Music in the UK has acquired the status of being one of the top-grossing industries. 41% of mobile users listen to online music at least weekly. Though, disparities exist in different age cohorts. In 16-24, the percentage of users listening to music is 75, in 25-34, it's 59 and in 35-44, it reaches to 50. A small fraction of Baby Boomers (5%-6%) also takes the opportunity to stream music.
With a net worth of £4.1 billion, music in the UK has acquired the status of one of the top-grossing industries in the world, and the contribution of subscription-based live streaming music to the industry is on the rise. As compared to 2014, consumers spent 49% extra in paying towards music subscription in 2015. Service providers bagged a whopping £251 million as the subscription amount. Perhaps, the shift of consumers from the music ownership to a subscription-based economy has opened a new avenue of opportunities for app developers in the UK.UK Music Economy & Share of Live Streaming Music
UK App Economy & Music Apps
Similar to the music economy, UK’s app economy is at an unbeatable position and its stakeholders right from creator to marketer to consumer are all in a buoyant mood. Interestingly, the duo economies are now complementing each other, thereby, leaving a big scope for music app developers in the country.
What Brings Them Together
Let’s go by some illustrations!
Your mention of Orkut, telephone, radio, gramophone and VHS in a group of Generation Z is likely to set all eyes rolling. There is a probability that some of them might have come across these antique pieces in their school syllabus. However, nothing much to surprise, when they will repeat a similar question to their progenies, say 15-20 years down the line, replacing the above extinct worldly objects with credit or debit card, they will get the same response what you got today.
Interpretation: Well, it needs no brainer to accept that time ravages everything that becomes obsolete or non-relevant. Improved technologies replace them soon.
So, bearing in mind change is the only constant, let’s go back to square one and delve into the raison d'etre of the title Camaraderie of UK App Developers with Music?
a. Transformation in Music Consumption
Gramophone and VHS, what once existed as favorite media to transmit, store and consume music and videos, have already gone the Dodo way. And their advanced avatars like CD, DVD, etc. have succumbed to the emergence of music streaming services.
b. Transformation in Digital Consumption
What was once a big news by comScore in 2014 regarding smartphone Internet usage surpassing that of desktop has gone into the archived folder. Though, desktop stays relevant, the number of smartphone shipment and adoption has skyrocketed across geographies, irrespective of age groups. This followed another paradigm shift, which still continues, where the Web is giving way to mobile apps.
Hence, this digital media consumption shift is nudging music streaming service providers to take refuge of mobile app developers. In the adjacent infographics, courtesy, iOS App Stats, see the top 10 Grossing iPhone apps in the music category (UK).
Big technology czars like Google and Apple are also vying in the music space, though their music streaming services, Google Play Music and Apple Music respectively failed to get a place on the list.
Key Drivers Behind Music Streaming Services
1. Universal and Omnipresence
Unlike traditional music sources, music streaming services are not bound by time, space or geographies and being hosted on the cloud, there is no concern of memory getting overburdened. Prevalence of smartphone and emergence of it as the first go-to device for everything digital has further boosted the prospects of music streaming services.
2. Affordability
With the availability of subscription-based music content, the obligation of owning physical music assets is a thing of past. Have a look at the pricing of some key music streaming service providers.
Green Signals for App Developers UK
1. Increased Mobile App Time Spent
Here is a breakup of mobile time spent on a day-to-day basis by UK adults by generation as per a Statista report.
Consumers’ affinity for mobile apps is no secret. Perhaps, apps are slowly eclipsing the usage of Web. According to eMarketer, in the UK, people spend 9 hours 31 minutes with varied media sources and, of that, mobile apps alone take away the lion’s share, estimated as 2 hours 29 minutes. Live music service providers in particular and, musicians, composers, and songwriters, at large, all are trying to make the most of this digital consumption shift, and this shift clearly signals a good market ahead for mobile app development companies and their developers.
Recommended Reading: Music App Development for Android and iOS
Green Signals for App Developers UK
2. Increased Music App Sessions
Stats from Flurry Insights indicate a striking increase in the app-based music consumption. In 2015, it observed a 21% increase in the number of app-sessions in the music category. Of the total time spent with apps, half of the time goes to social networking, radio and games apps.
3. More App Development Resources at Disposal
Today touch is not the only way to launch your app or access its services. No longer, you need to close your Maps on iOS to book your ride, table or movie ticket. Messages are no longer boring texts. Google takes your voice command. What made all these possible? Definitely, all would have been a distant dream, had mobile app developers been not blessed with powerful mobile app development frameworks, tools, and languages.
Whether it's building a native mobile app or cross-platform one, today app developers have access to a rich set of resources. On the one hand, advanced edition of PhoneGap or Cordova, Ionic and AngularJS are enabling developers to build fully-featured apps, while on the other, latest versions of iOS and Android’s proprietary software development kits make them build intuitive and engaging apps that really add value to the user experience allowing them to do more with their device.
Recommended Reading: 17 Things Users Expect an App to Do
4. Powerful Business Intelligence
How users are engaging with the app, what sections of the app are getting more hits, where the user’s journey is getting obstructed, what users are looking for, how much time do they spend, what’s their interests and preferences, and much more is out there to understand and evolve. in fact, the realm of business intelligence in the app economy is a whole world in itself. Luckily, there are strong mobile analytics tools to capture the entire picture. Listening to these insights, if developers can improve the user experience and check app abandonment rate then business owners can overhaul their business strategy to better adapt to the change which is inevitable.
very informative blog apps developers uk
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