GongBox
Music Streaming and Social Platform
GongBox combines music streaming with social networking to be a home for African music. Wherever you are in the world, it gives you access to a library of the continent's music in any genre. Created by African artist Black Coffee, GongBox lets musicians stay independent and keep 100% ownership of what they create.
Platform:
Android, Web
Industry:
Music
Team size:
10 people
Country:
South Africa
Project Duration:
6 months
The year started & completed:
2019
We built the Android and web applications for a music platform that opens African music to listeners anywhere, and leaves artists in full ownership of their work.
Scope and Objectives
01
Music Streaming Library
02
Social Networking Layer
03
Artist Independence
04
Flexible Payment Models
Focus Areas and Deliverables
Android Application
The mobile client was built in Kotlin and Java in Android Studio, with Fabric used to monitor stability in the field.
Web Application
An AngularJS front end brings the same streaming and social experience to the browser.
Backend Logic for Speed
Backend logic was written to keep responses quick under a significant volume of requests, so playback and browsing hold up as the audience grows.
Code Quality and Delivery
Source control in Bitbucket, continuous builds through Jenkins, static analysis with SonarQube, and API testing in Postman kept a six-month build moving without loosening quality.
Challenges Identified
A Bright App for a Diverse Audience
The world of African music is bright and diverse, so the app had to be bright too, and had to attract an equally diverse audience. Navigation had to stay seamless and the design stylish, without the application's complex functionality showing through and getting in the way.
Speed Under Load
We knew GongBox would handle a significant number of requests, and the app had to stay fast regardless of the load. That put the weight on clean backend logic.
Powerful, Convenient Search
Alongside a seamless experience, GongBox needed search strong enough to make a continent's worth of music findable, and simple enough to use without thinking about it.
Bulletproof Security
A platform holding artists' catalogues and listeners' payment details had to be secure at the foundation rather than hardened afterwards.
Payment Models for the African Market
A single subscription price would have excluded much of the audience, so the platform needed several payment models to stay relevant across very different financial habits and incomes.
Results of the project
Scalable Android and web applications combining streaming and social.
Scalable Android and web applications forming a music and social media platform that combines the best practices of both worlds to deliver a strong user experience.
The applications implement several payment models, so people have access to music regardless of their financial habits and income.
Business Value
A global route to African music that leaves the artists in control of it.
A Global Home for African Music
Listeners anywhere in the world reach the continent's music in any genre, through one platform built specifically for it.
Artists Keep 100% Ownership
Musicians stay independent and retain full ownership of their creations, rather than signing rights away to reach an audience.
Access Regardless of Income
Multiple payment models make the platform workable across the range of financial habits and incomes in its market, rather than only the top of it.
Built to Handle the Load
Both applications were built to stay fast as request volumes grow, so scale becomes a commercial opportunity rather than a technical problem.
Tools & Technologies
Kotlin
Java
AngularJS
Android Studio
Bitbucket
Jenkins
SonarQube
Postman