application provides ad-free music and music video streaming as well as online and offline listening to its users. Apple also gives a free trial period to new subscribers, and the app is available in more than 100 countries and regions. 

Amazon Music 

Amazon Music is one of the top streaming music platforms and online music stores curated by Amazon. It was launched on 25 September 2007, and in January 2008, it became the first music store to sell music without digital rights management (DRM) from four music labels.

The Amazon Music library has over 50 million songs to choose from and listen to and more than 2000 playlists curated by the expert editorial at Amazon. Ad-free streaming and unlimited skips are some other great features provided by the app.  

Pandora 

Pandora, which was founded in January 2000, is a US-based, subscription-based music streaming service which is owned by Sirius XM Holdings. With over 6.238 million paid subscribers, Pandora’s revenue in 2021 was $2.072 billion. 

The company also offers a personalized radio service and enjoys a 70 percent share in the American internet radio market. The application also comes with a ‘Pandora Plus’ feature for those who like listening to offline radio and individual tracks. 

YouTube Music 

YouTube Music has also made its mark in the music streaming app business. It was launched on November 12, 2015, by YouTube. Being another great music streaming service, it offers a variety of options to its users, such as searching songs through the use of snippets of the lyrics, and users can listen to an audio or a video track as per their preferences.

The app offers fine audio quality and even has an ‘Explore section’ where the users can find about new releases and songs in music.  

Types of Music Streaming Apps

Here is the list of categories –

Music Libraries 

Music libraries offer unlimited access to songs to users on a monthly subscription basis or free access. Such as Spotify, Apple Music

Radio Stations

These kinds of apps have various radio stations and make genre playlists and artist-centric playlists, which can be streamed on your personal computers, home audio, or any other mobile device. Examples- Shoutcast, Apple Music

Cloud Storage

Several large services offer cloud storage to users for organizing and managing their media files. Users can store their songs and stream them anywhere and at any point in time. Examples- AudioBox, Groove Music

The Must-Haves of the Music Streaming Applications 

The important features of an app are largely determined by the target audience and their needs and wishes. Knowing what your audience wants is necessary as it will help you attract more customers. Some of the must-have features of a music streaming software are given below-

Registration

A user-friendly registration process is a must-have feature of the music streaming app. For example, giving users various options to sign into the app through social networks such as Facebook and Google. 

Navigation 

Users require an app that allows them to search and add tracks to their library or personalized playlist easily. Not only this, but the application should also enable people to explore music by mood and genre. 

Playlists

Any music-streaming application should be able to create personalized playlists for its users for each and every moment and mood- be it family-get-together, house parties with friends, or for their alone time. 

A great UI goes a long way

One of the main reasons behind a successful music streaming app is how visually engaging it is and how it makes the user experience smoother and more convenient. 

Social Media 

It has become a trend to share the music users listen to on their Instagram, Snapchat, and other social media profiles. Hence, adding a feature like this will not only give a much-needed edge to your app but also help in creating brand awareness.

Recommendations

Giving good recommendations or suggestions to users about different genres of music is one of the essential features of a music-streaming app. 

Music without Internet

Providing users access to previously downloaded songs on your app when they have no internet connection can help in increasing user engagement.  

Settings

In order to make your app more user-friendly, a settings option needs to be inculcated so that the users can change audio and app settings easily. 

The Ideal Infrastructure of a Music Streaming App

A music-streaming app should have all the right features in order to have the ideal structure. These aspects are live audio streaming, library management, a multi-screen platform, payment services with strong cybersecurity, integration with social media, and others. 

The reason behind creating an ideal infrastructure for your music streaming software is that it will help you in laying out a plan for what your developers need to focus and work on, and hence save your time and resources during the development stage. 

How do Music Streaming Apps make money?

By now, you have learned a thing or two about music streaming apps. But how these apps make money is an interesting question to think about. There are two ways how the capital flows in for such apps. One being paid subscriptions and the second one being advertisements. Make sure to denote time to your revenue model at the onset of the project so that functionality can easily be distributed between these two ways. 

One classic example of these functionalities is Spotify. The app is generating a vast majority of its revenue through paid subscriptions, although the revenue through advertisements is also persistently growing every year. 

Paid Subscription

Users choose from various kinds of plans offered by the apps and are charged on that basis, either monthly or yearly. 

Advertisements 

Users choose from various kinds of plans offered by the apps and are charged on that basis, either monthly or yearly. 

Note – Apart from this, the way the version with ads functions is slightly limited as compared to a paid subscription. For example, in terms of the size of the music library or limited listening time. In addition to this, in apps such as Spotify, the paid subscription is free of advertisements as well. 

What is the advantage of creating a Music Streaming App?

Audiences have changed, tastes have evolved, and technology has taken over the world but from the listening-to-cassette on music systems era to streaming music on apps era, one thing that can be said with conviction is that music and the whole industry are here to stay. 

Today, digital apps are offering a whole buffet of options and plans for music lovers to choose from, to stream music as per their preferences and tastes.

Hence, if you are planning to enter the music streaming application business, then think no more as there are abundant opportunities in this field, and one can easily kick start their own app-development journey in this field. 

Challenges encountered while developing a Music Streaming Service

Building a music streaming service is expensive

It is an expensive and time-consuming task to develop a successful music streaming app. There are various aspects that require focus, such as extensive programming, licensing, marketing skills, product features and design, hourly rates charged by the development team, etc. 

Hence, for emerging brands, costs can be high, and enough financial resources should be there to fund the whole project. 

Making your space in the game 

With prominent players such as Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon Music being in the market today, it can be difficult for emerging brands to craft an identity for themselves and make a mark. Brands need to focus on unique ideas and smooth functioning, and flawless services to compete with other companies and stay ahead in the game. 

Dividing the revenue 

Music apps are required to share the generated revenue with the artists and copyright holders. For example, Spotify keeps 30 percent of its revenue, and the rest of it is given to artists, songwriters, and songwriters.

Licensing and Copyright

Licensing and Copyright cannot be considered as big of a challenge or hurdle posed during the app development process, but it is a factor that must not be ignored. Music streaming apps must function after Public Performance Rights are obtained.   

Right technological tools are required for developing a Music Streaming Service.

There are various kinds of programming tools used to develop a music streaming application with the latest and advanced technology. In addition to this, the programming tools are diverse. There are different aspects that need to be considered. Such as 

• The functionality of the apps
• Developer availability 
• Data safety and security 
• Timeline and deadlines
• Overall budget 

But all of this is determined by the kind of platform you wish to run your app on.

A variety of tech tools are utilized for different aspects of the app development process. Such Frontend Development, JavaScript is required for Backend Development- Python, ROR, and Laravel. For the area of Payment Integration, PayPal and Braintree can be used for Data Storage- Google Cloud Platform, Amazon S3, and another such tech stack for other integral areas. 

How to develop a Music Streaming Application?

Looking to develop a music streaming app service in this gigantic industry? Given below are the necessary aspects you need to consider-

Do in-depth research 

The first step towards developing a music-streaming app is by brainstorming ideas and defining the whole concept. Begin with doing in-depth market research to know who your competitors are, take a close look at their work, and come up with something that makes your app look completely unique and different from others. 

Think about your target audience

One of the most crucial features of developing a music streaming app is to know your target audience really well, as it influences your app’s payment model and its features as they are based on your audience’s age and music preferences. 

Figure out which right tech tools to use

Once you are done with your research on your concept and target audience, it is time to decide on the features of your app and the technology stack required in the development of your application. 

There are different types of features that can be implemented based on how you want your application to be like for users. For example, if you want your application to provide recommendations or suggest songs to users, then integration with AI in your features would help.

Assemble a team

Now that you have figured out the technology stack, it is time to get a team on board. Carefully put together a team of skilled individuals who can meet your application requirements and do the work in an efficient manner. 

Establish a business model

Establishing a business model is one of the most crucial parts of an app development process. The stage involves imparting attention to various aspects such as application monetization, planning a budget, cost-effectiveness, licensing, the number of people on the team and their salaries, etc. 

Licensing

Licensing is a major part of the development of a music-streaming app service. Licensing is needed to make sure your subscribers’ are streaming legal audio content. 

Songs have two kinds of copyrights. The first is related to the sound recording that is owned by the record label. When it comes to obtaining licensing for sound recording, approach record labels to lock a deal. 

The second copyright is linked to the composition, which includes lyrics and body. The second type of copyright is owned by publishing companies or songwriters.

Build an MVP

Before launching your end product, it is necessary to create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). The most benefit of curating an MVP is that it allows you and your team to obtain an understanding of your customer’s interest in your product without fully developing it and helps in assessing its market value as well.

Time to build the app

Now that you and your team have received the feedback from the MVP, it is time to develop the app. The feedback provided will make it clear to you the features you need to focus on. 

Apart from this, special attention needs to be imparted to design as it is the first aspect that catches the eye of potential customers.

Keep up with the upgradation and support

After the application is launched, the work does not end there. Problems and issues will still continue to arise, and bugs will be discovered. Hence, it is crucial to monitor the application’s functioning 24/7 as well as keep a watch on providing customer support. 

In addition to this, the updates need to be done regularly as music is an ever-growing industry.

Conclusion

The music streaming business is expanding day by day. Technology has made it possible for people to stream music anywhere and everywhere at the touch of their fingertips. Such apps provide fine audio quality, a gigantic library of songs to choose from, ad-free streaming, and different paid subscription plans. 

Developing a music streaming service is a time-consuming process in itself that requires a good number of financial resources as well as a myriad of technicalities to be figured out, such as coming up with a unique idea, getting the right development professionals, implementing the right design, and other such aspects. 

Contact us if you are interested in making a buy now, pay later app with experts with over ten years of experience. Our efficient team at Idea Usher will help you in creating the perfect app by implementing all the advanced and latest technologies so that your audience can get a great hands-on experience on an efficient music streaming service.

Feel free to schedule a free consultation call to discuss your innovative project with our team.

Contact Idea Usher

Email: [email protected]

Phone: (+1)732 962 4560, (+91) 859 140 7140 

FAQs

Q. How do music streaming apps make money?

ANS: There are two ways how the capital flows in for such apps. One being paid subscriptions and the second one being advertisements. 

Q. What are the must-haves of a music streaming app?

ANS: There are different features that music streaming services must have, such as registration, recommendations, offline music, and settings. 

Q. What is the importance of research in the music-streaming app development process? 

ANS: Doing in-depth market research allows you to know who your competitors are, take a close look at their work, and come up with something that makes your app look completely unique and different from others.