Want to hear an interesting fact? Soundcloud, the company we are using as our reference for our article today was valued at over half a billion dollars back in 2017. And considering that it is still surviving to this day, we think Soundcloud is the best reference we can take when it comes
music streaming app development in today’s era.
Just think about it, music as a medium provides one of the best, if not the best revenue model for any app development company. Music is what touches people’s souls, and wouldn’t that be great if you could have a stake in it?
This could potentially mean endless growth for you and your company.
Before we go any further, I would like to have your attention on the below-mentioned points. These are some of the statistics that we have acquired just for you all, our dear readers.
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Soundcloud was evaluated at 500 million dollars in 2017
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Soundcloud had a direct growth chart that lasted for 5 years
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Soundcloud dominated the industry from 2012-2017
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In 2020 Sound cloud generated more than 218 million dollars in a single year.
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It has over 76 million users as of 2021
But not everything is as great as it seems. Since 2017, SoundCloud has seen a drop in its user base and is no longer the undisputed champion of the audio industry.
Why is that? And how can you make your app do better?
These are some of the questions that we are hoping to answer in our today’s article.
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Soundcloud: And the Introduction
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How To Create Music Streaming App Like SoundCloud?
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Conclusion
So, now that we know what is waiting for us, well, let us not keep the information waiting.
Soundcloud: And the Introduction
Back in the year 2010, if there was one platform that rightfully held the title of the “Next-gen system for musical artists”, then it was Soundcloud.
Soundcloud was inherently different from almost all other music platforms.
For example, let us take Spotify.
Spotify has the same industry and niche as Soundcloud. It caters to a large market of music lovers. What these two platforms differ in is the relationship they hold with their users.
Spotify allows the streaming of labels and their catalog.
While Soundcloud on the other hand works on the kinda the same model as YouTube. Any individual can upload their music.
This makes Soundcloud extremely unique in its approach to the music industry as many artists just focus on Launching their albums exclusively on that platform.
Yeah, it means you cannot get that music from anywhere else.
This attracts a large number of artists from all over the world and music enthusiasts. And people say original music is a thing of the past. Soundcloud has a few words for you.
And yeah, Soundcloud is, free. Anyone can become a creator and upload their music on the platform. The only caveat here is that they should be owning the rights to distribute the music. But then again, if you are the creator, then by law you have the right to do whatever the hell you want with it.
But, it’s a very rare thing that the trait which blew up SoundCloud, led to its fall.
So many people were using SoundCloud that it created its subgenre of music, such as SoundCloud rap.
But many artists and rappers signed deals with labels that were not lucrative. The lack of real-world industry knowledge led to a limited brand tarnishing of the SoundCloud app.
Today, less than half of Soundcloud accounts have been deleted due to inactivity.
At one point, there were 150 million, and today, less than 75 million still consider themselves as active members.
This is a huge fall for any platform, especially for an industry giant like SoundCloud itself.
But that’s enough sob stories. Let us focus on how you can create a platform like SoundCloud and avoid its pitfalls. This brings us to the second major topic of this article, which is:
How To Create Music Streaming App Like SoundCloud?
Creating an app like Soundcloud is a herculean task. Creating an app is hard anyway, and when we have someone that is focusing on
creating an app like SoundCloud itself, then it is safe to assume that we are going to have our hands full on this one.
So just for safe measure, here are the points we have to work on:
1) Align Your App’s Features with SoundCloud
A better terminology will say that you should align your vision with SoundCloud’s but we already know that.
It is always the features of the platform that make it more special than anyone else.
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What sort of feature are you looking to cover?
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Is it going to be registered?
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Is your business model going to be similar? Will you improve it?
For example, let’s say that the App we are creating will have the same business model as SoundCloud. That means most of the content and creation of content is free on my app, with a few restrictions on the number of uploads.
If someone wants unlimited uploads then they have to join the premium membership program.
This is just an example of how we can take the reference and apply it to our app.
2) Reverse Engineering
Don’t get intimidated by this word. It means breaking down whatever it is you like about your reference and applying it to your product. Which in this case is going to be SoundCloud as a reference.
Take whatever it is that you love about SoundCloud and break down what makes it so special.
Once you have the gist, then apply it to your app.
3) Choose a License
This is the field of Legal Jargon, so we will simplify it for you. As our reference is Soundcloud, this platform uses Creative common’s type of licensing. This is where you can choose which licensing model can be the best for your business model.
We don’t have to copy everything that SoundCloud does, so why not go deep into this one?
For example, Spotify, which is another Music Streaming platform, uses a sound recording license agreement and a music composition license agreement.
4) Find Professional App Developers
There are going to be numerous benefits to hiring professional app developers. Mostly including:
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Smooth workflow
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Improved MVP (Minimal Viable Product)
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The better end product
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Higher accuracy with vision
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Boosted technical support
App developers are what change the entire game for your business. Just like books need professional editors, apps need professional app developers. It’s a rule of thumb to never skip out on hiring professional app developers.
Conclusion
When we think about it, SoundCloud’s story is like that of an old tale. It has its rise and fall. It makes one wonder how can we do better. Well, now you know. Thank you for reading this article. We will see you, next time.
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