How To Create An App Like Spotify? | A Complete Guide

Spotify is the first name that comes to mind when someone mentions music streaming. A platform that every music lover recognizes all too well. We would go as far as to say, this is the most popular and widely used music app of all time.

There have been many attempts to replicate the success of this app and few of them like Apple Music, Pandora, & Amazon Music have succeeded to some extent. But this doesn’t end here. There are entrepreneurs and investors in equal numbers who want to create an app like Spotify of their own.

This is where questions like: is it a worthy investment? Should I develop a music streaming app like Spotify? How to create an app like Spotify? How much will it cost? And so on, come in.

If you find yourself considering this investment and surrounded by the same question, this blog is for you. Here, we shall be answering all of your questions and more. To simplify it, everything related to Spotify clone app development will be discussed.

By the end of the blog, you will know, all you seek answers to. So with this being said, let’s get right into it:

Music Streaming Apps Market Stats

Let’s address the biggest question first “Should you create an app like Spotify?”

Well, what better way to understand the worthiness of a venture than looking at its market and the potential it holds?

Let’s dive into the music app market, going through some of the most important statistics.

84% of Total Music Industry Revenue Comes From Music Streaming Accounts

Music industry is vast, with billionaire musicians like Taylor Swift, Madonna, and Drake.

One might assume that the trillion-dollar industry gets its revenue from concerts, music videos, or some other grand way like that.

But if we are to believe what Forbes says, majority of revenue as much as “84%” comes from music streaming accounts. Amazing, right?

Yearly Revenue From Just Music Streaming Has Surpassed $17 Billion

Music streaming revenue accounts for the majority of what we saw in the previous state. This is a trend that started somewhere back in the mid-2000s with the introduction of online music streaming services.

And it was in the last decade of 2010-2020 that the industry realized its full potential, growing 34 times from $0.4 billion to $13.6 billion.

And as per IFPI, just last year – 2022 – music streaming revenue crossed the $17 Billion mark. Future is even better as we will see….

By 2025, Revenue From Music Streaming Will Surpass $30 Billion

If you think the revenue made in 2022 was amazing, just wait until you hear music streaming industry will generate in 2025.

Trusted source, Statista shows us that revenue from just the music streaming niche of the entire industry will reach $30 Billion by the year 2025.

Meaning if you create spotify like app, you can have a good chunk of this growing industry.

Every 4 in 5 People Use Music Streaming Services

If you are looking for reason to invest in Spotify app development, popularity of these apps is a big one.

You see, the majority of the people, 4 in 5, use music streaming apps or/hand services. This amounts to 78% of people.

In The US alone, More Than 1 Trillion Songs are Streamed On Demand

The United States is probably one of the biggest markets for Spotify-like apps. Reports from Music Business Worldwide show more than 1 trillion songs were played via on-demand audio streaming.

And around 200 Billion songs were played on video-streaming apps like YouTube. These numbers are only expected to grow much more in the coming future.

These are some statistics that show the factors that drive investors towards Spotify-like app development. Now, before we discuss more about that, let’s first look at the different types of music applications.

Types of Music Applications

Did you know there are different types of music apps?

Spotify like app development is just one of the several forms these solutions take. In this section, we shall be looking at these different types.

Therefore, let’s get right into it:

1. Music Streaming Apps

The first is the most popular form, music streaming apps.

This covers popular apps like SoundCloud, Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, Tidal, Amazon Music, and so on.

Working with these apps is quite simple, as they let users play music on-demand. Depending on the app, they can be free, fully paid, freemium, and so on.

But we don’t really need to define this one, do we? Speaking of which, let’s look at the second type.

2. Dedicated Apps for Music Bands

Even in the age of individual artists gaining all the fame, music bands are still super popular. And for the fans who want to follow every update of their favorite band, we have apps for music bands.

This is a form of community app development applied to music bands.

With music apps like these, fans can get updated on the latest events, buy tickets for concerts, send a fan letters to their favorite members, buy merchandise, and so much more.

3. Podcast Apps

Recent rise in the popularity of podcasts is no secret.

People across the world are consuming podcast content in video and audio form like no other. And the content creation is at the same pace.

With this, podcast app development has become a worthy venture to invest in. In fact, some of the larger companies have already created their own podcast applications like Podcast from Apple, Pocket Casts, and Google Podcast.

4. Music Discovery Apps

The next up, we have a music discovery app.

Has this ever happened, you are listening to some music on the radio or heard it playing in a store, loved it, but can’t name it? Well, this is where music identification apps come in.

We are talking about app like Shazam that will hear the music and identify it for you. There is a lot that goes behind making the mechanism work.

5. Music Editing Apps

We have wandered off a little far from discussing apps like Spotify, but bear with us.

Here we have music editing apps. As the name suggests, these are the applications that let users create remixes, mash two music clips together, overlap them, slow them down, and many more things.

These aren’t the most popular music applications, but they are used fairly commonly.

6. Music Learning Apps

Lastly, we have music learning apps.

Stepping into the realm of Edtech apps, music learning apps are dedicated to teaching users various instruments and songs.

For instance, apps like GarageBand for Apple let users play this instrument virtually with instructions. These can even be used to create music, overlaying different instruments.

These are the common forms of music app development. And with this out of the way, we shall be looking at the top music streaming apps in the market.

Top Music Streaming Apps in the Market

• Spotify
• Apple Music
• TIDAL
• Amazon Music
• Pandora
• Deezer
• SoundCloud
• Google Play Music
• Slacker Radio
• YouTube Music

What is Spotify App?

Spotify is a music streaming app that doesn’t need an introduction.

This digital music platform serves the basic function of on-demand music streaming services, letting users play songs, video songs, and podcasts.

An excellent example of an innovative music app, the app is embedded with AI-powered algorithms, predictive mechanisms, and a database of millions of songs, with hundreds of new ones added each day.

As a music streaming service, it is not limited to the mobile app, users can also access their Spotify account on, computers, tablets, smart speakers, car multimedia systems, and so on.

The basic features of this platform are more than enough, but if you are looking for it also has a premium subscription, which is something. That’s why, Spotify premium has more than 200 million subscribers, TechCrunch & Spotify.

When comparing it to other music streaming applications in the market, we see the clear magnitude of pure dominance Spotify exercises. To just show a glimpse, Spotify has more than double Apple Music’s subscribers.

In 2023(source):

• Spotify’s monthly users went up by 26% to 574 million.
• Platform added 16% more subscribers, total number reaching 226 million.
• With this growth, the total revenue reached €3.4 billion, exceeding expectations.

Amazing right? These are the reasons why so many people want to build an app like Spotify.

Speaking of which, if you want to experience the true brilliance of this music streaming platform, download it and use it for yourself.

Apart from the web, it is also available on iOS App Store and Google Play Store.

Moving on, let’s look at the features that every app like Spotify should have.

Important Features To Have In An App Like Spotify

“How to create a Spotify app?” is a common question. But what people should be asking is, what are the features that should be included in an app like Spotify?

Here’s why: developing a mobile app is no big deal, however, what’s difficult is to make app successful among people. This is where features play a big role.

So, to push you in the right direction, we shall be going through some of the top features that every Spotify clone app should have.

These are, as mentioned below:

1. Registration

Registration is the core functionality of any cross-platform and on-demand app.

Users can register on the platform using their phone number, email, Google Account, or Apple Account. Once they have registered, it will just be a one-click process to log in next time.

As to why this is an important feature when create an app like Spotify is that it enables cross-device data synchronization.

When a user log in with their credentials to any device, they will find their recommendations, playlists, and favorites, right in front of them.

2. Profile Creation

Registration and profile creation are two entirely different processes, regardless of their inter-relation.

To make it simpler for you, once the user is registered, they may or may not choose to create a profile. If they do, they can set their birthdate, location, profile picture, favorite artists, songs, recommendations, and notification settings.

This helps the music streaming platform make the user experience and personalization a lot better. Thus, making it an important feature of Spotify app development.

3. Authentication

Your music is your own business, and to keep people out of it, Spotify-like apps come with an authentication feature.

Manual or biometric authentication adds an extra layer of security to the music app. Though some might see it as over-the-top, it becomes quite important when the user has paid for a premium subscription.

4. Music Streaming

No music app is complete without this feature.

Music streaming functionality lets users listen to their favorite music without the need to download it.

It’s quite hassle-free and one of the basic functions of every music streaming application for various obvious reasons.

5. Search

As the name suggests, this feature in apps like Spotify enables users to look up new music.

The fun part is that advanced search functionality makes it super easy to do that.

You can find the particular song with the album name, song title, artist name, and record company, and if you don’t remember either of those, just look up a part of the lyrics.

6. Playlist Creation

Another important feature of every music streaming app is playlist creation. This is an absolute booster of user engagement.

This functionality enables users to create a playlist. They can either add music to the list as they go or they can use the dedicated playlist creation feature to make it in one go.

Or, they can use a mix of it.

7. Social Sharing

What is social sharing, you ask?

Well, this feature lets users share the music they are listening to on apps like Instagram & post it on their stories.

The social sharing feature has become a norm today and is a good way to use a vast user base of social media to advertise the platform.

8. Offline mode

Offline mode is a user’s favorite feature.

As it is evident, this feature enables the user to save their music offline to play when they aren’t connected to the network or even Wifi.

This lets users access all the offline music and playlists, with the condition that their phone is running. More often than not, this is a feature that is offered in the premium package.

9. Push Notification

Push notifications are the bread and butter of market campaigns.

Here’s how it works: this feature enables the app’s team to send alerts and notifications to the user. This isn’t just used for promotions.

It also informs users that whenever there is a new album release, their favorite song is available, or they need to renew their subscription.

10. Recommendations

Based on the preferences that users have fed the app, their music streaming history, favorite artists, listening time, and other such factors, Music streaming apps use AI & ML technologies to drive personalized user recommendations.

This is an industry 4.0 level feature that every music streaming app like Spotify should have on their feature list.

11. Lyrics Display

Don’t you hate it, when you can’t understand just that one line of your favorite song? Well, with the music streaming application solution you don’t have to scour the internet looking for lyrics.

Rather, the lyrics display feature will display real-time lyrics of the song within the app. This saves a lot of time and mental gymnastics.

12. In-App Messaging

This is a rather advanced music streaming app feature.

In-app messaging is a feature that has made place in some of the best music streaming applications over recent years.

As you might have already guessed, this enables the user to chat with others. They can share music, listen to music at the same time, and such things.

This is yet another feature that drives user engagement.

13. Music Event Calendar

Lastly, we have a music event calendar feature.

This is a feature that is more suited for music apps for bands type of solution but can be embedded into music streaming solutions too.

What this does is, it shows the user calendar of upcoming music fests and events based on their location or presence.

These are the important features that you should include when you develop a Spotify like music app. And with this, it’s time to discuss how you can create a music application like Spotify in the section below.

Steps To Create an App Like Spotify

Finally, it’s time to develop a Spotify clone app.

So, how do you create an app like Spotify? Well, the mobile app development process is rather simple but for those of you who are new to the concept, here’s an overview.

Therefore, we shall be going through everything that you need to do before app development, during and after it.

With this being said, let’s get right into it, starting with the first step:

Step 1. Market Research & Analysis

Mobile app development starts with an idea. Once you have it, we need to get a little more technical and start with market research.

Mobile app market research is an essential part of learning about competitors, barriers to entry, market situation, forecast right time to launch the app, and many more things.

The information gathered during the market research phase works as the fuel for the entire development process.

As a general rule of thumb, the more effort and resources you put into research and analysis, the higher the chances you have of creating a successful music streaming application like Spotify.

Step 2. Finalize the App Features

We have discussed the importance of features before, and here we will discuss it again.

So the question is, how do you choose the right feature for your Spotify application? Well, this is where the information about the target users you acquired in the previous step comes in. The platform should have features that cater to your target audience.

In addition to this, for the app to be smooth and innovative, there should be a healthy mix of basic features & advanced features.

Another option is MVP development.

MVP stands for minimum viable product which works as a mockup app. It can be used for cross-checking the concept and get approval from the stakeholders. Or even generating investment for the project.

Step 3. Choose Platform & Tech Stack

With music streaming app features done, it’s time to get a little more technical. There are two things we need to deal with, the first one being, the “app development platform”

There are three major options here.

You can either go to native platforms, choosing between Android app and iOS app or you can go with the cross-platform option to create a hybrid app.

Choosing the right platform is super important as it not only affects the cost of creating an app like Spotify, but also the Look and feel, Performance, and Market Performance of the app.

Done with this, we will move to the tech stack.

First of all, what is the mobile app tech stack? It refers to the set of technologies used for mobile app development. This covers everything from programming languages, and toolkits, to frameworks, and testing tools.

Again, choosing the right set is super important as it can affect everything related to the music streaming application.

Step 4. Designing an App Like Spotify

When it comes to UI/UX Design, there are hardly any apps that compete with Spotify. If you want to replicate it, you need to hire mobile app developers who are experienced and more importantly creative.

The design of a music streaming app should be easy to navigate most of all. But it should also have the right amount of creative aspects that keep users in awe.

A unique mix of your app’s personality and creativity is what gives birth to the perfect design that represents the platform in full glory.

After all, it is next to impossible to drive user engagement on a music streaming platform without a good design.

Step 5. App Development

It’s time to create a Spotify app clone.

This is the part where dedicated developers will be writing the source code, combining the different parts of the app together, integrating APIs and other third-party components, and making the app as functional as visually appealing.

Due to the amount of work put into developing an app like Spotify, this step is the most time & resource-consuming part of the entire development.

For that reason, it is recommended that you as a client maintain good communication with the development team. This helps ensure the product is turning out how you want it.

Step 6. App Testing

Do with developing media streaming apps like Spotify? It’s time to test it.

Mobile app testing is a complex process on its own. Though the testing process walks parallel to the development process, there’s a final round of testing to ensure the quality of the app.

If any inconsistencies, bugs, or errors are found, they are fixed up. This is also a step where final changes are made, if any, from the client side.

Once all of this is done, the app is sent for deployment.

Step 7. Deployment

It’s time to launch your version of Spotify into the market.

Now, this is quite a simple step, but the process to deploy highly depends on the app development platform.

This is to say that, steps to submit iOS app on app store are different from the process to publish android app in Google Play Store.

In any case, the time it takes for the app to be approved is 2 weeks. While the Android side is quite lenient on their guidelines, don’t expect any lookover from Apple, they will disqualify the app for even slight diversion from guidelines.

Speaking of which, while waiting for the app to be deployed, you can start the mobile app marketing process.

Step 8. Post Launch Maintenance

Work doesn’t end with deployment.

To make sure the app doesn’t seek to the bottom of the ocean of millions of apps in the market, you need to maintain it.

This is where mobile app maintenance & support services come in.

So, this is the entire process of creating an on-demand music streaming app. And with this done, let’s see how much this product will cost you.

How Much Does It Cost To Create an App Like Spotify?

So, how much does it cost to develop a music streaming app like Spotify? Well, much like any other mobile app development cost, it depends on a range of factors like complexity, features, platform, tech stack, and so on.

On average, Spotify-like app development cost ranges between $20,000 and $60,000. Here, a simple app development cost is between the range of $10,000 and $20,000. On the other hand, the cost of developing a complex app starts at around $19,000 and goes up to $41,000.

To give you a better idea of it, here’s a table with a breakdown of the cost of develop an app like Spotify.

Too complicate? We suggest that you contact a Music Streaming App Development Company that will be able to provide you better cost breakdown based on your project needs and preferences.

Moving on, now that we are done with the cost to create an audio streaming app like Spotify, let’s see how you can make money with it.

Monetization Models To Create an App Like Spotify

The main goal of every any business is to make money. And it remains the same when someone creates a music streaming app like Spotify.

But the question is, how do you make money with a Spotify-like app? Well, the answer is “mobile app monetization”.

Different strategies are used to employ different aspects of the app in revenue generation. Not every strategy is suitable for every platform.

Therefore, to make it easier for you, here are some monetization strategies you can use to generate revenue.

1. Paid Membership

Have you ever used Netflix? This OTT app is the best example of paid membership, or what we call subscription-based apps.

In order to access the content of the platform, you need to first subscribe to one of many plans. In the music world, Apple Music has been employing the model for a long time now.

Moreover, if your platform has a strong user base, this monetization model can be super beneficial.

2. In-App Ads

If you have ever used a music streaming app, you already know what in-app advertisements are.

These are the small personal sections you see embedded in the app interface and the advertisements you hear between the songs.

For users this is a small price to pay, getting a free music streaming app with millions of songs. And for the platform, these are millions made in revenue while keeping the app free.

This is a strategy for every major music streaming app like Spotify employees. Therefore, you must consider including this in your app too.

3. Freemium Model

This is a mix between the two strategies we discussed above.

Freemium word stands for half-free and half-premium. In other words, the basic version of the app is free for everyone to use, but they have to endure in-app advertisements.

On the other hand, if they choose to go for Ad-free listening and access the latest releases, they must buy the premium plan.

Done right, the freemium model can be a great revenue generation strategy.

Here’s a report that supports the statement: Ad-free listening is the top reason for paying for a music streaming platform as per IFPI.

In addition to this, people are willing to pay a monthly price of up to $10 as per Forbes for the subscription.

4. Coupons and Promotions

Coupons and promotions are a rather fun monetization strategy that adds a lot of excitement to the platform.

What you can do here is: start a referral program, where if someone downloads for user’s shared link, they get credit or some form of reward.

On the other hand, you can charge artists and companies to promote their music on your platform. This can generate a lot of revenue. After all, music streaming is driving the entire industry’s revenue.

5. Data Monetization

Lastly, we have data monetization.

So, what does this mean? If you have ever heard of big data that is used in industry-wide research and analysis, how is it generated?

That’s right, through apps like Spotify. With a large user base, these platforms are perfect hotspots to generate data.

So, these are the app monetization strategies that you can use to generate revenue through your app like Spotify.

How Nimble AppGenie Can Help You Build an App Like Spotify?

Are you looking for the right development partner to create an app like Spotify? Nimble AppGenie is here.

With award-winning app development projects, we are a well-known on-demand app development company. Our teams of experienced developers have vast experience in music streaming app projects that perform well in the real market.

One of the popular music streaming apps developed by Nimble AppGenie is Nujaxx. It is a music streaming app in the UK market that takes a unique approach. It comes with amazing features like discovering new music, My Studio – where users can personalize the app, vouchers & deals, and much more.

What makes us the perfect Entertainment App Development Company for your music streaming app project is our creative approach and dominance over the world of codes.

In addition to this, we deliver affordable solutions, meaning with us, you can get market-leading apps like Spotify, without burning a hole in your pocket.

So, if you want to create a Spotify app, contact us, and we will assign a team to your project within 24 hours.

Conclusion

Music streaming apps like Spotify and especially Spotify show us how much potential there is in the industry. This is something that statistics back, as today, more than 80% of revenue is generated via music streaming.

It shows the growth, revenue generation potential, and big push to create app like Spotify. And this is what has led people to read this blog. Here, we discussed all you need to know about developing an app like Spotify.

Now, if you want to create such an app, there are a few things that you must keep in mind, the first one being the value proposition, features, revenue generation potential, and development cost. This will decide whether your solution is the next big thing in the industry or just another addition to the number.

For more help on this, we can contact a vetted mobile app development company, their expertise will give you a pathway for the development of your music streaming app like Spotify.

FAQs

Niketan Sharma

Niketan Sharma is the CTO of Nimble AppGenie, a prominent website and mobile app development company in the USA that is delivering excellence with a commitment to boosting business growth & maximizing customer satisfaction. He is a highly motivated individual who helps SMEs and startups grow in this dynamic market with the latest technology and innovation.