Making a music app…

We recently completed a long running project which involved a very limited client budget and a 'learn as you go' approach. The KLR music app was the baby of this collaboration.

KLR Radio is a music app available for FREE in the IOS app and Google Play stores.
It is a Kiwi and Pasifika styled music source, with a curated range of music that isn’t too mainstream. KLR is comprised of many genres to make it unique.
Dave had the idea and approached me at OutWest Creatives as a sound board. We went about researching on how to do it with an almost non existent client budget as Dave didn’t have $20k plus laying about. Many hours and months later it turned out to be ok, as it is now published in the IOS app store and Google Play.
The music was carefully compiled by Dave Faatoe, a DJ who is Samoan and originally from Auckland, New Zealand. The branding and app design is by Teana Kaleopa, a creative who is Niuean & Maori (thats me speaking in the third person, ha!) Im from Wellington, New Zealand.
We both run our own respective sole trader businesses in Melbourne, Australia. These two businesses would normally compliment each other in the events and entertainment space. But we all know what happened to entertainment and the world.
Melbourne is now the most locked down city in the world. Not really a great accomplishment to celebrate is it?
Over the last 18 months we had to improvise and shift into the digital + communications space to combat ongoing restrictions. Events have been pretty much non existent and the industry as a whole doesn’t look to recover well. If it does, it will be a long road to recovery.
Dave and Teana wanted to share their love of music with the world as a way to reach the wider community, sans events.
Tools used were; Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, XD, Laptops, Social media platforms, Sound Cloud, Acid Pro, ProtoPie, SaaS, Appy Pie, App store Connect, the Google Play Console, API integration and their brains.
This project is ongoing as apps are always evolving and do require updating + maintenance from time to time. It may sound pretty basic to some people, but during lockdown the skills were learned and applied to accomplish this project.
Music is a universal language with no barriers that can reach and communicate where words cannot. Music transcends time, culture and boundaries. It can touch the hearts of people everywhere. With just one note, a shred of hope, happiness or even sadness can be conveyed from one soul to the next. Music is felt in very depth of your soul.
Free music app! Whats the catch? No catch at all, we’re happy to share this with the world and hopefully get some positive feedback from it. Life is music. Music is life.

So how do you start making an app in the first place? Its a bit of a rigmarole tbh. You can source a company or people to do it for you and pay thousands of dollars. Or you can do some research and give it a go yourself. There are quite a few steps and you may be able to do some of these yourself to save money. Its very time intensive however. Not only that, if you want your app in Google Play (which is easiest and cheapest) and in the IOS app store, the two have very different processes, policies and procedures. To break it down, if your app is in the IOS app store, you’ve done well. Apple are pretty stringent and their developer fee is $125 annually on an ongoing basis. Google has a one off $25 fee to sign up as a developer. Software subscriptions, ugh. Heres a tip, if you sign up as a student, you can save up to 70% off subscription costs. I signed up as my daughter who is a student for the next 6 years. Sweet!

I found Appy Pie. A drag and drop, do it yourself app builder. They advertise it to be as ‘easy as pie’ until you find out its anything but. If you aren’t really app or tech savvy, create graphics, have an interest or experience in that kind of thing, you’ll find it to be tough going. I love all of that and can literally sit there and immerse myself in it for hours on end (hyperfocus) until my brain is fried, and then some. Dave has a DJ background that spans 15 plus years and covered the music side with his extensive knowledge and experience.

From personal experience Appy Pie advertised making an app to be simple. When you find yourself stuck on something, you have to ask one of their experts (theyre very sales pushy) for help, oh that costs more than the plan you signed up for (ours is $600 a year) funny that. The Platinum plan has since gone up in cost to $720 annually. I negotiated to have it remain at $600 since we paid annually. I cannot stress the importance of researching each and every step of what you need to do and possibly finding people to give you a helping hand. It costly, but you do save yourself a pretty penny. Since alot of the work wasnt included in the plan I signed up for, I did it myself. As an all rounder I had some graphics and Adobe suite knowledge to expand on. This led to a crash course in Adobe XD and Protopie. I discovered Lottiefiles which I think are VERY cool, since I have a few scattered through this website.

I used Illustrator and Photoshop. Did backend developer stuff by downloading and using  Xcode + Swift UI so I could learn at a base level how and why these things cost so much money to make! For the IOS based app Xcode + Swift UI can only be used on a Mac. The Google Play app uses Android Studio to develop apps and can be used on Windows or a Mac pc. I got myself a refurbished MacBook Air 2020. Wow, yeah, I had to buy a Mac. My pc is a Surface Pro 6, so I made the Mac purchase a decent one that will hopefully last a few years plus. I love it and can switch between my Windows pc (Surface Pro 6) and the MacBook Air with ease. A bit pricey for both all up, but I prefer compact devices for on the move projects. My pcs need a bit of juice to run graphic and other software. Id say that 16 GB ram is the minimum for this, which is what I have. They manage to do what I need, both have a 1TB ssd and 16GB RAM. As long as you dont do any heavy video or 3D rendering, you should be good without a dedicated graphics card.

If you think apps are expensive to make, let me tell you that the time and work going into them is mostly justified. It does depend on what you want your app to do, you can say that the less it does, the less it costs. I hope that helps you decide on if you want to make an app or not and how you can do it. You can always ask me to help you out of course.