"There's an app for that" went out of style as a catchphrase a while ago, but it's gotten more and more true over the years. Music has been one of the industries most profoundly affected by the rise of phone and tablet tools. App Annie, a company that tracks data regarding the booming industry, released its report for 2013, and indicated that revenues generated by music-based apps went up 77 percent from 2012. According to information from the companies report, the two major app vendors-the iOS App Store and Google Play-generated nearly $200 million from music-based apps during 2013.
App Annie didn't give specific numbers in its report, but it provided the list of the top ten apps. The ten apps can be summed up into three categories: music listening, music creating, and music recreating. Streaming and internet radio services dominated the list, including Pandora Radio at no. 1. Others included Rdio at no. 4, Deezer at no. 7, Slacker Radio at no. 8 and Free Music Download at no. 9. Music creation apps included Garage Band at no. 3 and Amplitube at no. 10. The music recreation apps (or services helping you recreate established music) included Magic Piano by Smule at no. 2, Ultimate Guitar Tabs at no. 5 and Sing! Karaoke at no. 6.
Now although software developers had a heck of a year generating revenues for music apps, don't confuse that with generating profits. App Annie didn't provide numbers to suggest how much was spent developing the products, so it's possible that some were generated at a loss by the companies involved, with profits coming from advertising included instead.
