An intense workout, a relaxing walk, a lazy day at home… What could they possibly have in common? We are pretty sure the answer will be “good music”. And what is the easiest way to get it than to turn on your favorite radio station using a mobile device?
Internet radio apps like iHeartRadio, Spotify or Pandora allow you to listen to over 1,000 radio stations and choose from the widest range of music genres. Are you searching for new tracks? A single touch of the screen will help you discover your city’s radio stations. Or those at the other end of the world. In addition, you can also follow your favorite podcasts and download the most intriguing episodes for offline use.
Now, as never before, it became extremely easy to hold your finger on the pulse of the music world, all thanks to internet radio. This medium is gaining more and more popularity among smartphone owners, and mobile is the driver of growth and the future of listening. XappMedia research shows that mobile radio has obviously strong trends:
- 79% of music listening time occurs on internet radio,
- 95% of internet radio listeners access it via mobile devices,
- 67% of all music listeners access streaming services on a weekly basis,
- over $4 billion profit only by advertising (subscription is not included in these calculations).
Still need evidence?
How about the fact that you are no longer limited by the antenna? Internet access is the only requirement for listeners to stay in touch with their favorite station. Hence, they are reachable 24 hours a day, because most people have their smartphone nearby all day through. From now on, the whole world is your field of opportunities.
A person who is interested in listening to the radio does not have to buy new equipment or subscribe to expensive services. This attracts more listeners at a faster rate and channels you to audiences that traditional radio couldn’t find its way to. In addition, technological development has made it easier to enjoy music while multitasking.
Path to success
There are certain issues you need to consider for your app to prosper.
Licensing
Legal music streaming services require legal audio content. Even media giants find it rather expensive to stream music all over the world. So, the first thing you need to think about is where your application will be available. Then find out how much you’ll have to pay for the music license and calculate whether your app income will cover such investments.
Streaming
One of the topical issues in radio app development is where you will stream the music from. Also, you need to establish what database you will use and where you are going to store this huge amount of information. Instead of buying tons of hardware, it is more sensible to use a cloud to host your server and data. What is also advisable to take into account is the technology you want to use to implement a streaming feature, since it dictates the architecture you’ll need to build. One should not forget the core parameters such as speed and quality of the streamed audio. They depend on many factors such as file type, transmission protocol, encoding method, streaming system, etc. The developers of music streaming apps choose and set the above parameters on their own. The choice will mainly depend on the mobile platform and is app-specific.
User interface design
As for the radio industry, it is clear that only its content really attracts and keeps the audience engaged. When it comes to deciding what should go into the mobile app, you should not try to fit everything in. This can result in an app that is difficult to navigate because it’s overloaded with features that listeners don’t really care about or need. Hence, a simple and intuitive UI, a few really useful features and stability – that’s all you need for a successful launch.
Cross-platform functionality
What better way to show how much you care about your audience than to give them the choice of their OS and devices? Get your hands on the latest technology to bring the best out of your content. A newcomer under the name React.Native may come in handy in this case, since it allows to create one app which can run on different platforms simultaneously.
It’s not about smartphones only
While smartphones are one of the most promising devices for radio stations, they are far from being the only option. As more cars roll off the assembly line with Apple’s CarPlay and Google’s Android Auto controlling the dashboard, radio stations need in-car apps to maintain their presence in vehicles. With smart TVs and home streaming devices like Apple TV penetrating more homes, radio stations will want to be available there as well.
Choosing the right team
As our team noted, one of the most crucial issues in the development process was scattered and interrupted communication due to different time zones. When our business day was over, our American colleagues only came to work. Apart from other issues, you should pay special attention to that when looking for a software development team.
Well-established communication processes solve uprising problems faster and provide instant feedback. Even though there is a great variety of software solutions for remote work, the lack of communication is still a major drawback of a distributed team. If all team members are from different countries or even continents, it’s a big chance that they will struggle with managing time zones. In this case, it will be extremely hard to schedule meetings and solve problems quickly.
In addition, we may underline that if you have ready-made SDKs, it can certainly make life easier for software developers. However, if it contains errors, you will have to find ways to bypass them and/or wait until the SDK developer fixes it. Thus, hiring several teams may be both prolific and messy.
Double-check it
No matter how well the work is done, you should check your app before launching it. Of course, testing usually takes place throughout development. However, final system testing and quality assurance are essential.
Normally, QA engineers do not detect any critical bugs at this stage. You normally expect that they will be found and fixed at a previous stage of working on the project. Instead, they focus their attention on the elaboration of non-standard user behavior scenarios and the elimination of minor imperfections.
No pain, no gain
Today, almost everybody has a smartphone or any other mobile device. However, standard browsers and a small screen do not provide convenient access to the radio station’s website. This led to an increase in mobile app development for online radio. An app provides a simplified and more pleasant tool to access information from any place in the world. The large and growing audiences and favorable demographics – all point to a sector that is here to stay and will provide value for its users for many years to come.
