DLM Music Catalog - Building a Direct Music Licensing Platform from Scratch

The client's music catalogue offers direct music licenses protected from copyright claims. Content creators and professional storytellers can use their content without worrying about legalities. Platform's license covers worldwide copyright, meaning users can play their song anywhere and everywhere. Clients' platform provides soundtracks for movies, social media, trailers, TV shows, commercials, public spaces, podcasts and more.

Platform Components

Backend Dashboard - back-office catalogue management
Backend API - Interface for web & mobile app
Frontend App - Responsive Web Design
CMS - Content management system-based
Mobile Application - Designed for iOS/Android
Web Music Player - Customisable Javascript audio player
Stripe - Subscriptions engine
Amazon AWS - Infrastructure
E-Commerce - Possibility to buy a license for a single-track

Core Features

Music Catalog - the list of tracks combined with categories
Login / Register - Authorisation & authentication module (with Social Auth)
Reset Password
My Account - User's page and account settings (downloads, likes, account deletion)
Subscriptions - Easy, manageable subscription plans
Search - with advanced filters by categories, genre, mood, BPM, and more
Playlist - created by staff members or users themselves
Liked songs - favourites module
Downloads - possibility to download tracks to the device
FAQ - Manageable frequently asked questions
Contact Forms - Different Forms for personal or company use
CMS Pages - Pages such as policy, about, and more

Technologies Used

Python3 - Backend development
Hasura - GraphQL API layer
Vue.js - Frontend framework
Flutter - Mobile app development

Services & Deliverables

Product management
Product design
Frontend & Backend
Mobile App

The Music Library From Scratch

The client's primary purpose in building the platform was to start selling licences online. The client had a well-prepared features list. Nevertheless, starting this project without splitting it into smaller parts was challenging. After the first discovery call, we knew the budget. The scope was still far from defined, but it was good enough to start implementing the very first components of the platform—for instance, Web Audio Player (read more). The project began in May 2022 and finished in September 2023.

Challenge: POC & MVP

One of the biggest challenges was to organise the project and split it into smaller parts. After a few workshops, we figured out how and where to start.

Some of the questions raised during the workshops:

Can we estimate such a big project based on files provided by the client?
Is the known budget enough to cover expenses for the first three months of development?
How fast we can set up the team?
Where do you start with these big topics in the scope?
How to design a system to provide value for end-users?

These (and many more) questions headed us to the next steps, where we prepared a milestones plan like the below:

Milestone 0: Discovery

Discovery Call - online meeting with the client to listen to their needs
Discovery Analysis - Answering questions and collecting all of the information from the client and possible stakeholders
Estimate - Business decisions and cooperation start

Milestone 1: Proof of concept

UI - improving and polishing designs provided by the client
DB API - Designing and implementing database structure
Web Audio Player - Implementing proof of concept for audio player library
CMS - Integrating an external CMS API with the platform
Web App - Preparing frontend framework and implementing core features mocks

Milestone 2: MVP Building

Backend API - Implementing the backend API (based on GraphQL)
Subscriptions - Analysing and implementing the Stripe engine into the platform
UX - Improving user experience
Frontend Platform - Implementing core modules (auth, my account, search, and more)
Imports - The client's database tracks imports

Milestone 3: Mobile App

UI/UX - Designing new wireframes for the mobile app
iOS/Android - Preparing the infrastructure
Development - Coding an app based on the Flutter framework

Milestone 4: Pre Launch

UI/UX - Redefining the base designs with a world-class UI/UX Designer
iScala - Integrating Stripe Invoicing module with 3-rd party client's invoicing system
AWS Infrastructure - Configuring development, staging and production environment
RWD polishing

Milestone 5: MVP Launch

Core Features Improvements
Testing & bug fixing
Start the platform online

Milestone 6: Handover

Finalising documentation
Training with the client's customer service
Moving all of the project to the client's new team and infrastructure

Even though the client provided us with UI/UX designs, we had to solve many complex problems. UI/UX designs covered only half of the functionalities, and we had to precisely define user scenarios from dozens of cases. The second issue was that the client's UI/UX designer didn't cooperate with developers to validate if everything he designed was designed in a doable way. The third thing we could improve with the client was to publish the first results earlier and then improve the system with new deliverables. Thanks to this approach, we could have avoided unnecessary coding. Eventually, we implemented all the functions we assumed and added new features, e.g. additional validations and integrations with 3rd party providers.

Solution: Deliverables

Our solution was to prepare the central API so that consumers, like mobile and web apps, could read/write data. The main idea was to keep the front end and back end separated. Because of the limited budget, we decided to start with a monolith backend. We used well-known technologies and frameworks for developing the components of the platform:

Backend - Python, Django
Frontend - TypeScript and Vue.js
CMS - Sanity.io
API - Hasura, GraphQL
Web Player - JavaScript, Vue.js
Infrastructure - Amazon AWS, Dynamic Load Balancer
Mobile App - Flutter framework

Each milestone had different challenges. Defined development process required a few tools, such as:

Jira - Kanban (later Trello)
Notion - The documentation space
Slack - Common channel
Github - Source code management
Netlify - Frontend app building
Stripe - Subscription and orders management
BrowserStack - Performance and use case testing (from different locations)
Sentry - Errors and event logging
Uptime robot - Simplified Health checks
Codemagic - Building iOS/Android apps
Bitwarden - Password Manager

From the data schema perspective, the project was not complicated itself. The biggest challenge was custom, dedicated and complex business logic—for instance, some features were disabled for selected countries, and some were limited in the mobile app.

Client Testimonial

Bravelab.io was thoroughly engaged throughout the partnership, successfully delivering a fully-functioning MVP. The team's workflow was highly organized, and internal stakeholders were particularly impressed with the vendor's vast technical expertise and solutions.

Paweł Przetacznik - CIO, IMS S.A

See full review on Clutch

Summary: Music & Web

Big projects come from big ideas. We were happy to work on this project from the first day. The project was a real challenge for us and the client. The value provided for the client's end-users - with high-quality content - was also essential. After many months of development, the project is live. End-users can buy licenses, browse catalogues and subscribe to monthly/yearly plans. The project had two significant parts:

PoC & MVP - Fixed budget and defined scope for the first five months
Post-MVP - Time and material for implementing, polishing and delivering features for the next seven months

During many months of development, the project engaged dozens of stakeholders. Around twenty-five people were involved. The core team consisted:

Tech Lead & DevOps Expert
Senior Backend Developer
Regular Backend Developer
Senior Frontend Developer
Regular Frontend Developer
UI/UX Designer
Manual Tester
Business Analytics

Our already prepared products helped us to focus on developing the custom business logic:

Mobile App Skeleton for Music Catalogs
Figma White-Label Music Platform (ask about more info)
Backend API V1 (monolith). We're in the process of redesigning the core framework and migrating it into micro-services architecture (ask for more info)

Summarising: There are no perfect projects. Our transparent approach leads us to deliver software, and the client knows what, why, when and who does things. During the entire development process, we transfer all of the knowledge about the project to the client. For now, The client continues to maintain and develop the platform.

Bravelab continues to develop semi-products like Mobile White-Label Apps and Enterprise Commerce Platforms for Music Platforms V2. If you are interested in such solutions as this, don't hesitate to get in touch with us.