“Meet the App Creators” is a series featuring mobile app developers and designers. We talk about their inspirations, ideas, tips and the future of apps. 

 This week we talked with Mic Pringle, creator of Audium. Here is our conversation with him

How did you get the idea of creating Audium?

Audium is my first app and as such I used the development as a learning process. I wanted to build something that would appeal to me personally and which I would use. I’m really into my music so decided that would be a good direction to follow and which would help maintain my focus. I’m a huge fan of app’s that do one thing, and do it well. Great design is also a big draw for me. I wanted my app to encompass all these things, but also have its own unique concept. Once I started thinking along these lines, it wasn’t long before I came up with the idea for Audium.

Why did you create Audium? 

 I’m not a fan of the stock iPod app, I feel its design is terribly bland and its quite feature bloated. I’ve tried many third party music app’s (and continue to do so) but I feel the majority of them are trying to compete directly with, and out-feature, the iPod app rather than provide something that is designed to co-exist.

Why the name Audium? 

 Audium was originally called Unplayed, but at the request of another indie developer who already had a product with that name, albeit in a different space, I changed the name. Audium is simply a mash-up between Audio and Album, which I also thought, sounded pretty cool. 

What is your favorite iPhone app? 

This is a really tough question to answer as there are so many I use daily, including Kinetik! But if I really have to pick one I’d say Tweetbot. I have a huge respect for what both Paul Haddad and Mark Jardine have achieved on the iOS platform, and for the quality of the app’s they deliver. People say that Apple has made all other handset manufactures up their game; I feel Tapbot’s have done the same in the app development space.

What is your favorite band? Easy; Pink Floyd.

What are joys of creating apps?

The frameworks, the tools, the devices, the open-source community, the indie developer community, the speed in which you can take an idea and have something up and running on a device; there are far too many to list.

What are the limitations of creating apps?

Right now I personally don’t really feel there are any. My app’s don’t really push the devices to their limits so I don’t find myself restricted by the devices themselves. Also, I know a lot has been made of Apple’s walled approach and their review process but I just see them as a necessary evil. I’m more than happy developing for Apple’s ‘closed’ platform.

What is the future of app development?

It’s huge; the space grows year on year, and more and more opportunities for people like me are appearing. Apple has brought the idea of the ‘bedroom developer’ back from the eighties and it seems to have been even more successful this time around.

What are you working on right now?

I’m currently working on a huge update to Audium, but I’m also dividing my time between another music related app, and a photo app; both of which are new, top secret projects.

Some cool sites you visit on a regular basis for design/development?

For design inspiration I can be found lurking around Dribbble and popular review sites like Beautiful Pixels. For development GitHub, Ray Wenderlich’s site and Stack Overflow are all a god send. Ole Begemann also has some really good iOS content on his site