Recently we crossed a significant milestone- more audio content is now streamed on-demand than played from albums (both online and offline). And if we talk about audio listeners- which basically include all of us, there are two kinds of people- the ones who actively choose one track after another and the ones who prefer a laid-back experience. It is the second category that is responsible for the majority of streaming activity and consistent growth.
Overall the current state of the industry reflects two things very clearly:
The radio streaming services are set on a growth trajectory that doesn’t seem to be slowing down any soon.
These services attract deep-pocketed advertisers- meaning there are ample revenue opportunities waiting to be exploited.
See Related: Why and How to Upgrade Your App with Video Streaming Capability
For any business, that’s all the assurance needed- growing market and financial opportunities, to start a new venture. But as you would expect, these opportunities aren’t without challenges. With juggernauts like Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music, among others in the race, there isn’t any room for cutting corners. So if you do decide to build a radio streaming application, do not forget to:
Offer Exceptionally Good Quality Music
MP3 is dead so don’t bother even exploring the possibility of the format in your app. Opt for the AAC+ format with relatively higher bitrate but not so high that it takes a toll on streaming speed. Depending on the market you are targeting, this is one aspect you would need to tune just perfectly. Also, it should go without saying that should have good stability in background even possible support for widgets as though people stream audio continuously, they do not keep staring at the streaming app.
Offer Custom Engagement
There is no such thing as bad music or a useless podcast- they just appeal to different audiences. For an app that needs to build inroads in a hyper-competitive space, this can be both an opportunity and a pitfall. What you need is to serve niche categories that are often un-served by popular applications but also make sure that you get so niche that your application loses the wider appeal. Overall, this is again a trade-off that you must decide depending on the market you are serving.
Get Social
Humans are social animals and possibly we haven’t ever been more social than we are today. We share our pics, videos, our dog’s pics, or cat’s birthday cake pics, and yes songs and podcasts we like. Having social share feature integrated when you build a radio streaming application is like the highway to higher integration, user referrals and by extension, user acquisition.
Conclusion
To sum things up, radio streaming market is very active and growing market with enough potential to sustain multiple successful applications. But owing to some large corporations already eating away the market share, the app you develop must meet the highest quality standards to withstand the competition. For that, you would need to bring a seasoned app development agency onboard.