Tell HN: 2 years building a kids audio app as a solo dev – lessons learned

137 pointsby oliverjanssenvor 6 Monaten78 comments

Hi,

I started Muky in April 2024. Classic side project that got out of hand. We have two kids - the younger one is happy with the Toniebox, but our older one outgrew it. She started asking for specific songs, audiobooks that aren't available as figurines, and "the music from that movie."

We had an old iPad Mini lying around and already pay for Apple Music. Felt dumb to keep buying €17/$20 figurines for 30-45 minutes of content when we have 100 million songs.

Now at version 4.0 after ~20 updates. Some lessons:

On the hardware vs app tradeoff: Toniebox and Yoto are brilliant for little ones – tactile, simple, no screen needed. But they hit a wall once kids want more. And handing a 5-year-old Apple Music means infinite scrolling and "Dad, what's this song about?" Muky sits in between – full library access, but parents control what's visible.

On sharing: Remember lending CDs or cassettes to friends? Or kids swapping Tonie figurines at a playdate? I wanted that for a digital app. So I built QR code sharing. Scan, import, done. And unlike a physical thing – both keep a copy.

On onboarding: First versions: empty app, figure it out yourself. Retention was awful. Now: 4-step onboarding that actually guides you. Should've done this from the start.

On content discovery: 100 million songs sounds great until you have to find something. Parents don't want to search – they want suggestions. Spent a lot of time building a Browse tab with curated albums and audiobooks for kids. Finally feels like the app helps you instead of just waiting for input.

On going native: Went with Swift/SwiftUI instead of Flutter or React Native. No regrets - SwiftUI is a joy to work with and performance is great. Android users ask for a port regularly. No capacity for that now, but Swift for Android is progressing (https://www.swift.org/documentation/articles/swift-sdk-for-a...). Maybe one day. CarPlay is another one parents keep asking for – going native should make that easier to add, if Apple grants me the entitlement.

On subscriptions vs one-time: Started with one-time purchase. Revenue spikes at launch, then nothing. Switched to subscription – existing one-time buyers kept full access. Harder to sell, but sustainable.

Ask me anything about indie iOS dev or building for kids. App is at https://muky.app if you're curious.

83 comments

hi_hivor 6 Monaten

My kid is 9. I feel like this is a good fit with how I would like her to experience music, especially the sharing and curation part. I have a few questions...

1. I bought her an "old school" mp3 player for Christmas, like an iPod. It's pretty good, but it's really missing the easy to use app similar to the original iTunes where she can load and manage songs by herself, without needing me to grab them from a folder, plug in the device, copy the songs across after it mounts, etc. Does Muky provide that functionaliy, like an iTunes for kids before everything went streaming and on-device?

2. She also loves audiobooks. You mention audiobooks, alongside Apple Music (I don't have Spotify). Does Apple Music support audiobooks? I would love a similar interface that promotes discover of songs, but for audiobooks.

Congrats on getting this out there. I truely believe there is a viable niche for kids music apps that sits between toddler and access to all-the-music-in-the-world-at-your-fingertips that becomes a huge time sink for kids who can't quite self regulate the shiny interface of modern streaming apps on mobile phones. I almost went down a rabbithole of building one myself, thinking, how hard can it be...thank you for saving me the 2 years to understand its hard! :-)