A beginner’s guide to developing music streaming app like Spotify

As time passes, the music streaming industry has evolved. The golden days are gone when people used walkmans and CD players for listening to their favorite songs. Nowadays, music streaming apps are the recent trend that has become an integral part of everyone’s daily lives. 

Undoubtedly, every person likes to enjoy music irrespective of any situation, be it happiness or sadness. Therefore, demand for music apps will never go out of trend. With such an app, people can choose and listen to their favorite music with almost a few taps. This ease of convenience is the predominant reason behind the popularity of a music app like Spotify.  

However, the online music streaming industry is valued at US $20.9 billion in 2019. It will be expected to grow at 17.8% in the course of 2020 and 2027. As the growth and popularity of music apps are elevating at a fast pace, establishing a grand venture with a Spotify Clone app will be a great idea.  

14 Factors to consider before a Spotify Clone app development process

• Market study

Prior to proceeding with the implementation of a Spotify Clone app, you should have to be precise about your target audience. Make sure to be aware of their geolocation, gender, music preferences, age, and other required details. For instance, not everyone has the same music preferences. 

Furthermore, concentrate on the strategies of your competitors. Thereby, you will come to know their shortcomings also. As a result, you can avoid those mistakes in your app. However, you can check the users’ feedback in your competitors’ apps to have a clear vision of the users’ demands.  

Most importantly, you must be aware of the recent market trends. This is because coping up with the trend is one of the crucial factors to stay updated and draw attention from a user base. 

• Unique selling point (USP)

Even though you plan to replicate the same concept of Spotify, it would be better to include unique selling points. This is to make your music app stand out from its rivals. Therefore, prefer to choose the new, unique, & appealing features for your target audience. The must-have features which you never opt out of are listed below.

• Search 
• Playlist
• Quick registration
• Play offline
• Push notifications

• Platform for app launch

Next, you should decide on which platform to deploy your app. It is suggested to choose a single platform. Later, you can consider the remaining platforms. The popular platforms are Windows, iOS, and Android. To choose a suitable platform, you need to keep your target audience and business requirements in mind. 

• App’s functionality

Before proceeding further, you should know the workflow or functionality of the music streaming platform. Let’s see now. Users must create their accounts to use the platform. They can choose the manual sign-up process by entering their username and password. Or else, go with an automatic process using social media accounts. After that, they can search for the songs and play them unlimitedly. They can even create their own playlists with a set of songs and play online. Besides this, they can download the song and listen to it offline.   

• Copyrights 

Make sure the music content uploaded in your Spotify Clone app is legal. Furthermore, you have to pay a specific share from the revenue you earned to the right holders. Get rid of the legal issues and launch your music streaming app. 

• Intuitive design

Besides having appealing features in your app, an engaging user interface is the most important element. When the design is not fascinating, there is a high chance that users will switch to other music streaming service apps. So, keep in mind to deliver the app with a simple yet attractive user interface.

• Technology stack

Selecting the right technology stack is mandatory for developing a Spotify like app. Ensure that the technology stack you choose is not outdated. Moreover, the tech stack varies depending on your business requirements, including features. Standard and popular technologies include the following. 

• Swift (iOS), Java/Kotlin (Android)
• Backend – Node.JS
• Front end – React.JS
• Database – MongoDB
• Server – AWS or Google Cloud
• Payment gateway – PayPal or Stripe

• Revenue streams

You can monetize your app by implementing various revenue streams. Some popular streams include in-app advertising, subscriptions, and memberships. Despite this, the freemium model is the common and effective way to generate revenue from a music app. Ensure to choose suitable monetization strategies based on the selection of your business model.  

• Budget planning

The cost of music streaming app development is a variable parameter that differs based on the business requirements. On a rough estimate, the following factors will influence the app development cost.

• Features & functionality
• App size & complexity
• Technology stack
• App platform
• UI/UX design
• Geolocation of the app development team/company
• Third-party service integration

Above all, creating a music app from scratch requires a large investment compared to developing it using the Spotify Clone Script, a ready-to-launch solution. 

• Suitable technology partner

When it comes to implementing your app idea, choosing the right technology partner would be essential. So, your app will be crafted in such a way that it is capable of ruling the music streaming industry. 

• Minimum viable product

To avoid money and time loss investing in developing an app, you can choose to prefer a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). It would be quite cost-effective rather than developing a fully functional end product. Though MVP is crafted with basic features, you can get attention from a user base. Upon getting user’s feedback and analyzing reports, you can improvise the app’s performance. 

• App testing

It is the crucial stage in the app development process. Make sure, your app will be rid of technical errors, issues, glitches, and bugs. The app has various testing stages to ensure a seamless user experience.

• App promotion

In the meantime of Spotify Clone app development, you can start creating brand awareness for your target audience. Social networking apps are the popular medium in which you can promote your app. So, it will reach out to a broad user base.

• App launch

When everything is set, it is time to submit your app on the chosen platform. Once done, it will take a few more days for approval which will be dependent on the app’s quality. 

Final thoughts

The online music industry is growing at a rapid pace. One eye-witnessing example is Spotify, with more than 155 million subscribers, ruling the industry. Thus, choosing to launch the Spotify Clone app loaded with user-friendly features is the best decision that you could ever make in the current lifestyle.