- Building An Android App With Spotify Embedded Playlists
- Download Spotify App For Android
- Spotify Download For Android
- Building An Android App With Spotify Embedded App
- Spotify For Android
- Install Spotify App
The purpose of this post is to tell the story of the new Spotify web player. How and why it came to be. We will focus on what the steps were that led to a complete rewrite and how the lessons learned influenced the experience and the tech decisions of the new web player for desktop browsers.
Spotify App Remote Direct local.aar file dependencies are not supported when building an AAR #271.
- Spotify is a digital music service that gives you access to millions of songs. Spotify is all the music you’ll ever need. Listening is everything - Spotify.
- . IE 11 or above. Must be on Windows 8.1 or above. Tutorial and Examples. We provide a beginner’s tutorial to help you get started with the Web Playback SDK. It leads you through the creation of a simple web app that makes a Spotify Player instance that can be controlled through Spotify Connect.
Using the Web to implement Spotify applications at Spotify
Spotify has been using web technologies for a long time. Before tools like Electron became a reality for building hybrid applications, Spotify started using Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) in 2011 to embed web views on the desktop application. This made it easier to build and iterate on different parts of the application without having to perform full releases. It was also the foundation used to integrate a myriad of third party apps built using web technologies, what we called Spotify Apps.
Spotify’s web player was released in 2012 and complemented the experience on desktop devices. It made it possible for users to play music from Spotify as quickly as possible, without needing to download and install any application.
The architecture of the web player followed the same approach as the desktop application. The views were isolated from each other using iframes, and this allowed the teams to iterate on and release them without interfering with the rest of the application.
In addition, the code for the views was identical on both desktop and web player. Thus, the team working on the Playlist view would implement a new feature, and make it available on the desktop application and the web player, without having to care about the underlying infrastructure.
The architecture of the web player was ideal for consistency between platforms, and fit how the company was organized in feature teams. It also had its drawbacks.
Having iframes for every feature and having that feature load their own JS and CSS might have worked well for the desktop application, which the user downloads bundled with all the resources that it needs. The web player, on the other hand, had to download many resources every time the user navigated between views, which resulted in long load times, which impacted user experience.
Considering a new Web Player
Over the years, we got better at prioritizing a core set of features. With the rise of smartphones, we learned how to strive for removing clutter, properly A/B test features and understand better what was really needed to deliver a good user experience.
In the summer of 2016 we decided to improve the web player. We realized that the architecture of isolated views was difficult to maintain and was preventing us from building a better product. We wanted to go back to basics and support a set of core features (eg playback, library management, and search) and work our way from there.
We found inspiration in the Spotify application for TV and video consoles. This application is a web-based Single Page Application, and uses the Spotify Web API that combines the access to lots micro services to create a unified interface to manipulate Spotify data. It represented a good example of a light client being built by a single team leveraging existing libraries at Spotify.
We researched the feasibility of upgrading the web player, rewriting view by view. In parallel, we started working on a prototype following a similar architecture to the TV application.
After considering the two approaches, we decided on the latter.
Usually as a company we try to improve existing systems iteratively instead of completely replacing systems with new ones. There were a few key points behind the decision to rewrite the new web player from scratch versus improving the existing one:
- The system to deliver the code for the views, that worked in isolation from each other, wasn’t used by the desktop application anymore and it was too complex for the web player use case.
- The web player was based on lots of libraries and frameworks that were quite outdated. Giving every team an isolated environment to run their code also resulted in them choosing different client-side stacks to build their views.
- The web player was built by multiple teams with over 40 developers but now would be maintained by a dedicated team of 5 developers.
- It was very slow to iterate upon and experiment, especially when it came to making changes across multiple views like updating the visual style.
The birth of a new Web Player
We decided not to repeat the mistakes of the past, so before deciding the feature set that the new web player should have, we ran A/B tests on the existing web player. For some users we removed certain features and we measured their impact in user engagement. After getting the results we decided on the bare minimum feature set that we would feel comfortable with releasing and that our users would enjoy.
We built a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) in a few weeks using our new infrastructure based on Spotify’s Web API. During the following months, we carried out extensive user testing and improved the prototype based on the gathered feedback. Once we felt comfortable, we released it to a small percentage of users side-by-side with the existing web player, and checked the performance amongst them closely.
Our hypothesis was proven. The simpler and faster web player outperformed the old web player in all key metrics.
The tech architecture
The new Web Player is in line with the overall Spotify look and feel and is built on HTML5 standards. It drops Flash in favor of Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) for music playback, which is supported natively by most modern browsers. It is fast, even on spotty connections, responsive and we have focused on making it enjoyable to use.
The architecture is based on React + Redux, which has made it easier for us to share components between the views, to have a clear data flow and to improve debuggability and testability. Although the components are not shared with other Spotify clients, we see a trend in other Spotify web development teams who are also embracing a similar approach to building web experiences.
Making the decision to embrace well-known open-source solutions and avoiding using Spotify custom libraries allowed us to onboard new developers quickly. This has led to numerous contributions from web developers from all over the company.
Having a simpler architecture allowed us to experiment faster and add features that didn’t exist in the old Web Player, like Daily Mixes, video and audio podcasts, and Connect. On top of that, we were also able to build fast CI/CD pipelines. Now with every commit the latest version of the web player is reaching our users immediately. Finally, we have a web player leveraging today’s technologies. As an example, we added support for Progressive Web App on Chrome OS, so the web player is installed and run as a regular desktop application.
We are excited to continue building a good product for our users on the web.
The Web Player team.
Everyone likes music. The tempo of life is getting faster and faster. Often there's no time to go through an entire list of music tracks and purchase the ones you like. Fortunately, audio streaming applications have changed the way we listen to music.
With modern technologies, we get effortless user experience and receive music in a matter of clicks. Mobile devices and a stellar speed Internet connection only compliment this trend.
If you want to learn more about music streaming apps or create a music app, this article is right for you. Below, we share the music streaming market statistics, song streaming app monetization strategies, and how to make a music app like Spotify.
Read on!
5 Steps to create an app like Spotify
Step 1. Consider the main Spotify-like app features
A music streaming app includes such features as registration and signing up, music organizing, music discovery, social sharing, push notifications, and music library.
Step 2. Choose licensing type
As for Spotify, the platform has two types of licenses including Sound Recording License Agreement and Musical Composition License Agreement.
Step 3. Find music app developers
Choose a team that will build an app like Spotify for you. There are a lot of factors for you to consider. You also should check the portfolio of your music application development company.
Step 4. Develop an audio streaming app UI/UX design
Now, you and your development team should agree on how the future app will look. For that, you need to create an app Wireframe, Mockup, and Prototype.
Step 5. Create audio streaming app MVP
At this stage, you will decide on your MVP (minimum viable product), and all the other details with your development team and you are ready to go.
Why consider music streaming
If we're talking about music services - there are typical online radio stations and music streaming services, like Spotify. That's how people enjoy quality, easy-accessible sound spots.
What's more, people globally shift to their mobile devices to do pretty much anything. Phone calls only use a fraction of the time people spend on their cell phones.
But there is more!
- The global music streaming market is growing steadily — the global subscriber base is expected to reach 2.81 billion by the end of 2025.
[Image source: Goodwater]
- Music Streaming Application Market is expected to reach $17.50 Billion by 2025
- Statista said 14% of the population use paid music streaming services several times a day.
[Image source: RIAA]
- There are 186.7 million digital music users in the U.S.
- Spotify has over 200 million active users, more than 109 million paid subscribers, and about 40% of the global music streaming market
Did I mention that 72% of Spotify users are millennials, who, it seems, were born with mobiles in their hands?
Driven by advantageous technologies, the music streaming industry continues to grow. Therefore, the development of your live audio streaming app might be a great idea.
Current Leaders of the Sound Streaming Market
There are three leaders in the sound streaming market, including
- Spotify with 36% market share
- Apple Music with 19%
- Amazon Music counting 12% market share
Now, let us take a closer look at each of them.
[Image source: MIDA]
Spotify
Being a pioneer in the music-streaming market, Spotify is the best-known music app. The app has 109 million premium subscribers and 232 million monthly active users.
App users receive access to different music services. They include Discover Weekly playlists and experimental ones, like the Australia-only station.
Spotify has Facebook integration, which allows users to share with their Facebook friends. Besides, this feature enables Spotify users to share their music easier than competitors.
[Example of Spotify interface]
Apple Music
Apple Music is the second most popular music streaming app. It provides users with plenty of features and a discount for families and students. In June 2019, Apple Music had over 60 million paid subscribers, and 50 million songs in the library. All Apple devices, including Apple HomePod, are compatible with this app. Still, unlike Spotify, the app does not have robust sharing options.
[Example of Apple Music interface]
Amazon Music Unlimited
Amazon Music is an advanced version of Amazon Prime Music, provided to Prime subscribers for free. For an extra payment, users receive access to an expanded catalog. Amazon Music recommends playlists grouped around artists the user already listened to. Also, the app shows the song lyrics on the 'now playing' screen.
[Example of Amazon Music interface]
To conclude, Spotify is not alone in this online music thing. Other significant players are Apple Music and Amazon Music.
All music streaming services have a lot of benefits, including:
- Quick access to music
- Affordability
- Unlimited storage
- Social engagement
As you can see, all these services appear to be outstanding because of these common features- they are effortless, intuitive, and easy to use.
The Killer Idea Behind Spotify
To give you a clear idea of how to start a music streaming service, let's discover the inner logic behind Spotify.
- Spotify stores music on various servers
- To stream a random track on your mobile, Spotify finds it on one of the millions of servers and sends it to your device
- Servers, in this case, are computers and all other gadgets of Spotify's subscribers
This concept is more effective than hitting servers with requests to download the track. At the same time, you become an essential link for the global social music sharing network, which is engaging too. And, it enables users to listen to all this music legally by paying royalties to authors.
Now, let's learn how to build a music streaming app and make it profitable.
How to Make Money with a Spotify-Like App
Music streaming services, like Spotify, have two main ways of earning; premium account and running ads. Let's check how Spotify applies these strategies.
[Image source: Statista]
Premium Services
The premium Spotify account provides users with free access to unlimited music across other devices. Besides, the app allows temporary downloading of songs for offline access and plays the highest quality music. There are several types of paid plans, including:
- Student plan cost $4.99 per month
- Regular account - $9.99 per month
- Family account - $14.99 a month
Ad-supported Services
App users with a free account can listen to a limited among of songs on demand, which may be interrupted by an advertisement. By using this business model, Spotify charges advertisers a cost-per-click and cost per mile fee.
According to their site, Spotify spends a significant chunk of money to pay royalty rewards to artists.
[Image source: Statista]
Read also: How Do Apps Make Money?
This concludes how to earn with your Spotify clone. You have to become a part of 'back to paid music' preachers, deal with authors and provide your users with a good deal of music value for their membership.
Critical Features to Include in a Spotify-Like App
If you are looking for ideas on how to make an app like Spotify, consider the following app features:
Registration / signing up
First, a user should be authorized to use your system. Users can register in Spotify via email or social media like Facebook.
Make sure you take this step very effortless for users. Connect it to social media and you get new subscribers in a matter of taps.
Music organizing
The app should provide features of grouping one's music, etc.
So, users can create playlists for different purposes, like current activities and genres.
Music Discovery
To motivate users to engage with your app more often, you need to provide them with personalized content. And here is where Spotify has a great competitive advantage over other services.
Spotify uses an AI-based recommendation algorithm that selects songs for the Discover Weekly section. Spotify developers created their own powerful discovery engine.
Let us check how it works.
For Weekly Discovery recommendation, Spotify uses three types of recommendation models, including:
- User crossovers with the listening history of other users
- Natural language processing. In Spotify, this technology works on the Echo Nest API. It learns about the music genres by analyzing the text and looking at similar terms associated with the artist across the Internet. Kafka manages the data in real-time.
- Deep learning to analyzes the raw tracks. For this, Spotify applies' convolution neural network.' This deep neural network learns from experience using only raw data input.
All things social
This feature allows users to share songs with friends and highlight favorite tracks on a social feed. It's also going to serve your app with a good deal of word-of-mouth advertising at the same time.
Read also: How To Develop a Social Media App?
Push notifications
Push notification is a deciding feature for such a social community based on follow-ups and spreading content. People want news from their favorite sources; that's how it works now - users wish to have valuable personalized benefits from your service.
Music Library
Unfortunately, this feature is absent in Spotify. Because of this, users can not host or upload their tracks and create a music library. The only option is to create personal playlists and subscribe to music channels created by other users.
At the same time, this feature is available in Apple Music. It allows users to add and synchronize songs on their devices and in-app playlists. Users can store a certain amount of songs on their app for free or upgrade to a premium plan.
Building An Android App With Spotify Embedded Playlists
To give you a clue of how to make a music app, and even better app than Spotify, consider this function as well.
Now, let's find out, how to build a music app.
Where to Start: Your Guide to Making a Music App like Spotify
Now, let's dig deeper into the process of music streaming app development. Below, we share a step-by-step guide on how to make a music streaming app, together with cost estimations.
Check this out.
Ideas are everything
For music app development, you need to specify the whole concept of the app. In order to do this, find a similar application, and of course, think of something that makes your app special.
Licensing
When developing a music streaming service, you need to get a license to provide your subscribers with legal audio content.
As for Spotify, the platform has two types of licenses for music distribution, such as:
- Sound Recording License Agreement, covering recording rights. Spotify uses licenses received from the big three record labels - Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment Group, and Warner Music Group.
- Musical Composition License Agreement. This covers the rightful owners of the songs, managed through two main firms in the U.S.-BMI and ASCAP.
When looking for an answer on how to make your own music app, do not forget to get such a license.
Find music app developers
Now it's time to come to the actual work and choose a team that will build an app like Spotify for you. There are a lot of factors for you to consider. To estimate how much it costs to develop a music app like Spotify, check developer rates among regions:
- USA/Canada-based dev teams - $50 to $250/hour
- Western Europe - $30 to$170/hour
- Eastern Europe - $25 to $150/hour
- Australia - $50 to $150/hour
- India - $10 to $80/hour
You also should check the portfolio of your music application development company. From the beginning, communicate with your team to make sure you're on the same track. At the APP Solutions, we usually hold meetings with our clients on a regular basis via Skype.
See also: How to Outsource App Development?
Plan & Estimate
This market has significant potential, but that's not enough to run and spend all you have for a killer application. You need to run a study and learn about your target audiences' preferences. Then, communicate your business idea to your development team. The team will come up with some technological solutions, cost estimation, and project requirements.
Develop an audio streaming app
UI/UX design
Now, you and your development team should agree on how the future app will look. Here, you can offer the design team some ideas, if you have them.
The necessary process of the music app design creating includes the following stages.
- Wireframe. The team will create a black and white app that shows the general concept of the app.
- Mockup. The team develops colorful but static screens of the future app. Mockups include icon design, button shapes, spaces, etc.
- Prototype. The team creates an interactive model of the app that shows how the app acts. As a rule, prototypes give you an option to tap, swap, drag, and see the result.
Choose tech stack
To develop your Spotify-like app, consider Spotify developer tools, like Python and JavaScript. Besides, Spotify uses PHP for the server-side and Java for back-end structure. As we said, Spotify stores all the music files on the device cache. For this, use Cassandra, PostgreSQL, as well as a general memory caching system.
When looking for a clue on how to create a music streaming service, take into account that Spotify uses the following technologies:
Download Spotify App For Android
- Kafka software for real-time data management and processing
- GraphWalker for model-based tests and Python integration
- Amazon S3 for cloud-based music streaming
- Dataproc for platform infrastructure
- Chromium embedded framework for building UI for desktop application
- Bootstrap for web app development
- Nginx as open-source HTTP and proxy server
- C++ for Windows/Mac clients
- Java for Android music streaming app
- Objective-C for iOS music streaming app
How to make a music streaming website?
You can empower your app with Spotify players by integrating Spotify player SDK. This library contains classes to stream management and audio playback. It takes on all the negotiation with Spotify's back-end, digital rights management, and decoding.
[Spotnews screens]
We did such integration for our recent project, SpotNews. SpotNews is an audio streaming platform that provides personalized music content. The idea behind the app is to allow users to listen to their favorite songs while reading the news sections.
We also used:
- Spotify SDK for authorization via the Spotify user profile
- Java Android SDK, Retrofit, Fresco, Crashlytics, and Realm to provide smooth app performance
- PHP, Silex, MySQL, Composer HTML5, CSS3, Twitter BootStrap, Jquery, Bower, Less, Nginx to moderate the news feeds via the Admin Panel
Spotify Download For Android
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Create audio streaming app MVP
At this stage, you will decide on your MVP (minimum viable product), and all the other details with your development team and you are ready to go.
When looking for ideas on how to create a music app, consider the following features for your music streaming app MVP:
Feature | Integrations | Estimation in hours |
Registration / signing up |
| From 32 hours |
Profile user |
| From 36 hours |
Social Share | From 15 hours | |
Personalization | Pick-up algorithm that will choose the next music track for each individual user. Use ML to find appropriate songs for users | From 100 hours |
Music player |
| 70 |
Track search |
| From 32 hours |
Playlist manager |
| From 60 hours |
Total | From 345 hours |
The average development cost of a music streaming app like Spotify is about $40-50K per platform.
For a more detailed estimation, you can use our project cost calculator. Now you know how to create a music app like Spotify.
You might also like: HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO MAKE AN APP?
Take it to the test
After the application is ready, the team does in-depth testing to ensure the app runs smoothly. We usually implement it right after the app is prepared and approved. Plus, three months after release our developers can fix any issues occurred for free.
Wrapping up
Building An Android App With Spotify Embedded App
The music streaming app market is growing, and its revenue is expected to reach $17.50 Billion by 2025.
Spotify is the leader among music streaming apps. It uses a raft of modern technologies to provide users with relevant music content.
While music streaming is a hot trend, you have a chance to get your share of the music streaming market, as Spotify did.
Spotify For Android
But, to achieve success with your app, and be ahead of competitors, you need to get started asap.
The last thing that remains is to find a development team. And we are here to help.