Cost to Develop a Music Streaming App and How to Build one

‘Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the Music.’ – Ronald Reagan

Music is one thing that is loved by people of all generations. Whether young or old, everyone grooves to the beats when they listen to their favourite song. With the advent of technology and smartphones becoming easily accessible, the listening habits of the users have gone through a paradigm shift. Therefore you see a plethora of live music streaming apps booming on the app stores on both the leading mobile OS platforms. Also, as we have data at minimal rates, on-demand music streaming mobile apps become the most viable option for music lovers to listen to their favourite track. This has fueled the idea of developing music streaming apps to an extent as compared to the other trending app ideas while keeping an eye on the future.

The music apps provide hassle-free access to the users to their favourite track. Nowadays, people don’t have time to go through an entire list of songs, sort them out, make their playlist and then listen to them. Instead, the users just get online and are just a tap away from listening to a song they like the most. The music available for streaming in such apps can be customized according to one’s likings and you just need access to the internet to immerse into the world of music.

Stats on Music Streaming Mobile Apps

Here’s some interesting information to streamline your knowledge about the meteoric rise in the revenues of the on-demand music apps.

If we go by the stats, in the past six years, i.e. from 2014-2020, the revenue of music apps have increased to more than 500%. In addition to this, since 2019, the growth in revenue has been expected more than 100 billion USD on a year-on-year basis up to the year 2023. Thus, the day by day increase in the number of users will ensure a goldmine of revenue for the music app business.

The seamless connection even on low bandwidth is one of the main reasons behind the popularity of the music apps.

Why do you need to build a music streaming app?

With the advent of technology, consumers’ habits of listening to music have also evolved. Nowadays, you don’t find people collecting records or cassettes of their favourite music artists as everything is available to them in their smartphone.

Music streaming mobile apps provides a plethora of options to the users and satisfies their music needs and demands. These apps will attract a wide range of userbase for the organizations and help them to expand their business by leaps and bounces.

Below are the reasons why you should opt to develop a music streaming mobile app

🔹 Digital music is here to stay as more and more people are shifting towards the online medium for their music

🔹 The global online music streaming market is forecasted to rise and exceed the mark of $10 billion by the year 2023. Thus, this seems to be the right time to jump on the bandwagon and enjoy the rich results

🔹 With the proliferation of technology, especially in the last five years, music apps have been one of the most sought after apps and thus holds a great future ahead for the companies

🔹 Apart from providing music on-demand, the organization can woo the customers through other means such as including podcasts, movie reviews, etc. and increase customer retention

🔹 The music apps provide a synchronized library of music according to likes of the user. It suggests the users their favourite music numbers with the help of latest in-vogue techniques using artificial intelligence and big data.

Easy access to the internet around the world has rocketed the consumption of music online by the customers, and thus, the business world has seen a steep rise in the number of live music streaming apps in the recent past.

Music apps too have diversified themselves according to the needs and want of their targeted customers. Apart from music, now you can find podcasts, movie reviews, audio interviews, motivational lectures, etc. in the music apps.

Types of Music Streaming mobile apps

As people have different tastes in music, there are three major categories of music apps present in the tech realm.

🔹Radio Station: Various radio stations have gone digital in order to reach more number of audience as people these days prefer their phone over listening to a separate radio set.

🔹 Server-based Music Library: This kind of music app provides a plethora of options to the user. It offers unlimited access of music to the users under the free access or paid subscriptions which are already added in the app. Based on the subscription the users can download or create their own playlist here.

🔹 Cloud Storage: Here the music streaming apps let the user store their favorite songs over the cloud platform and listen to them whenever they feel like.

How much will it cost to build a music streaming app?

Various factors play an important part in deciding the estimated cost of an on-demand music app. The estimated cost depends largely on the features and the technologies that are to be integrated in the music app. In addition to this, the location of the music app development company you opt for as your partner, number of mobile OS platforms you want the app for, etc. also plays a vital role in determining the cost.

For example, the hourly rate at Eastern Europe is comparatively very low as compared to North America. Also, the rate in South-Asian countries, especially India is even lesser as compares to their European and American counterparts.

If you want to develop a music streaming app with the basic features, it will cost you around $25000 to $60,000. On the other hand, if you wish to include all the high-end features in your music app, it will cost you about $85,000 to $160,000.

How to Monetize a Music Streaming App?

After creating a heartthrob live streaming music app, it always comes down to the monetizing options. Every business wants to earn a truckload of money, and music apps are no different. You can monetize your music streaming mobile application in the following ways.

🔹 Subscription: In this method, the user will have to purchase giving out a certain amount of money if they want access to some of your exclusive app features. There will be different user subscriptions available from which the user can opt the one that works best.

🔹 In-app advertisements: If you wish to monetize your freemium app, in-app advertisements are the best options. While the users enjoy free music, they will have audio advertisements coming up in-between the track or advertisement banners while they open their app. If the user wants to not listen to these ads, they can upgrade their subscription model.

🔹 Promoting albums and Artist: In addition to the above-mentioned model, you can earn money by charging the artists. The monetization can be done when the artist wants to advertise on the platform and uploads a new song or an album. The app can also offer some free uploads to the new singers and charge them after they have uploaded their initial few tracks.

Business Model of Music Streaming Application

The music app market is expanding at a rapid pace and among the leading live music streaming platforms, Spotify has a market share of 36% while Apple Music has about 60 million subscribers. These mind-blowing numbers indicate just one thing that music streaming mobile apps are here to stay and are expanding their horizon with every given day.

In order to get similar results as the market leaders, businesses should look for an overall business model that would provide them sustainability as well as the opportunity to thrive.

🔹 Banking on exclusivity: Like many other businesses, you can make money with your on-demand music app if you thrive on timing. Buying exclusive rights of music labels or singers will give you the right to release their song first on your platform and thus will give you a boost to sail ahead of your competition.

🔹 Putting your A-game in technology: Including top-rated technologies such as AI and Big data will help you in rendering the best customer experience and will prove beneficial for the image of the company. With enhanced customer experience, you will also have a high customer retention rate as well

Features for a Music Streaming mobile app

Having had a look at the aspects and the opportunities that music streaming app development provides it has become more obvious that businesses would like to give a try at this idea. So, let’s check some of the basic and advanced features and functionalities and the various user types.

Must-have basic functionalities in a Music App

🔹 Smooth Registration: Ask for the minimum possible information and always have a tab where the user can use their Facebook or Gmail id to register. Using Facebook API for registration will make your job easier about finding the likings of the user. Have the information of the zip codes and the birth years, which will enable suggest playlist according to the area and age group of the user.

🔹 Search Bar: To find their favorite Music, artist, album, etc. users need to have a search bar. Make sure to keep the algorithms as simple as possible so that the users won’t find any trouble in searching for the music they like.

🔹 Social media integration: Allow the users to share their favorite music or album on a social media platforms. This feature would play an important role in enhancing your brand image by positive ‘Word of mouth’ publicity.

🔹 Music Genre Suggestion: According to the choice made by the user while logging in the app, the on-demand music app will suggest songs and music according to the language selected, age, etc. for starters and then build up according to the choices made by the user in the future. This will be based on a simple algorithm based on the selections suggesting similar ones from the selected categories and groups.

🔹 Admin Panel: Whether it is creating new feature playlists, managing the subscriptions of the user, or managing the in-app advertisements, an admin panel will be handy in managing all of these.

Advanced Features for an on-demand Music Streaming App

🔹 Providing Music Offline: Although the main feature of the music streaming application is to provide music online, there is a large chunk of users who will not mind music offline as well. Being offline gives them the luxury to have access to their favourite music, even with a distorted internet connection. Offline mode can be helpful for users to create their own list of music which they can listen whenever they feel like

🔹 Lyrics: To make the experience more wholesome for the users, you can have an option of lyrics in your on-demand music app. The lyrics will keep on highlighting as the song goes along and thus keep the user more engaged with you.

🔹 Events Calendar: While listening to their favorite music, the users can have a look at the upcoming concerts or live shows of their favorite singers and composers in the calendar section.

🔹 In-app voice assistance: For the convenience of your users, having an in-app assistance will help the users to search their favorite music is a simpler manner.

🔹 Creating public and private playlist: The user can create two different types of the playlist in their on-demand music app. Out of the two, one would be public and the other one can be accessed only by the user or the people they have given access to.

🔹 Intelligent Music Suggestions: An special feature specially designed and developed to suggest the most apt music based on the likes of the user-developed using AI and ML technologies to provide the best user experience.

Tech Stack for Music Streaming Mobile App Development

Below is the list of various technology stacks that you must use to build a seamless and flawless live music streaming mobile app

🔹 Language used: Java, Python, Kotlin, Swift4
🔹 UI/UX design: Angular JS, React JS, Cloud storage: AWS, Google cloud, Azure
🔹 Payment integration: Stripe, Braintree, Paypal
🔹 Real time analytics: Hadoop
🔹 Web app development: HTML5, Bootstrap
🔹 App testing: Fabric, CrashAnalytics, Jira
🔹 Push Notifications: Twillo, Bandwidth
🔹 Data Management: Datastax

App development team that will turn your dream into reality

For developing a state-of-the-art on-demand music app, you need a team of skilled developers and designers.

This elite team would work in tandem tirelessly according to the needs and requirements and develop a ground-breaking on-demand music app.
The team would have

• Project Manager
• Business analyst
• UI/UX designer
• iOS developers
• Android developers
• Back-end developer
• QA Engineer

Ending the tune

Business, be it in any form as all about striking the right chords and the realm of live music streaming apps is no different. If you channelize your resources, there are a plethora of ways to generate money by developing an on-demand music streaming app.

Music apps have great market penetration and they are the most used mobile apps after social media apps. An expert app development team is crucial to the success of your mobile app, you just need to find your groove, include the above-mentioned features in your app and get ready to rule the online music streaming world.