Music to My Ears: How to Test Music Streaming Apps

Online music streaming apps have been ruling the market for music-related software for years. The basic principle of these digital products is that they deliver data from the online resources to your device directly. Consequently, you don’t need to download any tracks to your smartphone or other gadget but can benefit from using a stream. 

This kind of music web application remains the most in-demand solution. Moreover, the global music streaming market value is expected to reach over $24,7 million by 2027. As for the music streaming app testing, it has some peculiarities you might need to know about. 

Music Streaming Niche: Top Leaders 

The current market for online music apps has some leading solutions that offer advanced features and attract a large number of users from all countries globally. 

The first real-time music player, Spotify, is a pioneer in the field of music streaming apps. Currently, the app has the largest market share, and the number of its users continues to grow. Most applications that were developed after Spotify have a similar interface and features. 

Apple Music is another stream music player that was developed for iOS-based devices. Since the popularity of Apple gadgets is still booming, the number of app users will increase. 

YouTube music is a musically live stream app with advanced functionality and more than 70 million songs available. The app has been conquering the niche since 2015. 

Amazon Music Unlimited allows its users to stream over 90 million songs and podcasts for any taste and need. The service also allows downloading your favourite tracks and listening to them offline. 

Tidal is another streaming app that contains a whopping number of songs. It is possible to use it for free or buy a subscription for more advanced functionality. 

Top Things To Focus on When Planning Your Testing 

Since the demand for easy-to-use and convenient music platforms like Spotify continues to grow, new applications hit the field from time to time. All of them require individual testing approaches. So, how to test a music streaming service? Below you will find a list of features you need to pay extra attention to.

Sign up

Sign up (account creation) is one of the crucial stages of using the app. As a rule, the new users should specify basic personal info and select their individual music preferences. This info will be used to provide unique music recommendations for each user. What is more, many apps allow registering by using social networks or email. These options should be carefully checked by qualified testers. It is known that bugs during the signup process will scare off new users and prevent them from coming back, thus, this function should work perfect and be extremely user-friendly and easy to use. 

In-app search

Searching for your favourite tracks and singers is not the only option available on popular music apps. Genres, moods, track duration, greatest hits, and newest tracks are also among the most popular options. Each filter needs to perform as expected. This is perfect for the exploratory type of testing using as many global testers as possible, asking them to conduct comprehensive searches.   

Audio Streaming

Audio streaming is the most important function of any streaming app. It is crucial to test the quality of music, the playback speed, and other streaming features. All of them require the most precise and detailed testing. 

Personal Music Organization and Playlists 

Customization and organization of playlists are some of the essential features that significantly impact the application’s usability, affecting the product’s rating and popularity. 

Subscriptions to Artists

Most users have their favourite singers and pop groups they listen to regularly. Most of them would also like to keep in touch with the new tracks developed by these artists. Subscription is one of the basic functions that should perform in a top-notch way. 

Offline Mode

Although this feature is not used by all users. It still needs detailed testing. Failure to download a particular song might make the user delete an app and switch to the competitors. 

Sharing 

Most streaming apps are used by socially active people who constantly use various messengers and social media. Therefore, sharing options remains a must-have function for any modern music app. A good testing protocol is to use real people, test in groups of different sizes, sharing data, in order to verify this function is not less than perfect. 

Push Notifications

The notifications allow users not to miss the release of the tracks of their favourite artists and keep in touch with other important information. 

How to Test Music Streaming App

Testing a streaming application requires a complex approach and checking all product’s features and functionality from different sides. These types of testing should be performed during the quality assurance process of your online music streaming digital product. 

• Functional testing. Does the streaming application meet the standard modern software requirements? Do all functions work as expected? The answers to all these questions can be found during the functional testing. 
• UX/UI testing. This type of quality assurance process is developed to make sure the customer will likely be satisfied with using a digital product. It should be understandable, convenient, and completely easy to use. Remember, 86% of buyers will pay more for a better customer experience.
• Usability testing. Do all application’s functions work properly and in an easy manner? Are there any bugs or crashes that impact usability? It is crucial to double-check these parameters before the app sees the world. 
• Localization testing. It is crucial to make sure the app works perfectly in different languages and locations. The app’s performance should be carefully tested by QA experts from different countries. The reason is that thousands of users might want to listen to their local artists, and the application’s filters, search parameters, and recognition of particular letters and symbols should be working in a top-notch way. If you want to make your app popular on a global scale, it is essential to perform localization testing to improve international application engagement. 
• Performance testing. Testing response time, reliability, stability, scalability, and speed are important to ensure the basic app’s flows perform in a top-notch way. 
• Interrupt testing. Using music streaming apps might be interrupted by the incoming call or message and receiving a device or third-party app’s notification. How will the streaming app perform in real-life conditions? 
• Load testing. What if your app gains popularity and has a whopping number of customers that will use it simultaneously? Will the app’s performance be affected? It is necessary to check the app under stress. 
• Regression testing. Any app requires making some updates from time to time. Make sure your digital product has brilliant performance and all the functions work as expected after any code changes and updates. 
• Cross-browser and cross-platform testing. These types of testing are inevitable parts of any QA process that should be operated in real environments rather than simulators. 
• Testing on mobile and desktop devices. Any digital product should have a fantastic performance on any modern device, both desktop, and mobile. The higher the number of real devices you choose for testing, the better. 
• API testing. The aim of this type of testing is to verify whether an API fulfils its expected functionality and reliability.

How Can Ubertesters Help You With Testing a Music App?  

Testing a music streaming app is a multi-step process that should be performed by experienced QA professionals with the help of the most up-to-date tools and initiatives. Being one of the leading crowd testing companies on the global market, Ubertesters has all the needed conditions for the most effective and advanced testing. 

Our company has an advanced community of QA professionals and beta testers located in different parts of the world, offering a unique opportunity to test your music app in numerous countries globally. So, how can you benefit from cooperating with Ubertesters?

You can easily make sure your digital product is ready to meet the needs of international users by checking its performance on real devices, including both lower and high-end options with different operating systems. Our experts can also double-check whether the music preferences selected by different categories of users are displayed correctly. As well as the local artists/songs can be easily found and added to users’ playlists. We will take into account the local market specifics, language, and unique symbols. Along with dozens of other parameters that can be checked in real environments only. 

Our company is ready to test your application globally before launching it. As a result, you will have an opportunity to check its performance in multiple markets and niches, find the gaps in functionality, and make your product more user-friendly to a wider range of customers. This will allow you to hit the target market and attract a larger number of users in different locations. 

Checking a digital product ‘in the wild’ is a must-do step for most solutions, and the music app requires it the most. 

So, what advantages can you get when cooperating with Ubertesters?

• Test your product on real devices and in real environments in numerous countries globally;
• Get an opportunity to test various location-specific features, including searching and adding local artists to users’ playlists;
• Choose as many testers as needed in more than 120 countries worldwide;
• Receive a top-notch quality service and a cost-effective solution according to your individual needs;
• Get advanced QA reports to allow your development team to fix all the bugs within the shortest terms.

If you would like to get your music app tested in real-life conditions and get professional help for a budget-friendly price, please contact us at sales@ubertesters.com for more information.