Own Your Sound- How To Launch a Music/Podcast Platform

The audio industry is at the forefront of rapidly evolving digital delivery technology. Music and podcasting are fuelling growth of the digital economy, enabling different digital online services to boost turnover, generate traffic, and gain scale.

Are you looking to set up your own audio platform? May be start a podcast, music platform, live radio channel, etc.? Or how about upgrading your audio/music set up online so your subscribers never miss a moment? If you’re a musician, aggregator, music studio, podcaster, radio station, etc. then you can now launch your own music/podcast platform cost-effectively within the least time frame.

Music Streaming Apps Market Overview

Audio streaming revenue worldwide amounted to $13.4 billion as on 2021, which is an insane number, considering in 2015 it was only $2.8 billion. According to Statista, 62% of global recorded music revenue is today attributable to streaming revenue. Thus having a music/podcasting platform makes eminent economic sense today.

How do you know if launching a music streaming platform is right for you?

There are various things to consider before starting music streaming app development. We’ve picked out significant points that you need to consider ahead.

• The content you have is premium and valuable and can attract a large audience. Whether live, music or podcast — content needs to be premium and preferably exclusive to attract audience.
• You have an established audience on other channels/platforms — if you have an existing audience in social media platforms, you can work on converting your fans into paying customers.
• You have a long-term, consistent, content release calendar. If your audio streaming business plan is going to succeed, you’re going to need a steady flow of new content/programs.

It is also likely that you’ve got questions like.

• Is an audio streaming business worth the investment. Can I monetize?
• Should you structure your audio business plan around subscription audio, transactional audio, Ad based or some other kind of audio monetization strategy?
• Do you have the capability for steady content aggregation, production and marketing of audio content?

If the answer is in the affirmative — you are ready to evaluate platform options

Evaluating Sounds Platform Options

• Does the platform support your content type — Songs, Albums, Podcasts, Live Radio, etc. Does it provide you with the flexibility and features needed, Is the UI/UX best in class and onboarding and payments friction-free?
• Does the platform have branded apps on iOS, Android, and Web (PWA) with Bluetooth/Airplay support.
• Does the platform support Full, Mini, and Lockscreen Audio Player? Does it have a car mode?
• Does the platform support Digital Rights Management (DRM) that are industry-standard studio-grade with content Geolocking. Google Widevine, Apple Fairplay, and Microsoft Playready are popular studio-grade DRM systems.
• Does the platform support multiple quality — say low and high for different plans and bandwidth scenarios. Does the packaging allow multiple language lyrics.
• Does the platform support Subscriptions, Purchases, and Ad based monetization models. Are domestic and international payment gateways supported. Are recurring subscriptions allowed.
• Does the platform gives detailed metrics and reports including subscribers, subscriptions, purchases, and payment details
• Can we manage partners easily? Is there a portal where partners can view their content statistics and reports.
• Does it support affiliate program management, discounts and loyalty rewards?
• Does the platform support PUSH/MAIL campaigns and notifications
• Does the platform provide a QoS guarantee and great L2 technical Support? The platform must be monitored 24x7 and kept up. Technical issues coming through customer support must be closed within a guaranteed time with SLA.
• Can the platform scale according to your needs? Does it address privacy, security and regulatory concerns. Does it offer free upgrades and enhancements?

Planning for Launching Music Streaming App — planning, marketing, creating content, etc.

An effective way to launch a music streaming platform in front of an audience is through successful music streaming app launch plan.

• Clearly define unique content strategy — What, When & How.
• Design a distribution roadmap across device platforms
• Adapt marketing tactics to find, nurture, and build your audio audience — Viewers need to be engaged by marketing across a range of channels and messaging touchpoints. Plan your pre-launch and post-launch marketing across channels. Make sure you have all the materials needed for marketing, including a marketing budget, influencer marketing/celebrity marketing plan, Audio platform promotions, Affiliate marketing plan etc.
• To reach a bigger audience, when promoting audio streaming platforms, it is crucial to be present on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to promote, Email Marketing to engage with an email list and work with influencers, famous bloggers/actors, celebrities, etc.
• Design, launch and refine your audio offering and technology solution in an iterative effort.
• Pre-launch awareness marketing strategies — The Awareness phase is your chance to build up excitement and share information about your Health platform. The strategies are by setting a release date, Understanding your audience, building a website or landing page, Content strategy, Outreach strategy, Social media strategy, App store optimisation research, paid advertisements etc.

Launching the audio streaming platform

Launching the audio app on an online platform is an important step where the actual delivery of the app happens. While launching your audio streaming platform, there are some basic and most important things you really need to keep in mind to make it a big success.

• Give your audience what they want and are literally looking for.
• Make a content strategy: ways to keep your audience involved and not lose interest.
• Customer acquisition strategy.
• How to convert existing customer base.
• Subscription/pricing strategy.
• Setup configuration of the platform like branding, logos, and colors, along with how you’ll monetize it.
• Test: QA (Quality Assurance) the platform. This is the step where you review your app for functionality and CX (Customer Experience)
• Submission: App submissions require careful planning and need details to be provided.

How to enhance and grow your Audio App

Effective strategies to improve the Audio Streaming platform include.

• Deliver a Seamless Onboarding Experience to New Users
• Let users discover and enjoy content with seamless experience across devices and make them come back for more.
• Bring Back Your Platform Users With Push Notifications
• Encourage First Time Users to Opt-in for Push Notifications
• Recommend New and Featured Content Using Personalized Banners
• Use Product Badges to Drive Premium Subscriptions
• Speed Up Content Discovery With the Power of Stories
• Leverage In-App Messaging Campaigns to Increase Viewership Time
• Collect Critical User Feedback to Strengthen Your Audio Streaming platform
• Engage Your Users With Rich Promotional Emails
• Develop affiliate marketing program to enhance subscribers through affiliate referrals
• Enable “Invite a Friend” Process to Encourage Referrals

Monetization models to follow

Generally, there are three main ways to make money with your audio streaming website.

• Ads: Offer free access to your services if your users don’t mind listening to advertisements. You can set the frequency of ads; for example, place ads within the audio stream.
• Subscription: Offer Subscription-based access to your services. It can offer access to premium features or unlimited access to songs for a monthly, quarterly, or yearly price.
• Pay-per-track/album: Allow users to purchase music that they can either store on the website or download to the device of their choice.

Analysing the performance of the audio streaming platform

Monitoring your analytics is essential for retention, but also for driving future users. Keep in mind that key metrics should be tracked in both the Pre-launch and Post-launch stages, so make sure to keep an eye on this throughout the entire process.

Paying close attention to the following points helps to analyze the performance.

• Subscriber count: Measure the number of subscribers in a given time frame to track the success of your marketing efforts.
• Churn rate: This refers to the number of users that drop out from your services.
• Average usage time: The average length of time your users spend watching a specific piece of audio content on the Audio platform.
• Devices: This shows you on which connected devices your content is viewed the most.
• Countries: Knowing where your users tune in from is helpful for keeping track of their preferences and creating more targeted strategies.
• Analyze the monthly active users (MAU), customer acquisition cost (CAC), average revenue per user (ARPU), customer lifetime value (CLV), conversion rate (CR), abandon rate, engagement, inactive users, etc.
• Analyze technical problems faced in the audio streaming platform, have a dedicated support team to manage customer complaints.
• Analyze marketing activities, Check on the return on investment (ROI)for each activity based on insights and analytics from the activities. Do research to understand what better marketing campaign can be done to reach more right audience and get more subscribers and generate revenue.
• Understand the viewer experience in terms of UI/UX design, visibility, etc. If any improvements need to be done on UI/UX, consider implementing the same in platform.
• Does the platform provide quality delivery — low latency playback, audio quality, and multiple language support are all important
• Does the platform provide low friction onboarding, payment, and viewing experience? Users must be able to signup/login using email/mobile/social media through easy, secure steps. Plans must be purchasable friction-free. INAPP/PG/Wallet payment options must be provided.

Developing a state-of-the-art audio platform with a good user experience takes a great deal of expertise. At mobiotics, our team is well-versed with techniques to provide you best customized Audio platform solution.

Introducing our Music/Podcast Platform — Sounds

Fast to set up Audio Platform for Music Creators, Aggregators, Podcasters, and Online Radio Providers

Here is the simple flow of Sounds platform.

Sounds App Flow — Music/Podcast Platform

Sounds App offers — Fast to set up Audio Platform for Music Creators, Aggregators, Podcasters, and Online Radio Providers

Here are the features of our Sounds App product.

1. Branded Apps on iOS and Android and Web (Optional) with Bluetooth/Airplay Support. Full, Mini, and Lockscreen Audio Player. Car Mode Support.
2. Support for Music, Albums, podcasts, and Live Radio content. Configurable decking and playlist support.
3. High and Moderate quality adaptive streaming and downloads based on bandwidth and plan. Industry-standard Multi DRM for piracy protection.
4. Subscriptions (SVOD), Purchases (TVOD), and Ad based (AVOD) monetization options. Pre-integrated with domestic and international Payment Gateway.
5. Detailed Metrics and Reports including subscribers, subscriptions, purchases, and payment details. Partner and Affiliate Management option.
6. Scalable SAAS built on AWS. 24x7 Maintenance and Monitoring

Coming to an end.

mobiotics Sounds audio platform solution is customized to work across all platforms and devices without snags. User authentication is also taken care of and provides a high-security Sounds app mechanism.

Looking to launch your own Sounds App software for your organization? mobiotics can help you.

Click here to book a 15 Min demo with us to know how Sounds app works.

For more information about our product and services please feel free to get in touch with us

Call us at +91 9620209869, or write an email to the sales@mobiotics.com