40 ms·

I released an app a year ago and I'm struggling to get users

4 points by Solance 9mo ago

Solance 9mo ago
A little over a year ago I released my app - a social media app focussed around music, and I have seen some growth in users and user retention (monthly and daily active user counts), however, I feel like I'm not where I should be at yet. I currently have 680 users but given it's been around 15 months this feels really low. I don't have much of a marketing budget as I am fully bootstrapping this app (I just use money from savings when I can and I'm not sure when/if I'd even be able to get funding as I have no prior business experience and acquiring funding seems near impossible right now). From the marketing I have done which is primarily advertising on Meta products such as Facebook and Instagram, I get a bit of reach but hardly any downloads. Granted my campaigns are usually around $50-100 only but I still am lucky to get 2-3 signups from a campaign of this budget. I would love some inspiration and tips and tricks to increase the rate that I can acquire new users and get them to also invite their friends on to the platform! Any advice is most welcome. Some more information on the app: In a very brief description of the app - it's called Solance and it is designed to be a social media platform where you can follow friends, family, colleagues, or even other users you don't know, and interact with each other through the songs they have recently been listening to. I am always refining the app and adding in new features, but I can only release updates every month or so as I work on Solance on the side and work full time. Here's the link to my website: https://solance.app https://solance.app (I still need to update the website some time soon with additional features and updated images of the app)
- Finnucane 9mo ago
  Doesn’t Spotify already have shareable playlists? it seems like the app would have more value if it could work cross platform. Most of the discussion about Spotify I see online is about how to get away from it, not so much how to use it more.
  - Solance 9mo ago
    I am definitely planning to go cross platform in the future and integrate other music streaming services such as Apple Music, however, the APIs that these other services offer are nowhere near as good as what Spotify offers unfortunately. Also when I first began creating this app around 3 years ago, and just prior to launching the Spotify hate wasn't nearly what it is today. My plan is to keep releasing updates and features for now until I'm at a point where I'm happy to start integrating other streaming services. Would be interested to hear your perspective on this idea.
Solance 9mo ago
Really keen to hear what you guys have to say!
ryanreichenberg 9mo ago
love the idea and also keen to hear what advice you get as I'm in a similar boat as you regarding this issue!
yashsm01 9mo ago
Like The Idea : its kind acommonissue we are facing where networking and Marketing is only key to help eachouther.
- Solance 9mo ago
  Yeah it's really hard to know how to market ideas well with little experience in the marketing field. Hoping some people out there will have some great advice for us! :)
  - yashsm01 9mo ago
    Try to provide free for start if possible ...i wil share in my known network ...where are you from brother? Provide me your insta ID ?? i have contact of university ? may that help to recach out your network ???
    - yashsm01 9mo ago
      mine is yash___modi
      - Solance 9mo ago
        The Instagram for the app is Solance.app
    - Solance 9mo ago
      The app is currently completely free to use to entice more people to join and get a feel for it! I'm from Australia I will follow your Instagram now! That would be awesome if you have university contacts that would be interested in using an app like ours. Our key demographic would be people at the university age!
      - yashsm01 9mo ago
        is there Hindi Songs Available in your Plat For I am From India SO it easy to Spread your platform easyly ...
Rotundo 9mo ago
The current trend is to get off social media. A social media app based on music has a narrow audience anyway, in my opinion: young people that still find music important enough to make it a thing. For me (old), music is something to listen to, but certainly not be obsessed about. I find it an amazing success you have so many users to begin with! That signals that there is a market, you "just" have to focus in on it a bit more. What is the common factor of your current users? Market to that demographic. Leave the rest (for now).
- Solance 9mo ago
  Definitely trying to market to that demographic but still struggling to get decent traction unfortunately. So hard to know how these other apps and platforms manage to get such a large user base in a short time even with a large marketing budget. I feel like more social proof might be the answer but it's difficult to get that with a very limited marketing budget as I have.
prodigycorp 9mo ago
I really like the design of this. I think you have great taste. However, this is not something i'd use. The lesson going forward may be to talk to users earlier though, so you know what to build on earlier.
- Solance 9mo ago
  Yeah for sure and we did get great feedback on the idea prior to launch I just feel maybe we don't have enough features to keep drawing people back on to the app consistently yet. Social proof will also help once we can get some of that going too I hope!

4 points by Solance 9mo ago

A little over a year ago I released my app - a social media app focussed around music, and I have seen some growth in users and user retention (monthly and daily active user counts), however, I feel like I'm not where I should be at yet. I currently have 680 users but given it's been around 15 months this feels really low. I don't have much of a marketing budget as I am fully bootstrapping this app (I just use money from savings when I can and I'm not sure when/if I'd even be able to get funding as I have no prior business experience and acquiring funding seems near impossible right now). From the marketing I have done which is primarily advertising on Meta products such as Facebook and Instagram, I get a bit of reach but hardly any downloads. Granted my campaigns are usually around $50-100 only but I still am lucky to get 2-3 signups from a campaign of this budget. I would love some inspiration and tips and tricks to increase the rate that I can acquire new users and get them to also invite their friends on to the platform! Any advice is most welcome. Some more information on the app: In a very brief description of the app - it's called Solance and it is designed to be a social media platform where you can follow friends, family, colleagues, or even other users you don't know, and interact with each other through the songs they have recently been listening to. I am always refining the app and adding in new features, but I can only release updates every month or so as I work on Solance on the side and work full time. Here's the link to my website: https://solance.app https://solance.app (I still need to update the website some time soon with additional features and updated images of the app)

Finnucane 9mo ago
Doesn’t Spotify already have shareable playlists? it seems like the app would have more value if it could work cross platform. Most of the discussion about Spotify I see online is about how to get away from it, not so much how to use it more.
- Solance 9mo ago
  I am definitely planning to go cross platform in the future and integrate other music streaming services such as Apple Music, however, the APIs that these other services offer are nowhere near as good as what Spotify offers unfortunately. Also when I first began creating this app around 3 years ago, and just prior to launching the Spotify hate wasn't nearly what it is today. My plan is to keep releasing updates and features for now until I'm at a point where I'm happy to start integrating other streaming services. Would be interested to hear your perspective on this idea.

Solance 9mo ago

Really keen to hear what you guys have to say!

ryanreichenberg 9mo ago

love the idea and also keen to hear what advice you get as I'm in a similar boat as you regarding this issue!

yashsm01 9mo ago

Like The Idea : its kind acommonissue we are facing where networking and Marketing is only key to help eachouther.

Solance 9mo ago
Yeah it's really hard to know how to market ideas well with little experience in the marketing field. Hoping some people out there will have some great advice for us! :)
- yashsm01 9mo ago
  Try to provide free for start if possible ...i wil share in my known network ...where are you from brother? Provide me your insta ID ?? i have contact of university ? may that help to recach out your network ???
  - yashsm01 9mo ago
    mine is yash___modi
    - Solance 9mo ago
      The Instagram for the app is Solance.app
  - Solance 9mo ago
    The app is currently completely free to use to entice more people to join and get a feel for it! I'm from Australia I will follow your Instagram now! That would be awesome if you have university contacts that would be interested in using an app like ours. Our key demographic would be people at the university age!
    - yashsm01 9mo ago
      is there Hindi Songs Available in your Plat For I am From India SO it easy to Spread your platform easyly ...

Rotundo 9mo ago

The current trend is to get off social media. A social media app based on music has a narrow audience anyway, in my opinion: young people that still find music important enough to make it a thing. For me (old), music is something to listen to, but certainly not be obsessed about. I find it an amazing success you have so many users to begin with! That signals that there is a market, you "just" have to focus in on it a bit more. What is the common factor of your current users? Market to that demographic. Leave the rest (for now).

Solance 9mo ago
Definitely trying to market to that demographic but still struggling to get decent traction unfortunately. So hard to know how these other apps and platforms manage to get such a large user base in a short time even with a large marketing budget. I feel like more social proof might be the answer but it's difficult to get that with a very limited marketing budget as I have.

prodigycorp 9mo ago

I really like the design of this. I think you have great taste. However, this is not something i'd use. The lesson going forward may be to talk to users earlier though, so you know what to build on earlier.

Solance 9mo ago
Yeah for sure and we did get great feedback on the idea prior to launch I just feel maybe we don't have enough features to keep drawing people back on to the app consistently yet. Social proof will also help once we can get some of that going too I hope!