music & video
music & video
Topline: Music recording app
for Abbey Road Studios
Software for creating, recording and sharing tracks
Topline by Abbey Road Studios was created to streamline the music writing process, enable artists to capture the initial creative spark and prevent emerging and fleeting ideas from being lost. A user-friendly, minimalistic app makes it possible to record and stack tracks neatly. Topline is the first-ever music application which lets artists save their music ideas instantly and accurately before the moment is gone. It lets them record tracks, add lyrics, share files and sync them to the cloud, saving space on the device. Thanks to Topline, creating songs has become much easier, and the app has become a viable part of the process.
From iOS launch to Flutter success
Topline was initially launched for iOS, though Abbey Road Studios received numerous requests for an Android version. The Miquido team created the native iOS app and Android version in just ten weeks, overcoming the audio latency issues through Flutter development. The results speak for themselves: Topline was officially featured on Google I/O in May 2018 and Flutter Live in 2018. Google also showcased it in a series of Flutter Developer Stories and announced it as a winner of the UK App Awards 2018 in 2 categories.
5/5
App store rating
10K+
downloads on Android
2 weeks
for the MVP (Flutter)
Watch the official Google video
Google appreciated the solution, which received official recognition at Google I/O and Flutter Live 2018. It was a two-time winner at the UK App Awards.
Featured at Google I/O 2018Music App of the Year 2018
Best UX and UI Design 2018
Challenges
Keeping up with ever-evolving technology
Music production switched to mobile following the digital revolution. To maintain a competitive edge, studios have to keep pace with the changes. Nowadays, musicians require easily attainable technologies that facilitate the creative process on the go. To meet the demand for modern tech solutions, Abbey Roads Studios aimed to provide an app that would address the creators’ needs and help keep their great ideas from fading. The application would grant an accessible entry point to recording and could bridge the gap between the budding artists’ DIY approach and professional studios with high-end equipment.
Creating a collaboration space for music creators
Voice memos and mp3 files stored randomly on various mobile devices do not favour smooth creative cooperation. Being able to record an idea is one thing, though the direct and clear-cut distribution of the audio captures is a separate issue to tackle. Abbey Road Studios accounted for the creative process difficulties and wanted to provide an app simplifying storing, organising, drive syncing, converting and direct file sharing to make musical collaboration as smooth as possible. Remote collaboration requires tools and workflows to ensure seamless communication and quality across distances.
Optimising the workflow of creative processes
So far, it has been a common practice for musicians to use separate and unsynced tools for recording and importing audio files, integrating and locating projects, organizing them, converting to M4A (IOS) or MP3 (Android) and finally, sharing the files. Working with musicians, Abbey Roads Studios was well aware of the technical hardship that may get in the way of the process of demo creation; hence, they wanted to provide one app to facilitate the creative workflow. The goal was to enable easy file transfer and tracking, add lyrics, tags and pictures, make finding previous work super-fast, and synch songs to a cloud drive. Streamlining the creative process through a mobile app enables quick songwriting and capturing ideas, which can be brought to the studio for further development.
Solutions
Application enabling instant music idea recording
To meet Abbey Road’s expectations at a fast pace and deliver an application facilitating musical endeavours, Miquido turned to Flutter. At the time, Google released the alpha version of the cross-platform UI toolkit designed to reuse code across operating systems such as iOS and Android. The baseline version provided fundamental API, including graphics, text arrangement, file and network operations, plugin architecture, and accessibility support, together with Dart runtime and compilation toolset.
The goal was to deliver a well-performing app that felt natural on iOS and Android, embracing the system’s distinct features while sharing as much code as possible. As a result, after ten weeks of intense work supported by Google, Miquido delivered an Android app which had not compromised on any of the features available for iOS users. Music writers were given a chance to capture their music ideas, no matter when and where they sprang to mind or which mobile system they were using.
Facilitator of smooth creative process and collaboration
To create an app that would aid musicians and their creative processes, it was crucial to grasp the Abbey Road Studios vibe and provide the key functionalities that would truly contribute to the workflow. Miquido aimed to provide a digital application that would map the functioning of a traditional music creation process in an actual studio. To keep the resemblance, the Topline app refers to Abbey Road Studios also on the visual layer.
Apart from the simplicity of the provided recording solution, the app enables users to add notes, photos, tags, and locations based on GPS and, most of all, store and share files. Users can catalogue and share files easily, sing over imported tracks, add lyrics, tags and pictures, find previous work super-fast, and always have space for new ideas by synching songs to their cloud. Topline goes beyond a simple recording tool; it facilitates the idea exchange, keeping the Abbey Road Studio’s user experience.
A multifunctional recording app for songwriters
Another advantage of the Topline app is the additional features enabling users to work with the saved track. After downloading the app, the user is presented with three tracks to work within a simple interface. They can sing over an imported track or add up to two audio tracks to their original file.
On top of this, it is possible to add lyrics, tags and pictures with the option to import files from various places. Users can also back up their projects on Google Drive, Dropbox and other services. The app enables importing audio files, recording up to 3 audio layers in a single project, and adding reverb using built-in presets. Having collaborated with a number of emerging songwriters and producers, Abbey Road Studios aimed at meeting their actual creative needs.
Services & tech stack
iOS development
Swift, Realm, Snapkit,
RxSwift, Firebase
Android development
Flutter, Dart,
Kotlin, Java
User research
QA
Results
Facilitation of the music-making process
Working closely with up-and-coming songwriters and producers in London, Abbey Road aimed at delivering an application responding to their creative needs. As a result, they launched Topline, an app meant to instantly capture unique song concepts that might otherwise vanish into thin air or get buried within endless voice memos. Topline empowers the creativity of music makers and facilitates collaboration with other musicians. The songwriting app tackles the most recurring challenge of music creators: the necessity of capturing song ideas instantly.
Enthusiastic reception in the music industry
The outcome was remarkable: Topline received official recognition at Google I/O in May 2018 and Flutter Live. The app gained appreciation as Google honoured it as a two-time winner at the UK App Awards 2018 as the Music App of the Year and for Best UX and Design. The application was downloaded over ten thousand times on Android and scored five on five by Apple users. Our app is listed on the official Flutter website as a featured story with a 100% success metrics parameter regarding feature parity across Android and iOS.
Handy features and user-friendly interface
Topline is a turning point in music app development, combining the latest sound recording technology with intuitive UX/UI. After downloading the application, there are three tracks to work within a simple interface. The user can either sing over an imported track or upload up to two audio tracks to the original file. On top of this, it’s possible to add lyrics, tags and pictures with the option to import files from various places. With Topline, it is also possible to back up projects on Google Drive, Dropbox and other services. The app also offers geo-tagging capabilities to note where a recording took place.
The priority was to enable recording and replaying the stored audio files. At the same time, we were committed to building a straightforward and intuitive interface to provide users with easy access to their files and allow immediate yet simple data recording. Topline is suitable for both IOS and Android, which makes it possible to convert and share files between the systems. The Miquido team developed both the native iOS app and its Flutter version within a swift 10-week timeframe, successfully tackling audio latency challenges on Android. Using the Flutter framework, Miquido was able to develop cross-platform solutions for Topline much quicker. What’s more, working with Flutter simplified further app development, ensuring code’s reusability and facilitating releases of new functionalities. The app was developed within Flutter’s Alpha version, an innovative solution at the time, which turned out to be one of the most popular and stable cross-platform SDKs.
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