Music and its magic will never die. From centuries, people have been engaged with soulful melodies. And now in this digital age, you can choose any genre to listen to your favorite chartbusters. Moreover, users now have a simple user experience and quick access to music through modern technologies. A lightning-fast Internet connection and mobile gadgets only support this tendency.
And among all the latest innovations and digital music industry, Spotify became one of the pioneers across the globe. It has succeeded despite competition from well-known heavyweights like Apple Music, Amazon Music, and others.
This article is ideal for you if you want to find out more about music streaming applications or develop your own music app. The data analytics for the music streaming market, monetization techniques for song streaming apps, and instructions for creating a Spotify-like music app are all provided here.
Is building a music streaming app like Spotify a good decision?
As opposed to alternative options like downloading or physical carriers, more and more individuals are choosing music streaming. Because customers can immediately see the advantages of streaming, there is no need to wait for the download to complete before playing.
Given that you are not constrained by device capacity, the playlists are almost limitless. Because the sound quality was reduced to speed up file loading, streaming was less common until a few years ago. 
This is no longer a problem since streaming services utilize unique protocols to divide data into "bite-sized" portions that can load and play concurrently. To accommodate users with varying internet speeds, these protocols also permit the creation of numerous "streams" for the same content at various bit rates.
The three most popular protocols in use right now are:
- MPEG-DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP)
- Apple’s HLS (HTTP Live Streaming)
- Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC)
However, substitutes are developed often. Secure Reliable Transport (SRT), an open-source protocol developed by Haivision, is one of the latest solutions that is seen to be very promising. You can quickly evaluate the available protocols and pick the one that is most appropriate for creating a music streaming app like Spotify using all tech trends and advances.
Must-have features in music streaming app development like Spotify
1- Profile management (register and log in)
With all types of customization and base data, launching your own music streaming business is easier than you would think. Registration on the live audio streaming platform is also cheap and quick through social media networks for further memberships.
2 User profile authorization
Endpoints that can obtain all of the user's profile information are included, and to reduce spam interference, each user is authorized to access a database that contains information about them, including their email address and password.
3- Streaming audio
Learn more about audio streaming by exploring its intriguing platform and radio streaming software capabilities, which enable users to keep current on the most recent releases of hit songs. The newest album is available for anyone to listen to at any time on various audio tracks. 
4- Smart search tab
a platform that may be customized to handle each track according to the user's preferences for an effective comfort zone. Users can find up to N tracks and identify their favorites.
5- AI-based music suggestions
Naturally, listeners are more likely to focus on recently released suggested curative playlists that are distributed in accordance with their preferred genre, mood, and additional aspects. Builders of music streaming apps may effectively leverage artificial intelligence and improve user experience.
6- Playlist management
continually playing the user's favorite audio playbacks while managing the playlist as a whole by storing and altering melody tracks in online or offline mode.
7- Lyrical display 
You may enhance your user's outstanding listening experience with more interest by incorporating song verses in your online music streaming application. To keep users interested in your music app, you may provide a feature that allows lyrics to be shown continually while the music is being played.
8- Download/Offline
Through offline accessibility - downloading on any device - it is possible to listen to the selected tune whenever you want without using the Internet.
9- Advertisement
The key for Spotify to increase the income via music streaming monetization platform is undoubtedly the ability to monetize every audio streaming solution through advertising by providing banners or videos.
10- Push Notification
An essential component for connecting users to the app in order to maximize the benefits of the most recent updates from Artists, Community, and Friends on the app circle.
11- Events calendar
Customers may utilize this feature to find out when their preferred arranger or musician will be performing live or when podcasts will be released. This makes it easier for users to return to your music streaming service and avoid missing those live or recorded events.
12- Social media sharing
Allow your friends to hear your favorite songs by sending an email or social media invitation to everyone in your contact list.
13- Song writer profile
A tool that helps you recognize and appreciate each lyricist by adding extra credits and words of encouragement, as well as a way to find out who created your favorite songs.
Steps to build a music streaming app like Spotify
Now that you know the important features that should be present in our online music streaming app, it’s time to follow the step-by-step approach to it successfully:
1- Ideation & analysis
Perform thorough research on your rivals, target market, potential market, and other relevant entities. You will be better able to comprehend the demands of your audience and direct your efforts accordingly. Choose a topic and write down your ideas. Make appropriate app and business decisions.
Make sure your app meets the end goal of your business as it will allow you to clarify several concerns. You will require to focus on including a complete checklist for building the app while including the roadmap. Before beginning development, you should think about some of these challenges.
2- Obtain required licenses for the streaming
Since all music is covered by intellectual property rights, you must make sure that users are only given access to legal content. Public Performance Rights may be granted to you if you hold a certain license. For instance, Spotify distributes music under the following two types of licenses:
- Agreements for Sound Recording Licenses (which deal with recording rights)
- Agreement for the license of a musical composition (covers the performers or those who have the song's rights)
Obtain legal assistance and approval that is appropriate for the sort of app you are developing and your objectives. Avoid any issue by just streaming legal content. Although there may be a catch because licensing fees might be expensive, observing these rules is required.
3- Designing intuitive UI/UX design
User Experience Design (UX design) may assist consumers in avoiding being disorientated in the sea of music streaming applications by making them simpler to use and intuitive. The user interface's design is crucial as well. To establish the layout and architecture of your app, start by building wireframes. 
Mock-ups for the design, UI/UX, and general appearance and feel of the app are then created. Spotify’s UI/UX design is one of the strong reasons why people love it. And if you’ll be able to achieve the same, you will stay competitive for long time.
The majority of individuals who listen to music do not pay attention to the album covers (that would be odd), but effective user interface (UI) design may prevent them from becoming distracted by the cover's color scheme and help them concentrate on the proper music.
4- Choosing the right tech stack
Think about using JavaScript and Python, two of Spotify's developer tools, to create your own app. Additionally, PHP is used by Spotify for the server-side and Java for the back-end architecture. As previously mentioned, Spotify keeps all of the music files in the device cache.
Use a universal memory caching system, PostgreSQL, and Cassandra for this. By using the Spotify player SDK, you may add Spotify players to your app. Classes for managing streams and playing back audio are available in this collection.
Digital rights management, decoding, and all other negotiations with Spotify's back end are handled by it. Your development team could suggest various methods, depending on the precise feature set of your audio streaming app and your budget.
5- Frontend & backend development
The front end and back end of the software development process typically run simultaneously. For apps, the user interface is created by frontend developers. They are in charge of backend development, which includes terabytes of music data storage, direct streaming, user authentication, and how they link to iOS and Android. 
Before investing all of your money, you should make sure your selected course of action is still the best one by using an MVP (minimum viable product). MVP enables cost-savings, real-user feedback, and, in the best situation, even the beginning of ROI.
6- Testing & deployment
Once the app development is executed completely, you should go for testing and QA practices to make sure everything is working perfectly. If you can, test your apps in actual settings as well. Before releasing your app to people, gain hands-on experience with it.
These steps involve several more detailed processes and might need the collaboration among various team members, including designers, developers, quality assurance specialists, and project managers. Hence, the process will take time as well as resources to be handled seamlessly.
7- Launch & maintain
Once you're happy, you may publish your app on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. To increase app downloads, start gathering ratings and reviews and advertise your app. Following the launch of your online music streaming app, you should start gathering users’ feedback so you can adjust and add new features.
How to determine the cost of music streaming app development?
Knowing the cost of building an app for music streaming like Spotify requires examining a variety of aspects – features, additional integrations, UI/UX design, coding implementation, and testing as well.
Here is a rough estimation that might help you to determine the exact cost for your next music streaming app. (These figures can vary according to your requirements.) 
Given that you may save up to 60% on expenditures by outsourcing mobile app development, the location has a significant impact on the ultimate cost. If hourly prices range from $75 to $200 in the US or Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and particularly Ukraine, provides $35 to $50 per hour.
All of these crucial elements are then broken down into the number of hours required to create each distinct application function. If we're talking about creating full-format music applications, the price might reach the hundreds of thousands of dollars. 
How VLink help you build an app like Spotify for your own brand
It might be difficult to create a Spotify alternative app since it needs a lot of time, material, resources, tools, and knowledge. Building an app similar to Spotify may be challenging for a number of reasons, including complicated functionality (including video streaming), scalability, and music licensing.
Finding a gap in the market and filling it with an innovative and appealing app are the keys to success in this crowded industry. VLink supports your decision to create a music streaming app and would be pleased to help you with the design and implementation of your concept.
Along with a free consultation meeting, we’ll be happy to wash out all your concerns with our expert suggestions and help you reach a level of progress in the competition.
Frequently Asked Questions
We estimate the duration to be between 7-9 months if we're talking about an MVP version, which would have the essential functions plus your special selling point. This comprises conducting research on your target market and specialty as well as designing, developing, and testing. However, adding more complicated features like machine learning (for a sophisticated recommendation function) can extend that process.
Pandora and other music streaming services often rely on adverts as their primary source of revenue in order to grow their monthly active user base. These two are the most helpful when you build a music streaming app or website, assisting you in the long run to get substantial profit shares.
With the recent explosion of streaming services, a volatile hotspot for content producers and broadcasters has emerged. Therefore, many OTT and streaming apps set up obfuscating encryption and offer anti-piracy layers like restricting unauthorized access through password protection, geo-based content limitations, multi-DRM systems, and an integrated paywall to boost data protection and prevent theft.
