How to Create a Music Streaming Mobile App: Music Streaming App Development

Remember the time when you used to visit the Internet cafe to get new songs on your iPod or Walkman?

Seems like a long time ago, doesn’t it?

Well, with the introduction of music streaming mobile apps, the way we listen to music has changed completely. We are just a click away from downloading our preferred music streaming app and listen to our favorite track, anywhere and at any time.

According to technavio, the global music streaming service market is expected to grow by $10.01 billion from 2019 to 2023. This growing popularity is the result of the convenient services provided by these apps and the value of the money they offer to their users.

If you are thinking of developing a music streaming mobile app, then follow the below-mentioned steps and you are good to go.

Let’s begin.

Popular music streaming mobile apps

Before developing a music streaming app, you need to learn about your possible competitors. Some of the popular music streaming mobile apps available in the market are:

Spotify

Spotify is amongst the most downloaded music streaming apps. According to Statista, in 2019, 35 percent of music streaming subscribers worldwide had subscribed to Spotify. It is delivering service to about 100 million subscribers.

Spotify is available in both free and paid versions. Free accounts offer a wide range of music collections but have some listening limitations and ads while the paid account offers premium services like ad-free music and offline streaming.

YouTube Music

YouTube music is available by subscription. According to Statista, the YouTube Music app was downloaded over 5.2 million times from the Google Play Store and nearly 1.5 million times from the Apple App Store in 2021, making it the world’s leading music app.

YouTube Music provides both video and audio mode to its user and can search songs using snippets of lyrics. It is popular for its enhanced audio quality and listening experience. This music app is available for both Android and iOS users.

Apple Music

Apple Music made approximately $4.1 billion in revenue in 2020, accounting for 7.6 percent of Apple’s total services revenue, according to Business of Apps.

This app offers a great collection of songs for users from all over the world. You can also listen to the local radio station using this app.

Apple Music is available for both Android and iOS users.

Points to consider before developing a music streaming mobile app

Types of music streaming services

Before starting the development process, you should decide what type of music streaming service you want to build.

Some of the popular music streaming services are:

Music Media Libraries

Media music libraries allow the user to have unlimited access to songs on a monthly subscription payment basis. Using this service, a user can avoid expenses on purchasing individual songs or albums.

Examples: Spotify, YouTube Music, Apple Music

Cloud Storage

This platform allows users to store and manage media in cloud storage and stream them anywhere and any time they like.

Examples: CloudPlayer, AudioBox, Beat

Radio Streaming Service

Radio streaming services provide an automated search for music to be delivered to users in the form of genre playlists, artist-centric lists, curated lists.

Examples: Apple Music, iHeartRadio

Platform

Now that you have decided what type of music streaming service you want to build, it’s time to decide on the platform.

There are two types of platforms: Android and iOS. If you are tight on your budget then choose your platform according to your targeted audiences and their preferences. For example, if you plan to develop an app for US customers, choose iOS, similarly choosing Android for UK customers.

If you want to stay competitive and have the budget then develop an app for both platforms. This will help you gain more users.

Licensing

For using the music content in your music streaming app, you need to get a Public Performance License.

If the app is for US users, then you need to apply for the license in any one of these agencies:

1. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)
2. Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI)

For UK users, apply to The Society of European Stage Authors and Composers (SESAC).

Skipping this step can lead to huge fines from a minimum of $750 up to $150,000 per one song played.

Build your app: Essential features for a music streaming app

A music streaming app should have the following features:

Registration

Users can register and log in to the app via email, mobile number, or social media account. Also, include the “Forgot Password” feature to make your app more user-friendly.

Profile

This feature will allow the users to manage their personal information, make playlists, and update their payment details.

Search

Search is a mandatory feature as it will allow users to search for songs. Users can search for the music by artist, title, album, recording studio, or genre.

My music

For the users to save their favorite music, albums, mark artists, and create playlists.

Share music

This feature will allow users to share their favorite tracks with other users.

Push notifications

This feature will notify users about a new song release, new trend, a new artist, or app updates.

Settings

Settings will allow users to change audio and app settings such as selecting streaming quality, music language, click behavior, among others.

Along with these must-have features, you can also incorporate these advanced features:

• Recommendations
• Offline access
• Uploading media
• Social media sharing

Team and tech stack required for building a music streaming app

It’s time to gather the team. Here is a list of team members required to develop a music streaming app:

• Business Analyst
• Project Manager
• UI/UX designer
• Android developers
• iOS developers
• Back-end developers
• QA engineer

Coming to the tech stack, these are the following technologies required for developing a music streaming app:

• Programming languages: Python, Javascript
• Frameworks: Hadoop, Apache Storm, Hub Framework
• Server: Nginx
• Cloud storage: Amazon S3, Google BigQuery
• CDN: Amazon CloudFront
• Database: PostgreSQL, Cassandra

Conclusion

According to Research and Markets, the music streaming market is expected to grow by $ 7.47 billion during 2021–2025 progressing at a CAGR of 19% during the forecast period.

The music streaming market is growing with every minute passing by and it surely is a great time to invest in building apps like Spotify and Pandora.

Now that you know almost everything about developing a music streaming app, it’s time to partner with the best app development company across the globe.

Jellyfish Technologies is a reliable mobile app development company. It provides both native and hybrid mobile app development services for Android and iOS.

Java vs Kotlin: The Best Framework For Android App Development

A recent report published by Statista indicates that the number of smartphone users worldwide has crossed 3 billion and is forecasted to further grow by several hundred million in the next few years. We’re officially in the era of smartphones.

As a result of the growing smartphones market, the mobile app development market has become highly competitive, making it hard for developers to choose the right framework for their mobile apps.

Unfortunately, a one-size-fits-all or a one-size-fits-most approach is not the best one when it comes to choosing a framework for Android app development. This is because there is a sea of mobile frameworks available to serve multiple needs.

Java, Kotlin, React Native, Xamarin, Flutter, Corona SDK, and Ionic are some of the popular mobile app development frameworks.

Because of the overwhelming framework options that exist today, most businesses struggle to choose a framework that meets their specific project and business requirements.

There is no quick fix when it comes to Android app frameworks.

Of all the frameworks available, Java and Kotlin seem to rule the Android app development industry lately. This post compares these two frameworks for Android app development.

Lets’ begin with a small introduction to both the frameworks.

JAVA –

Java is one of the most well-known programming languages that has been in existence for 24 years. It tops the list of the most popular programming languages of all time. In fact, it is one of the most used frameworks by developers.

According to a recent Statista report, JavaScript and HTML/CSS were the most commonly used programming languages among software developers around the world, with nearly 68 percent of respondents stating that they used JavaScript and 63.5 percent using HTML/CSS. SQL. Python, and Java made it to the top five most widely used programming languages around the world.

Do you know why this popular programming language rules the enterprise programming language field?

Thanks to big tech giants like Google, eBay, and Amazon that are primarily using Java to build their Android mobile applications, it has become a ruling framework in the enterprise programming language realm.

How Java works:

Java is a platform-independent framework that works on the principle of ‘Write Once & Run Everywhere’.

It is concurrent, class-based, and object-oriented, meaning that it is easy for developers to attain fluency with this programming language. It requires executing an engine, compiler, and a set of libraries.

Believe it or not, most of the syntax used in this framework is derived from C & C++.

Kotlin is a general-purpose, modern programming language that introduces functional features to support Java interoperability. It aims for heightened productivity and improved coding experience.

Although Java has an undisputed reputation of being ahead than Kotlin and most other frameworks due to its long existence, there was a need for a newer framework that could fill the gaps that Java leaves.

Kotlin –

Kotlin proved to be that modern app development framework which turned the tables.

Do you know that it is now the official language for Android apps? Google officially announced this big news at Google IO in May 2019.

A recent developer survey for Kotlin by JetBrains suggests that the framework is being targeted by developers most (the figure is 66%) for Android app development. It further indicates that Kotlin is used mainly for new projects (96%), and only 38% use it for pre-existing projects.

How Kotlin works:

Based on JVM, this modern, open-source framework is completely compatible with Java stacks. This concise programming language is a combination of object-oriented and functional programming features and can be used everywhere Java is used.

Java vs Kotlin in Android app development

Let’s compare the two popular frameworks on different parameters now:

1. Development speed- Developing a mobile app is an expensive process. One way to keep the costs down is to keep the app development time down. The faster the app development speed, the lower are the costs. Here’s a comparison of the development speed in Java vs Kotlin.

Java- If you choose Java, you will probably have to type more code than in Kotlin for the same task. But what’s important to note here is that you will have to spend less time thinking of the solution in this case than in Kotlin. Also, despite being a highly verbose language, it provides type safety which catches all potential errors at compile time rather than at runtime.

Kotlin- Although Kotlin has more cognitive load than Java, it requires typing fewer codes. Moreover, it has clean and intuitive syntax. But it would require you to spend more time thinking of the solution. It generates a byte-code that’s essentially the same as Java byte-code, meaning that there’s no measurable difference. It does not have any runtime semantics (over and above Java) or meta-programming, which means its performance is very close to that of Java. It has more laconic constructions which means you can control the coding speed by writing expressive codes.

Verdict:

It’s a draw.

Since both of them run on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), it would be somewhat naive to say or ask which one of the two offers faster development. There’s no noticeable difference between the two frameworks in terms of the speed of coding. Both offer the same speed of development.

If you prefer to write more codes but spend less time thinking of the solution, Java is your best choice. And if you prefer to write fewer codes, while spending more time thinking about the solution (i.e you’re a fantastic abstract thinker), Kotlin is your best bet.

2. Community support- Imagine you face a problem while using either of the two frameworks for your Android app development. What do you do? Where do you go? Well, this is where community support comes into play. Let’s look at the community support in Java vs Kotlin for Android app development.

Java- It has a solid and active community support since it has existed for a long time. There are many online Java-related resources available to help Java programmers. Stack overflow, Oracle, and Java Ranch are some of the most popular Java communities that exist on the web, ensuring long-term support for the programming language. The Java developer community boasts in-depth information on Java technologies and aims to bring you up-to-date on any new development.

Kotlin- It doesn’t have very active community support when compared to Java. This is because the framework has been in existence only since February 2016. Yet, its global community is growing fast with its contributors increasing by every passing day. Though younger than Java, Kotlin has evolved into quite an established framework now. It further aims to become a rich ecosystem with an extensive range of community libraries soon.

Verdict:

In terms of community support, Java is clearly ahead of Kotlin, simply because it is an old framework that has existed for quite some time now. Kotlin, on the other hand, is a newer framework with a not-so-evolved community support.

3. Extension functions- These functions allow methods defined outside of a class to be used with objects of that class (using the ‘.’ notation) as if they are part of the class. Without them, adding functionality to a class isn’t possible without modifying the entire class. Let’s look at the extension functions in Java vs Kotlin for Android app development.

Java- Extension functions, although available in many other programming languages and frameworks, aren’t available in Java. Think about a class like String where adding functionality is necessary. Unfortunately, extending classes to add functionality by adding new methods is not possible in Java.

Kotlin- Unlike Java, Kotlin has extension functions which allows developers to extend a class with new functionality. It is easy to create an extension function in Kotlin. All you have to do is prefix the name of the class that needs to be extended to the name of the function being created. In order to call the function on the instances of the extended class, you will need to use the ‘.’ notation.

Verdict:

Is Kotlin better than Java? No.

It’s all about your personal preference.

If it’s crucial for you to be able to implement features in a way that enables you to reuse them without the need to implement complex functionality, then Kotlin is a better choice. Also, if it is necessary for you to add functionality to an existing class in a way that it doesn’t require you to modify the entire class, Kotlin is your best bet.

Still confused?

If you do not want to miss out on the advantages of either of the two frameworks (discussed above) for Android app development, there’s a way around.

You can use the two frameworks interchangeably to get the best of both worlds.

How?

You have the flexibility to use them simultaneously in your Android app development project by calling Java code from Kotlin and vice-versa since both frameworks compile to bytecode in the end.

Although there are several differences between the two programming languages in terms of stability, community support, null value, code conciseness, and extension functions, among others, they are fully interoperable.

As a leading provider of mobile app development services, Jellyfish Technologies knows the trade-offs of each framework and can help you select one that will meet your business needs in the best possible way.