These people are crazy. A streaming app that competes with Spotify?" was the thought Fernando Martinez, developer of Big Cheese, said he had when Diego Mariani, general manager of MUS, approached him with the idea of designing a music app made in Uruguay that would prioritize local and regional music. The comparison is not whimsical: Spotify has more than 100 million monthly active users.
The idea was clear from the beginning: "To make an app with Uruguayan content by Uruguayans with Uruguayan tools," said Martínez.
It's simple to use. When you enter -at least in the beta version-, first you have to register as a user through your Facebook, Twitter or email accounts. The next step is to choose the musical categories of preference, so that the app suggests content. When you do so, a menu appears to select songs from "Uruguay" and "International" music. Simply click on the image of a song to start playing it.
Each menu has a three dots icon. When you select it, the app goes to a list of "featured", "releases" and "artists" where you can discover more music. There is also a "Lists" option, where you can find one called "Vamos que vamos!" to cheer on the Uruguayan national soccer team.
The beta version of MUS includes 45 "recommended playlists" that include categories such as "classic children's", "telenovela music" and other more expected ones such as "Uruguayan tropical", "national rock" or "cumbia pop". The app, of course, gives the user the possibility to create their own playlists and select "favorite" tracks.
The Road
The development of MUS was not without challenges. That was what Fernando Martínez and Sebastián Grattarola told at the Genexus Meeting 2016. During the months of work they managed, for example, to reduce the search and streaming time from between 6 and 12 seconds to a matter of milliseconds. Along the way, the idea of creating an app for Windows Phone was abandoned and the offline playback function was postponed for future updates.
Another difficulty was that the streaming provider, 7digital, has certain technical problems to distinguish national content from international content -that is, the differential of the app-, so Uruguayan songs do not appear well positioned in searches. The development team decided to manage the catalog (composed of 20 million songs) and incorporate their own search algorithms. The expectation is that the problem will be 100% solved by the end of the year. "The international streaming platforms, by their own international concept, are very limited and practically unable to interact with what happens in the industry and local culture," said Mariani.
The MUS premium service will have a cost and can be paid at Abitab and ANTEL; credit cards will be added later. Uruguayan artists will be charged for the reproduction of their songs on the platform by reaching distribution agreements with record labels. Depending on the subscription plan, MUS will pay between US$4,000 and US$8,000 per million plays. That's "between three and 10 times more than what international streaming platforms pay," Mariani said.
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Source: The Observer
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