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How Much Does It Cost To Build An App Like Songkick?

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How Much Does It Cost To Build An App Like Songkick?
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How Much Does It Cost To Build An App Like Songkick?

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App development

Develop Credibility and Trust

World-class app development that allows you to start, run and grow your business.

Building a custom app can boost your brand's trust and credibility, ultimately benefiting your business in the long run. We will discuss the following topics:

1. Reputation Management
2. Customer Support and Engagement
3. Data-Driven Decision Making
4. Demonstrating Social Responsibility

A well-made custom app can dramatically improve your brand's marketability and reputation. A trustworthy app will show that you are dedicated to providing top-notch goods and services. As a result of knowing they can rely on you, your clients and business partners will have more faith in you.

A custom app also strengthens your brand identification by demonstrating your professionalism and attention to detail.

Customer Support and Engagement
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A custom app enables you to offer personalized customer support and engagement, helping you address the unique needs and pain points of your African target market. 

By incorporating in-app support features, such as chatbots, help centres, or direct communication channels, you can provide timely assistance to your users, leading to increased satisfaction and loyalty. 

This level of support also encourages users to share their positive experiences with others, further boosting your brand's credibility.

Data-Driven Decision Making
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You may get useful user data through custom app creation, giving you insights into user behavior and preferences. You may improve your app and broader business strategy by studying this data and making wise decisions.

Delivering a more individualized experience for your users is made possible by a data-driven strategy. This helps to increase their faith in your brand and ultimately ensures that they will stay visiting.

Demonstrating Social Responsibility
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Putting money into a customized app that caters to your target market's needs demonstrates your commitment to social responsibility.

You can showcase your brand's dedication to having a beneficial influence by developing an app that takes into account regional difficulties, environmental issues, or social issues that are pertinent to your audience.

This thoughtful approach to app creation not only strengthens the integrity of your brand, but it also appeals to customers who value companies with a clear sense of mission.

Custom App development

Benefits of Custom App Development

World-class app development that allows you to start, run and grow your business.

Imagine custom app development as an expert chef crafting a personalised menu for their restaurant. Just as a meticulously planned and executed meal can leave diners with a memorable culinary experience, a custom app is specifically designed to cater to your business's distinct needs and objectives, leaving a lasting impression on your users. 

Investing in custom app development offers several advantages, including:

  1. Improved user experience
  2. Increased efficiency
  3. Competitive advantage
  4. Higher profitability
  5. Seamless Integration with Existing Systems
  6. Enhanced Flexibility and Adaptability
Improved user experience
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A custom app allows you to create an interface that is tailored to your target audience, ensuring a seamless and enjoyable experience. By focusing on the preferences and expectations of your users, you can craft an app that not only meets their needs but also delights them with personalized features and intuitive navigation.The best part? If you develop an app that your users love, you ensure that they keep coming back for more and turn them into lifelong customers.

Custom apps can be designed to streamline business processes and boost productivity. By automating repetitive tasks, integrating with existing systems, and providing real-time data access, custom apps empower your team to work more efficiently and make informed decisions quickly, just like a well-tailored suit that enables effortless movement and comfort.

A unique app helps you stand out from the competition and attract more customers. In a world where off-the-shelf solutions are abundant, a custom mobile app acts as a distinctive and exclusive suit that sets you apart in the crowd, showcasing your brand's personality and commitment to providing a superior experience.

A well-designed app can generate increased revenue and improve customer retention. By offering a memorable and engaging user experience, your custom app encourages users to continue using your services and make purchases. It's akin to wearing a sharp, tailored suit that not only grabs attention but also instils trust and confidence in your brand, ultimately resulting in increased profitability.

Custom app development enables seamless integration with your existing systems and third-party applications. This ensures a smooth flow of data between various platforms, enhancing communication and collaboration within your organization. The ability to integrate effortlessly is like having a versatile tool that easily connects and works in harmony with other components in your business ecosystem.

As your business evolves, a custom app can be easily modified or expanded to accommodate changing requirements and market trends. This adaptability is like having a dynamic strategy that can be adjusted and fine-tuned to suit your business's changing needs, ensuring continued relevance and success in an ever-changing environment.The benefits don’t just stop there though. If you want to build trust and credibility with your customers, a custom app is a great way to do so.

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Pivoting and Iterating

Investing in custom app development can be expensive, but being open to pivoting and iterating based on market feedback is crucial to ensure long-term success. By adapting your app to the ever-changing needs and preferences of your target market, you can stay ahead of the competition, increase user satisfaction, and maximize your return on investment.

Encourage users to provide feedback and reviews, which will help you identify pain points and areas for improvement. By addressing these concerns, you demonstrate your commitment to serving the unique needs of your users, enhancing your app's credibility and increasing user satisfaction. Tools like in-app surveys, app store reviews, or social media can be used to gather feedback and gauge user sentiment.

Iterate Based on User Data
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Analyze user behaviour and engagement data to understand how your app is being used and identify potential bottlenecks or areas of friction. By making data-driven decisions, you can prioritize improvements and new features that will resonate with your audience, maximizing the impact of your development budget and efforts.

As you adapt your app based on market feedback, be prepared to allocate resources for ongoing updates and improvements. While this may increase your app's overall cost, the benefits include increased user satisfaction, reduced churn, and ultimately, higher long-term profitability. Regular updates also demonstrate your commitment to delivering a high-quality app experience tailored to your users' needs.

Adopt a flexible, agile development methodology that enables prompt iteration and change in response to market feedback.

Your app will stay relevant and helpful to your target market if you are receptive to user needs and can swiftly pivot and make adjustments.

By prioritizing products and enhancements that have the greatest impact, an agile methodology can also assist you in managing development expenses more successfully.

While it's essential to iterate and adapt your app based on user feedback, it's also crucial to balance this with innovation and forward-thinking. Continuously explore new technologies, trends, and market opportunities to ensure your app stays ahead of the curve and caters to the evolving needs of your user base. By striking the right balance between adaptation and innovation, you can maintain a competitive edge and secure long-term success for your app.

App development

The Importance of UX and UI

Creating an outstanding user experience and design is crucial for a successful app. A well-designed app should be visually appealing, intuitive, and user-friendly.

  1. Consistency: Consistent design elements throughout the app, such as typography, colours, and button styles, create a unified look and feel. This consistency reduces the cognitive load on users, helping them navigate your app with ease and understand its functionality more quickly.
  2. Simplicity: A simple and uncluttered interface reduces distractions and makes it easier for users to focus on the tasks at hand. Strive for a minimalistic design by eliminating unnecessary elements, using whitespace effectively, and prioritizing essential features.
  3. Feedback: Providing feedback, such as visual cues and confirmation messages, helps users understand the results of their actions. This can include animations for button clicks, success messages for completed tasks, or error messages when something goes wrong. Clear feedback enhances user satisfaction and encourages continued use of your app.
  1. Understand your target audience: Research your users' demographics, needs, preferences, and behaviours to tailor your app to their expectations. Conduct surveys, interviews, and usability testing to gather insights that help shape your app's features and design.
  2. Use clear navigation: Intuitive navigation is essential for a positive user experience. Implement well-organized menus, easily accessible search functions, and recognizable icons to help users find their way around your app effortlessly.
  3. Optimize for performance: Fast loading times and smooth performance are critical for user engagement. Optimize your app's code, reduce file sizes, and use efficient algorithms to ensure your app runs quickly and seamlessly on various devices.
The Impact of Good Design on App Adoption and Retention
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Higher app adoption rates and greater client retention result from spending money on excellent design and user experience. A well-designed app has a higher likelihood of being passed along by users and being used again, which leads to better ratings, word-of-mouth advertising, and long-term success.

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Security Considerations for App Development

In today's interconnected digital world, app security is paramount. We take a look at some vital security considerations.

The Privacy Act of 1974 is the primary privacy regulation in America that regulates the sharing of data. The Privacy Act governs how federal agencies may gather, utilize, and disclose personal information. Individuals are given specific rights under it, including the ability to access and update their personal information, and federal agencies are required to protect such data from illegal disclosure.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) for health information, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) for financial information, and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) for children's online data are just a few federal laws that deal with privacy and data sharing in addition to the Privacy Act. Additionally, each state has its own privacy laws that could offer additional protections.

Keep up with the latest security threats and best practices, such as incorporating multi-factor authentication, securing APIs, and using secure coding practices. Regular security audits and vulnerability assessments can help identify potential weaknesses and protect your app from emerging threats.

Working with Trusted Vendors
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Select a reputable development partner with a proven track record in security best practices, like Scrums. A reliable vendor will prioritize security throughout the development process and help you build a secure app that meets industry standards and best practices.

Scrums.com provides high quality engineering teams to scaling enterprises at lower costs. Scrums.com designs, builds, deploys and maintains custom software that gives scale-ups the opportunity to grow world-class businesses.

Scrums.com provides high quality engineering teams to scaling enterprises at lower costs. Scrums.com designs, builds, deploys and maintains custom software that gives scale-ups the opportunity to grow world-class businesses.

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How Much Does It Cost To Build An App Like Songkick?

Discover the factors affecting the development cost of an app like Songkick, from user preferences to real-time event integrations.
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Introduction

Songkick is a widely popular event discovery and ticketing platform that allows users to track their favorite artists, find upcoming concerts, and purchase tickets all in one place. With the rise of live entertainment post-pandemic, apps like Songkick have seen tremendous demand. To develop a similar app, businesses must consider many factors like platform integration, real-time notifications, and geolocation tracking—all essential to providing users with the best event discovery experience.

What makes Songkick unique is its ability to gather data about local events, concerts, and live shows, syncing up with users' preferences based on their favorite bands, venues, or locations. The cost of building such an app is influenced by factors like real-time event updates , cross-platform compatibility, and integration with third-party ticketing services. But a live event app goes beyond just delivering content—it’s about scaling infrastructure, sending notifications in real-time, and managing security and compliance for secure ticket purchases.

Building an app like Songkick comes with its challenges—from satisfying user preferences for intuitive interfaces to meeting industry-specific regulations for payment processing and content distribution. This article outlines the key areas that affect the app development cost, helping you understand the depth of development efforts required for a successful event-discovery platform.

Platform and Device Compatibility

When building an app like Songkick, platform compatibility is a priority that will heavily influence your development costs. Users consume event content primarily on mobile but may check scheduled events or book tickets from desktops or tablets.

iOS and Android Development

According to U.S. statistics, both iOS and Android are vital platforms for a successful Songkick-like app. iOS users tend to spend more on live events and are generally early adopters of technology, making them an essential target audience. Android offers broader market coverage, especially when launching beyond U.S. borders, but Android development tends to require more time due to the fragmentation of devices and operating systems. Each OS version must be compatible with feature sets like push notifications, real-time syncing, and ticket reminders, ensuring reliability across devices.

Developing natively for iOS and Android will likely increase your app development cost but yields greater reach in the U.S. Taking time to optimize UI and performance for both platforms can ensure user satisfaction.

Cross-Platform Development

If your goal is to minimize costs while deploying to both operating systems, cross-platform tools like React Native or Flutter may be a suitable option. They allow developers to code once and deploy on both iOS and Android simultaneously. However, the complexity of adding real-time synchronization or geolocation features necessary for an event-tracking app could require additional native code modifications. Be mindful that this approach, while cost-saving, could hinder certain aspects of native performance when it comes to event refresh rates and map interactions.

Desktop and Web App Compatibility

Aside from mobile, desktop versions may also be necessary for users who prefer checking concert schedules on larger screens. Having a well-designed web app or a dedicated desktop app allows event organizers or users to manage their event schedules from desktops. This additional complexity will increase development timelines and costs, but it’s important to deliver a consistent cross-device user experience (UX).

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Design and User Experience (UX/UI)

A seamless user experience (UX) and aesthetically engaging user interface (UI) are critical in retaining users, especially in a high-stakes event-based app like Songkick where time-sensitive decisions (e.g., ticket sales, booking a concert) often rely on intuitive design.

Clean and Intuitive Design

U.S. users prioritize smooth, fast designs that are easy to navigate. Event discovery should be intuitive, with a well-structured layout that helps users find upcoming events or concerts quickly. The concert feed, artist details, and ticket purchase process should all be laid out in a logical and easy-to-navigate manner to avoid frustration.

Personalized Interface and Customization

For a social-driven event app like Songkick, users love customization. Building engagement involves allowing users to personalize their feed or user interface—whether that means customizing alerts based on artist followers or customizing the design, such as light/dark modes. Personalization adds value but increases design costs, as the app must cater to broad user preferences.

Dynamic Visualization

Given that discovering concerts involves real-time information and dynamic updates, U.S. users expect to see seamless transitions, fluid scrolling, and data that adjusts in real-time without overwhelming them. Extra design attention is needed to adjust the UX flow based on user preferences for location-based services or targeted artist recommendations.

High-quality design elevates user retention but requires a team of skilled UX designers familiar with mobile-first experiences, driving up development costs.

Integrations with Third-Party Services or External Systems

The ability for your Songkick-like app to integrate with external systems is a significant factor in the overall app development cost.

Event Ticketing and Vendor APIs

At the core of Songkick’s success is its partnership with ticket vendors like Ticketmaster, Eventbrite, and StubHub for direct ticket sales through the app. Building these systems means integrating APIs that can handle real-time updates on ticket availability, seat selection, and pricing, as well as secure payments for tickets.

Streaming Platform Syncing (Spotify, Apple Music)

For user-tailored recommendations, you might want to sync with Spotify or Apple Music to pull user listening data and create personalized concert recommendations. This offers higher engagement for users who follow artists—and the more relevant the concert recommendation, the more likely they’ll purchase tickets. Syncing APIs for music or streaming platforms will, however, require meticulous testing and fine-tuning while increasing integration complexity.

Payment Processing Systems

Seamless purchasing of tickets often involves integrating payment gateways such as Stripe, PayPal, or even Google Pay. Due to the sensitive handling of payment data, payment gateways must meet PCI-DSS compliance standards to secure credit card information. These compliance measures add extra costs from both a development and compliance standpoint.

Other third-party API integrations could involve adding map integrations or location-based services like geofencing (Google Maps API) to alert users about nearby events—further influencing development costs.

Database & Back-End Infrastructure

A solid back-end infrastructure is critical for real-time data management, supporting a system where events, tickets, and user data must be managed dynamically.

Real-Time Event Data Processing

Your backend architecture must continuously update concert information, ticket availability, and pricing in real time. Opting for a distributed cloud infrastructure (like AWS, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Azure) ensures scalability when facing particularly high loads, like when tickets for a major event go on sale.

Immediate syncing between user preferences and dynamically suggested events must be flawless and fast. Real-time data syncing requires a content delivery network (CDN) to ensure minimal latency, regardless of where users are located across the U.S. Storing and retrieving user data related to interests, suggestions, and events falls on the back-end infrastructure.

User Data & Preferences Storage

In today’s privacy-first era, ensuring that user data—particularly personal preferences regarding concert choices, ticket purchase histories, and even credit card information—are securely stored requires an infrastructure focused on data security compliance adhering to U.S. data laws like CCPA or Europe’s GDPR regulations.

Investing in scalable, secure architecture that can support both user growth, data privacy, and real-time processing comes at an elevated cost but ensures your app can scale seamlessly.

Ongoing Maintenance and Updates

Maintaining an app like Songkick requires continual monitoring and bug fixes, implementing new features, and ensuring ongoing compatibility with event timelines, tickets, and location changes.

New Features and Upgrades

As you continue to gather user feedback in the U.S. market, your app will need feature updates to remain competitive. Whether adding features like social discovery, pushing real-time alerts, or expanding event partner integrations, you’ll need to invest in ongoing custom app development.

Security Patches and Compliance

Security is especially crucial given that users entrust your app with sensitive payment information and personal data. Regular security updates ensure you remain compliant with U.S. data protection laws and safeguard against potential breaches. This requires budget allocations for security audits, bug fixes, and performance testing.

Team Expertise and Location

Building an app like Songkick requires a highly skilled development and design team familiar with handling both real-time data and building scalable architectures to support multimedia and ticketing modules.

U.S.-Based Development Teams

U.S.-based developers are well-versed in local regulatory requirements, such as CCPA compliance, but come at a premium, with hourly rates between $150-$250 per hour. The advantage is faster communication, an intuitive understanding of U.S. regulations, and better alignment with business goals.

Offshore Development Teams

For those looking to cut costs, offshore development teams in regions like Eastern Europe or South Asia offer quality development services at significantly lower rates ($30-$80 per hour). However, managing offshore projects often comes with challenges such as language barriers, time zone differences, and familiarity with local compliance laws.

Combining an offshore development approach with U.S.-based project management can help balance costs while maintaining quality.

Read about Onshore vs Offshore Outsourcing.

Hidden Costs & Miscellaneous Factors

1. QA & Testing Requirements

Testing the app across real-time interactions, geolocation services, and ticket booking modules is highly complex, and doing so on different platforms (iOS, Android) with various edge cases, such as low network zones, requires dedicated quality assurance (QA) testing efforts.

2. App Store Fees and Guidelines

Both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store charge developer fees and take a percentage from in-app purchases or subscriptions (ranging up to 30%). Once deployed, any subsequent updates, such as bug fixes, pricing adjustments, or content updates, must pass through the app store review, requiring additional development costs for maintenance.

3. Legal and Compliance Costs

In the U.S., collecting personal event-tracking data and financial information means adhering to strict compliance regulations under CCPA and even COPPA if minors are anticipated users of the platform. Consultations with legal experts to ensure compliance—and potential audits—drive up costs but are necessary to avoid heavy fines and legal disputes down the road.

What Makes This App Category Unique in Terms of Development?

Building a Songkick-like event-discovery app is unique because it sits at the intersection of real-time data syncing, ticket purchasing, and social discoverability. Concert and event apps rely heavily on providing up-to-the-minute data, such as available seats, pricing changes, or event cancellations. Real-time notifications, robust content delivery, and fully integrated ticketing purchase systems also play crucial roles.

The U.S. market’s demand for real-time updates, localized content suggestions, and accelerated mobile experiences requires building an app that is not only attractive but scales seamlessly.

Moreover, integrating with diverse ticket data sources, providing dynamic personalized event feeds, and supporting seamless ticket transactions adds technical complexity, requiring expertise in both AI-powered recommendations and real-time media syncing.

Want to see your custom event-discovery app idea brought to life?

At Scrums.com, we specialize in developing robust, real-time social apps just like Songkick. Get started today and contact us for a custom app development estimate—let’s turn your vision into reality!