6 Tips to Make Your Own Music App (and Not Fail)
If you love music, you’ve wondered whether or not to make your own music app. If you want to build music streaming apps, you have to consider the cost and technical requirements. It might not be easy, but it can be very rewarding.
How to Make Your Own Music App
If you want to build a music app, start by calculating the cost and determining the features you want to have.
1. Determine the Cost
The cost of an on-demand music app depends on various factors, but the most significant cost driver is the features your app will have.
Where you will host your app can also affect your budget. Whether you create a music app for android or Apple, your development partner, your technology, and where you will build the app can affect the cost dramatically. Building an app in India or Eastern Europe is much cheaper than in the USA or UK.
A high-end app can cost anything from $80,000 to $200,000 to develop, but a more basic version using outsourced developers off-shore can cost less than half that amount.
2. Decide How to Monetize
Before you ask yourself how to make a music app, ask yourself how you will monetize it. Unless you want to invest all that money and create your own music streaming app as a passion project, you probably want to earn some revenue from your efforts. You can charge a monthly subscription (like Spotify), charge per download like iTunes, or charge in-app advertising fees on impressions. Some apps don’t focus on music fans, but charge artists fees for promoting their music. It’s a good approach if you are passionate about developing emerging artists and already have good contacts in the industry.
3. Determine the Basic Features You Will Need
Next, scope the basics you will need, including registration, search bar, social media integration, music suggestion algorithm, and an admin panel to handle payments and accounts. If you can use the Facebook or Gmail API for registration, you’ll have a much better chance of success. Algorithms can be pretty simple to design, but make sure you have programmers that have worked with them before.
4. Determine the Advanced Features You’ll Need
You could get away with a very basic app, but if you want to stand out from the crowd, you should add a few more advanced features. Having your music available offline or including lyrics can make a big difference to your user experience. If you are promoting emerging artists with your app, you might want to include an events calendar as well.
Lastly, you could use artificial and machine learning technologies to provide more advanced music suggestions. Think of your unique value proposition. Why should someone download your app and not the competitors?
5. Choose Your Tech Stack and Programmers
Now that you know which features you want to have on your app, you can start looking for developers that match the tech stack you’ll use. It could include programmers skilled in Java or Python, UX and UI designers who work in Angular JS or React JS, payment integration partners like Stripe or Paypal, app development languages like Bootstrap, etc.
6. Hire Your Team
You may want to hire an offshore app development team to build your MVP (minimum viable product) and advanced features. It’s much cheaper than hiring an in-house team. Besides, you won’t need a full app team after your app has been built. Once you have your minimum viable product, you can hire a few in-house designers to look after your maintenance and bug fixes. Opt for an agency with experience in designing music apps that can provide a portfolio of past work. You don’t necessarily want to go for the cheapest option. Hire a team with the right experience that matches your budget.
If you want to make your own music app, don’t delay. The digital music market is expanding rapidly, making it much harder to enter the market. Think of what will make your app unique and find developers to help you build it. There’s no reason why you can’t create the next iTunes or Spotify!
