CHAPTER ONE

Project Introduction

In a world that’s constantly evolving specially in the case of technology, Ethiopia is one of
the places where the people are trying to keep up with all the circumstances kept in mind. We
are gaining some level of technological development but we still need to update ourselves
with the rest of the world with an open mind and a willing motive.
One of the aspects that’s over seen is the music industry, while the rest of the world have
moved to many options, we’re still on the monetization and promotion level. Even though it
has a certain beauty, buying the CDs and mixtapes of your favourite artist, you benefit more
from streaming services to get any music you want regardless of where you are.
In Zema web app, we provide music that can be browsed or searched for via various
parameters, such as artist, album, genre, playlist. Users can create, edit and share playlists,
share tracks on social media, and make playlists with other users for free. While the artist can
benefit from his/her music to be featured on the web, which is a global platform.

1.1Background Information

Our story begins, as many do, with Thomas Edison. Before his invention of the
phonograph in 1877, music listeners could only listen to their favourite songs when
someone else was playing them, whether in a concert hall or at home. Music has been an
important part of human culture since prehistoric times (some experts believe music to
have emerged 30,000 to 60,000 years ago), but the phonograph completely revolutionized
its consumption.
In the 1890s, the transition to using flat-disc records began. The recording was etched
onto a disc that would be recognizable even today as a record. Interestingly, the
dominance of the record over the phonograph cylinder didn't come down to audio fidelity:
the main advantage of the disc record was that it could be more easily mass-produced. By
creating a master stamp, a number of records could be stamped in a short period of time,
whereas each phonograph cylinder had to be recorded individually, significantly slowing
the process.
Once manufacturers started making smaller, portable tape decks, the cassette's place in
music had been cemented. Portable stereos became more feasible than they had been
when the 8-track was the standard format, and adoption by the automobile industry
ensured a quick rise in popularity. An innovation possibly even more important than the
cassette itself, however, was released by Sony in 1979: the Walkman.
Fast forward a bit to The Streaming Revolution: Pandora
Though the title of "first music streaming service" isn't easy to bestow, Pandora easily
takes the "biggest early music streaming service" label. Launched in 2005, it pioneered
the style of music recommendation service that would grow to become one of the biggest
trends in modern music.
Within the past few years, online streaming has surpassed digital music sales, adding to
the worries that allowing listeners to access music for free. And although Zema will be
free to use all the artists and labels hold copyright to their work. This is just a demo
 platform to showcase how the base can be made and deployed for local companies’
interested take it as a guideline.
Our local music industry is trying to evolve, share our music, culture and sound to the rest
of the world. Zema is a web based app that could be the bridge that is most needed for
other companies to take as a guide line and use it as a stepping stone to provide streaming
services for the community. It all started as a mere idea of “What if we create a small
platform on the web that could show people that it’s not impossible to bring that
technology to us?” and that’s exactly what we did with Zema, giving it the sense of what
could be available as a music streaming app and the features that come with it.

1.2 Statement of the problem

The current resources for music that dominate are YouTube view revenues, Albums in the
form of CDs or Tapes. All of which are yes, options to distribute music but they also have
certain setbacks and problems that could really affect the way the music industry operates.
Some of which:-
 Theft
 Damaged hard drives
 Corrupted CDs or tapes etc.

1.3 Objectives
1.3.1 General Objective
The main objective of Zema is to provide a platform where people can listen to any
music with a quick visit online and expand the social functionality of a music
streaming app by enabling music lovers to simultaneously listen to songs with their
close friends and others.

1.3.2 Specific Objective

In order to fulfil the general objective, we needed to accomplish the following specific
objectives that are summarized as follow:-
 Allowing users to listen to an unlimited amount of music — almost any song or
album.
 Available on the web at all times.
 Flexibility of the platform.
 To share music on a global scale.
 To be Mobile responsive and feels like a native music player.

1.4 Scope of the project

By scope it is to show how wide complex is the system to be developed. It also includes
which parts of Zema will include and which features it won’t include.

In Scope
 Modern home page
A simple aesthetic look of the home page that won’t overwhelm users with flashy
light or bold fonts. It has a modern user interface that brings style just as much as
functionality.
  Genre options
The option to choose and explore a genre of music and see songs, artists or albums
that are available.
 Top charts
Users can see what genre of music and labels are currently consumed more than
any other and get on the train of music.
 A song’s lyrics and music video link mirror.
Every song will have its own window that contains lyrics and more info of the
artist and music.
 Top and Trending artists
The current trend of following trends especially when it comes to music we’ve
added the option for listeners to view what and who’s trending at the moment they
visit the app.
 Built in music player with features of Repeat, fast forward, change volume.
There won’t be a third party to play the audio, it will be available on the platform
its self with different features to ease the listeners experience.
 Search option to explore more artists and music of any genre.
An option for listeners to look up artists, songs, genres even playlist of their
choice and explore more in the world of music.

Out of scope
The following point will not be included in our project because of the structure of the
platform, lack of resources,
Some of them are:-
 Online payment system for artists.
 Customization of the app for listeners.
 A budget (it doesn’t need us to spend any money because it will be a freeware).
 Due to no need of budget we also don’t need any financial planning.
 To be downloaded as a standalone android (Apple OS) app.

Limitations of the project

Al though it brings certain advantages and features it still has some setbacks as a functional
project some of them being:-
 That it’s completely web dependent so it won’t be accessible without an internet
connection.

1.5 Tools and Methodologies

Methodologies
There are many types of approaching the project but our team chose to stick with a more
advanced languages and packages to make the most out of the platform. Which is more
modern and functional compared to the other ways of building a web app.
  Simplicity
 Easy to maintain
 Almost no financial costs
 Security
 Adequate modelling through diagrams.

1.5.1 Data Collection Method

Most the resources we used to build this project is the internet and different blogs
about music streaming services with additional study of the already existing
companies that provide the advanced form of the service.
Some smaller features could be:-
 Discussions with people and groups.
 Observing and studying the current state.

1.5.2 System development Method

Zema uses Feature-Driven Development

An iterative and incremental approach to software development, Feature-Driven
Development (FDD) is derived from the agile methodology and is considered one way to
implement it. Similar to Waterfall, FDD is typically viewed as an older methodology, a sort
of precursor to modern Lean/Agile implementations. FDD still focuses on the goal of
delivering working software frequently and is an especially client-centric approach, making it
a good fit for smaller development teams.
To produce tangible software often and efficiently, FDD has five steps, the first of which is to
develop an overall model. Next, build a feature list and then plan by each feature. The final
two steps—design by feature and build by feature—will take up the majority of the effort. At
each step, status reporting is encouraged and helps to track progress, results, and possible
errors.
Although efficient response to change is one of FDD’s better attributes, an understanding of
the client’s requirements and the overall model at the beginning of the project can reduce any
surprises during development. So in a more general sense we went with FDD method because
it will allow us to see how the app will look like and function during the development phase
and fix any errors, add more features we see fit and finally deploy with the option to maintain
even redo certain structures.

1.5.3 Development tools

Tools used in the building of this project is mainly Visual Studio Code with additional
 React Packages (like bootstrap, font awesome, npm packages, node js, Jason).
 Vite react app alternative.
 Different languages such as React Js, Tailwind, Redux, and java script, Rapid API,
css in addition of html).
1.6 Beneficiaries
A group that could be happy with it, are listeners. The ease with which users can access
tens of millions of songs in a matter of seconds is extremely appealing to a wide variety
of types of listeners, from the most casual to the most committed. statistic that shows just
how good online streaming is for listeners is that music piracy in Norway has actually
gone down by an astonishing 80 percent since streaming became more popular. And if
online streaming is better and easier than piracy, it's clear that it's good for listeners,
probably to the point of being bad for everyone else.
Besides being able to quickly access a monumental amount of music, of course, the
biggest advantage of this format is that it doesn't require terabytes of hard drive space to
store it all. Being able to stream it from the cloud and download a few albums at a time
for mobile listening is very space efficient --this was not the case in the days of Napster
and LimeWire, in which users had to download all of their music, which both took a long
time and required a huge amount of space.

1.7 Schedule
Due to the very tight schedule and the sudden report of an Exit exam for us, we had to
manage our time properly to prepare ourselves for it while the regular courses still going
on it making it very difficult to have the time and sit down as a group and code. So we
decided to break down the structure and handle the development on our own time and
schedule but have certain deadline dates to submit what we encoded to the project
manager (Mr. Alazar Yonas).
So the general plan is to finish up around 90% of the structure by the time of Final
Chapter submission which is December 16th, 2022. Then do the final recheck and
deployment towards the end of April 2nd, 2023.