We are living in a world where music has shifted to online streaming services. All we need to do is to stay connected to the internet and we are able to stream and enjoy any type of music in seconds. And therefore, building an online streaming app idea is booming every passing day. The online music streaming services are competing to offer unique features to sustain in the market and it needs very extensive research.
Moreover, these types of music apps also offer various kinds of paid services that may include ad-free or downloadable content. Further, these music streaming apps made our music-listening experience much easier. Nowadays, we don’t need to get hard copies of our favorite songs but require an internet connection. Also, these music streaming apps can be accessed from any mobile device, tablet, or other smart device.
So, if you have made your decision to start a business and develop Music Streaming Application like Pandora, you must understand the below-discussed aspects. These aspects are crucial to estimate the cost to build On-Demand music streaming app like Pandora. This analysis is crucial before you get into a business as you must know how much it requires you to invest. Moreover, the cost is not one time when it comes to creating a mobile app.
The cost further is impacted by app maintenance, marketing, and more factors of post-development. And hence, many things should be kept into account. Moreover, while investing in an On-Demand music streaming app Development Company, make sure they have a strong portfolio base and experience in the same domain. You can also hire On-demand app developers who are skilled professionals.
Download the E-book to dive in the Music Streaming App Development
Must-have Features to make an App like Pandora
User interface
The interface of your music app should be very pleasing and easily navigational. There should be clean animations that are capable of providing a modern looking layout.
Browsing the music
The search section of the streaming service must be capable of the latest filtering. Moreover, it must be intuitive to provide users with what they exactly want. You can also offer manual filters on the basis of songs/artists/albums, etc.
Registration
The first thing that the user should be greeted by is the registration page. This page will require users to create an account by entering the necessary details.
The playlist
After successful registration and logging in, users must get a minimally-designed homepage where they will get their playlist. When connected to the internet, your app can also recommend some trending music.
Notifications
If the app is connected to any form of social media, then you should enable the push notification. These notifications are the only way to let users know about the latest developments of the app.
Social media integration
The music streaming app should also allow users to follow the artists. This way they will be able to get the latest songs as soon as they are uploaded. The users must be provided the option to share the playlist with their friends and on social media platforms.
Offline playlist
There are multiple times when users will be in someplace where they would not have any internet access. So, it’s better that you offer the users to download their favorite track in the device cache to listen to them offline.
Quality
The actual size of the music, if played as it is, will take a long time to play without buffer and will also consume a lot of data. To prevent such a problem let users decide their desired quality. The general rate people use 128kb/s whereas the Wi-Fi users go with 320kb/s.
Personalization
The app must keep switching to different themes with the personalization feature. This will be done using the usage history and pattern of the user.
Bitrate
One of the very important factors of the music streaming apps, bitrate is what makes the song download and play within seconds. The format is called M3U8; the only problem is that it comes with an expiry time.
Few Additional features
Apart from this, you can also provide event booking with integrated calendars, chat function, different radio stations, keeping a favorites tab, etc.
Music intelligence algorithm to Make an App like Pandora
When you install an app, especially the ones that track your likes and dislikes and recommend the content, you should know that they work on algorithms. These algorithms are implemented in 3 different ways, the first one is seeding the data by the user and the app stores it for future recommendations. The second one is based on the analysis of the audio using different software. Moreover, the 3rd i.e. the last one is an integration of both of them into one.
So, if we take Spotify as an example, it uses Echonest in order to analyze all the music data. This platform works over 400 music streaming apps. It further uses them to collect the data based on users tapping the like and dislike button. Moreover, the algorithm also tracks if the user continuously skips some songs.
Cost to build On-demand Music streaming app like Pandora
Are you trying to make an app like Pandora that can offer the same or even more features in comparison to the competitors? If you want to develop a Music Streaming Application like Pandora, your first question would be how much it will cost you. Well, you will need to understand the price divisions before you do anything as such.
Aspects that impact Cost to Create Music Streaming Application like Pandora
On-Demand Music Streaming App Development Cost basically depends on:
How complex will your app be?
Is it going to have a few crucial features or advanced features as well?
Will your app require an iOS or Android platform?
Are you using the newest and updated technology stack?
Are you hiring a developer from your country or other?
Starting from scratch, an MVP (i.e. Minimum Viable Product) will only be integrated with very basic features. It will cost you around $10,000, and the same finished product for the iOS platform will require around $15,000+. If you are developing a music streaming app for the Android platform only, it will solely cost you over $20,000.
App Development Cost for Music Streaming App also depends on the application platform (iOS or Android or both). However, using modern technology, you can build your music app for multiple platforms at a single time that is called cross-platform app development. This way, on-demand music streaming app development cost will fall somewhere around $35,000.
These price evaluations will be effective if the app developer is charging you $25/hr on an average. Other than that, the portal and user interface development will need around 140 hours whereas 40 hours will be needed for the backend development.
The UX designing will take at least 50 hours to design the app. Also, hire mobile app developers who can understand the briefing just the way you want. One thing that you should keep in mind is that if an experienced developer is charging you a bit higher, you can go for it as it will be cheaper in the long run. And hence, depending upon the discussed aspects, the cost to create a music streaming application like Pandora varies.
Conclusion
The business of music streaming services is booming. And hence, you can earn profits by offering some advanced features to users that pay for your app. On the free version, you can display ads and use multiple other solutions in order to generate revenue. Also, the cost to create music streaming applications like Pandora is further impacted by the maintenance costs, marketing costs, and more.
You must keep all the aspects in check while estimating the app development cost for Music Streaming app. Thus, now when you have everything in place, it’s time to start the execution of your idea. So, build a music streaming app now with the help of an on-demand music streaming app Development Company.
Sanjay Kidecha
CMO
by Sagar Bagsariya
by Manav Patel
by Mihir Mistry
by Drashti Pandya
