Poland music chart #3, a DJ app from a Vietnamese factory: an old category, a new country to run ads in
What it is A phone DJ app made by a tools-app factory in Da Nang, Vietnam: dual turntables for mixing, drum pads, a drum kit, recording and editing in one app, earning from ads.
Why it took off It bought installs in countries where the music charts are easy to crack (Poland, Sweden, Italy, the Netherlands). Around 10K installs a day got it into the top 10, and a rating prompt kept its score at 4.5.
CHow you could follow it Stop building DJ apps. Copy the playbook instead: pick a stable old-category tool, run small country-by-country paid installs aimed at the mid-sized European category charts, and check whether organic chart installs plus ad revenue beat the cost of acquisition.
- Data (updated daily) · first launch 2026-09-04 · 11-07 installs 187,343
Android · Total installs worldwide Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations). Google's detail page only refreshes install counts every other day, so a flat day doesn't mean nobody installed.Android · Ratings count (cumulative) Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations)
A phone DJ tool, launched two months ago, with the same features as dozens of identically named apps on Google Play. In Nov 6 it ranked behind Spotify and Suno on Poland's free music chart. The product has nothing new. What it did right was skip the crowded India and Southeast Asia markets and buy installs across European countries where the charts are easy to crack. Below: what it is, where the installs came from, where the money comes from, and whether you can use this playbook.
ranked behind Spotify and Suno
Nov 6, 2026, Google Play Poland, Music & Audio, free chart: #1 Spotify, #2 Suno, #3 "DJ Mixer - DJ Music Studio", #4 JBL's official headphone app, Shazam at #9.
That same day it ranked #4 in Sweden, #5 in Italy, #6 in the Netherlands, #7 in France and Spain, #10 in Germany, #11 in the UK, and only #53 in the US.
Two more numbers show how "cheap" that rank is. Spotify added about 9.26M installs globally that week; this DJ app added 71k (Google Play installs, 10-30 to 11-06). At roughly 10K installs a day spread across seven or eight European countries, you can crack the top 10 of each country's category chart.
What it is
A grab bag: two virtual turntables and a crossfader for mixing two tracks, with EQ and bass boost, 16 drum pads, 6 drum kits (concert, electronic, jazz, plus an "African traditional percussion" kit), recording, and an audio editor for cutting and fades. The store blurb says "mix songs, make beats, and drum like a DJ."
None of these features are new on Play. Search "DJ Mixer" and a whole screen of near-identical apps comes up. It launched in 2026-4 Sep, updated to 1.0.3 in Oct 22, runs ads, and sells in-app purchases at $2.99–7.99 each.
It's made by TOMODEV JSC, a company in Da Nang, Vietnam. From 8 through October, it published at least 6 apps on Play that have nothing to do with each other: a control-center theme, home workouts, DJ Mixer, the origami game Origami Joy, a fitness tracker, AI video generation. This is a tools-app factory.
Where the traffic comes from
Bought installs by country, high confidence (inferred). Three reasons:
- The country mix doesn't look organic. Rankings for similar factory apps from Vietnam and India mostly land in India, South Africa, Nigeria, and Vietnam, since organic search traffic usually starts in the US and India. This one went to #10 in Poland, Sweden, Italy, and the Netherlands together, while the US only reached #53.
- Another app from the same studio, Origami Joy (launched Sep 17), followed the same playbook: it also started in Poland, and on day 8,7 it added 60k installs in the Poland Arts & Design free chart, with 11-06 as the first market. A DJ tool and an origami game have nothing in common, yet the country route is identical. That looks more like a fingerprint of the paid acquisition strategy than a coincidence.
- The developer website listed in the store is lutech.vn/app-ads.txt, and opening it gives a full ad-monetization list: AdMob, Meta Audience Network, AppLovin, Mintegral, Pangle, Unity, TopOn, plus a string of resellers. This is the standard setup for "buy installs, then earn it back through ad mediation." Lutech Digital is also based in Da Nang and calls itself a company that "invests in and develops apps and games"; I couldn't find out from outside how the two are related (unverified).
How much was spent, and whether it went to Google or to ad networks, isn't visible from outside.
Chart exposure and store search. The title and description are packed with DJ mixer, beat maker, drum pads, bass booster, audio editor. Once it breaks into the top 10, the chart itself brings in some organic installs. I can't estimate what share that is.
No content-driven spread. Searching its name on TikTok returns nothing, nobody mentions it on X, and on the web there are only auto-generated pages from APK download sites and app-data sites. No one is recommending it.
How the 4.5 rating came about
As of 11-06 it has 1,626 ratings, averaging 4.51. The star breakdown: 5-star 1,309,4, 112,3-star 67,2, 0,1-star 135, 7 ratings with written text.
Almost all of them are star-only with no text. The fact that 2-star is exactly 0 looks like a rating prompt that first asks "do you like it?" and only sends people who say yes to Play to rate (inferred). The daily rating growth also changes shape: late October it added 30–40 a day, and 11-06 it added 160 a day, which lines up with when paid volume went up.
The most prominent review on the store page is the kind that didn't get filtered out. Morgan Jones, Oct 11,1, one star:
TRASH! Got hit with 3 ads before I ever had a chance to use the app. NO THANK YOU (Trash! Hadn't even gotten to use it before it ran 3 ads on me. No thanks.)
40 people marked it helpful. The other two reviews near the top read "hfmjhd now what is" and "YOUNG BOY GH BOSS."
Where the money comes from
Mostly ads, with in-app purchases as a supplement. Judging by that 1-star review, the ads are very aggressive: they pop up as soon as you open the app, and you have to watch before you can use it.
It hasn't charted on any country's top-grossing list. Whether paid acquisition plus ad monetization pays back isn't visible from outside. What is visible: after 11-04 it kept adding volume, and rating growth rose several-fold. Buyers usually only add spend to products that are paying back (inferred).
Why Europe: first, the charts are easy to crack. In the top 10 of Poland's and Sweden's music charts, besides Spotify, Suno, Shazam, SoundCloud, and JBL, you find radio apps and a few AI songwriting tools. A factory DJ app needs little volume to squeeze in. Second, ad CPMs in Europe are far higher than in India or Southeast Asia, so each impression can earn several times more (estimated).
Who it's competing with
This is an already-overbuilt category.
| Product | Who made it | Launched | Total installs | 7 new in the last day | How it differs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| edjing Mix | MWM (France) | 2012 | 116M | 119k | A real DJ brand, subscription-based, has charted top grossing |
| djay | Algoriddim | 2015 | 25.1M | 85k | Pro DJ app, streaming integration, AI stem separation |
| Drum Pad Machine | agminstruments | 2014 | 223M | 83k | The category leader for drum pads |
| DJ Music mixer - DJ Mix Studio | Easyelife | 2023 | 79.1M | 260k | Same kind of factory product, aimed at emerging markets |
| DJ Mixer Studio - DJ Music Mix | Mobile_V5 | 2023 | 54.7M | 297k | Same as above |
| DJ Mixer Studio - Beat Maker | TBS Solution (Vietnam) | 2025-08 | 4.15M | 195k | Hit $4M in a year |
| Octapad: Pro Kits & Mixer | SCA Software | 2026-09-26 | 610k | 210k | Launched around the same time, ramped faster, mostly in India |
Google Play installs, 11-06.
Note its absolute volume isn't large: similar factory apps add more than ~7k a day in their first 200 days, and this one added 70k. It stands out because it put those 70k installs where nobody else was.
Copycats have already appeared: in Oct 25, FunGear Inc published "DJ Mixer Studio & DJ Mix Music," which quickly charted in 18 countries. There's also "DJ Mixer - DJ Music Studio 3D" (Lavender Dev, 500+ installs) with an almost identical package name. Whether that's a shell company or a straight copy, I can't tell. This category has always been full of copied names.
If it were you
Verdict: C. Don't copy the DJ app itself; the product has already been cloned to death, and it hasn't made visible money. What's worth learning is the acquisition playbook: an old-category tool, skipping emerging markets where factory apps compete on volume, targeting the mid-sized European category charts. Around 10K installs a day gets you into the top 10, and you also pick up organic exposure from the chart.
Who it's for: small teams that already have one or two tool apps, can run Google App Campaigns or ad-network buys, can work out what one install costs and how much ad revenue one user earns, and ideally already have a product that plugs into an ad mediation stack.
Who it's not for: solo devs who've never run paid acquisition and are counting on organic traffic (this route starts with spending money); anyone who wants subscriptions or a brand (these users come to play for a while, and ads are the main revenue); anyone who only wants to build one more DJ app (the same-name apps already fill a screen).
How to do it: pick a stable old category that's easy to build (DJ, drum pads, piano, recording, wallpapers, step counting). Start by checking the free category charts in countries like Poland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Czechia, and Portugal. If the top 10 only has big-company official apps and old radio apps, the bar is low. Match the category's average product quality. Don't stack three full-screen ads on open the way it does; retention will be better.
How to acquire users: buy installs country by country with a small budget to start, aiming for a few hundred to over a thousand installs a day, and see whether you can crack the top 10 of the category chart. Once you're in, track how much organic volume comes in on top and whether ad revenue covers acquisition cost. If it does, scale up; if not, switch to the next category. An in-app rating prompt that keeps your score around 4.5 is what keeps store conversion holding up.
How long this window lasts: few people know about this route yet, but copycats are already moving into the same countries. How long the cheap European small-country charts stay cheap is unclear, so the sooner you test the better. Keep the first round to a month or two and decide based on the results.
Signs you've misread it: ① it drops off European country charts in late November or December and doesn't add volume again, which means the spending isn't paying back; ② over the next month or two, several similar factory apps appear in the top 10 of Poland's and Sweden's music charts, which means the bar has gone up and the open slot is gone; ③ among TOMODEV's batch, only these two are still being paid for while the rest have stopped, which means it's a bet, not a playbook that's been proven to work.
Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report
- Competitors
Name Where Launched Scale How it differs from this one edjing Mix Android 2012 116M installs, +7k in 119 days, has charted top grossing A real DJ brand, subscription-based; this one is an ad-monetized grab bag djay (Algoriddim) Android 2015 25.1M installs Pro DJ, streaming integration, AI stem separation, subscription Drum Pad Machine Android 2014 223M installs The category leader for drum pads, selling content packs; this app's drum pads are just a side feature Beat Maker Pro (MWM) Android 2018 93.7M installs Drum pad subscription product, Western brand DJ Music mixer - DJ Mix Studio (Easyelife) Android 2023 79.1M installs, +260k in 7 days Same kind of factory product, much higher volume, main market in Vietnam / India-type markets DJ Mixer Studio - Beat Maker (TBS Solution) Android 2025-08 4.15M installs, +195k in 7 days A Vietnamese factory product of the same kind, hit $4M in a year; country mix skews to emerging markets Octapad: Pro Kits & Mixer (SCA Software) Android 2026-09-26 610k installs, 7 days +210k Launched around the same time, ramped faster, mostly in India Cross DJ (MixVibes) Android 2014 34.6M installs Veteran semi-pro DJ app rekordbox / WeDJ (Pioneer DJ) Android 2017/2021 1.94M / 4.14M installs Official app from a hardware maker, aimed at real DJs - Where users come from
- Inferred Paid acquisition / ad networks (buying Europe by country): it reached the top 10 of several European small-country category charts at once, and the country shape doesn't look organic. The same developer's Origami Joy followed the same Poland-first path. The developer website points to lutech.vn/app-ads.txt, which lists a full AdMob / AppLovin / Mintegral / Pangle / Unity monetization stack. Our ad library doesn't cover it.
- Inferred Store search (ASO) + category chart exposure: the title and description are packed with keywords like DJ Mixer, DJ Music Studio, beat maker, and drum pads. After it hit the top 5 in PL / SE / IT, the chart brought in organic exposure.
- Verified In-app rating prompt: of 1,626 ratings, only 7 have written text. 5 are 1,309-star and 2 are 0-star. Average rating 4.5 (app_snap 11-06).
- Inferred TikTok / X / media: TikHub, x-radar and web search all came up empty on this one
Why DJ Mixer - DJ Music Studio (TOMODEV JSC) is taking off
- Package: com.djmixer.djmusicmix.studioeditor; Google Play, Music & Audio; store launch 2026-09-04; version 1.0.3 (updated 2026-10-22/23)
- Developer: TOMODEV JSC (TOMODEV TECHNOLOGY JOINT STOCK COMPANY), Da Nang, Vietnam, 72-74 Lê Đại Hành; emails [email protected] / [email protected]
- Monetization: ads + in-app purchases $2.99–$7.99/item (googleplay library app_snap, 2026-11-06)
Bottom line
This is a utility-app factory's Da Nang build: a "dual-deck DJ + 16 drum pads + drum kit + recording/editing" mashup. Functionally it's no different from the dozens of same-named DJ Mixer apps on Play. It got traction through distribution tactics: pushing installs into smaller European markets like Poland, Sweden, Italy and the Netherlands, where the Music & Audio free chart is easy to crack. Around 10k daily installs is enough to reach the top 10. It pays back through ads (aggregated via AdMob / AppLovin / Mintegral / Pangle) plus a little in-app purchase revenue. The same developer's other app, Origami Joy, runs the same playbook and hit #8 in the Art & Design chart in Poland.
1. The data: how it grew
Source: googleplay library (app_snap / chart_rank, 2026-10-29 to 11-06).
| Date | Total installs | Score | Best rank on the Music category free chart |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-29 | 115,896 | 1,070 | Italy 36 |
| 10-31 | 146,112 | 1,163 | Italy 49 |
| 11-02 | 170,358 | 1,240 | Italy 50 |
| 11-04 | 170,358 | 1,367 | Italy / Poland 16 |
| 11-05 | 175,684 | 1,466 | Poland 6 |
| 11-06 | 187,343 | 1,626 | Poland 3 |
- 7 days of new installs totaling 71,447, averaging about 10k/day. Play's maxInstalls only updates every few days, so single-day figures can't be used directly.
- Daily new ratings rose from 30–40 to 160 (11-06), which suggests they've been scaling up acquisition since 11-04.
- 11-06 charted in 30 charts: Music category free chart Poland 3, Sweden 4, Italy 5, Netherlands 6, France 7, Spain 7, Germany 10, UK 11, Australia 22, Canada 27, US 53; overall app chart Poland 131, Sweden 179, Italy 181 (chart_rank).
- Rating 4.51; star distribution [1★ 135, 2★ 0, 3★ 67, 4★ 112, 5★ 1309]; only 7 reviews include written text. Nearly all ratings are star-only, which usually means Google's rating prompt was triggered inside the app. 2 stars is exactly 0, which looks unnatural. The most prominent review on the store page is a 1-star one: "Installed it, hadn't used it yet, and already saw 3 ads" (Morgan Jones, 2026-10-11,39 people found it helpful) (Play store page, read via r.jina.ai).
For comparison, established and factory-made apps doing the same thing on Play typically add 7 new installs a day, mostly between 50k and 300k (see the competitor table). This one's absolute volume isn't large. Its high chart standing comes from strong rankings in the smaller European country category charts.
2. Competitors (googleplay library app_profile, 2026-11-06)
There are a huge number of products doing the same thing (phone DJ / drum pads / beat maker). It's a category that's already been saturated:
| Product | Developer | Launched | Total installs | 7 new in the last day | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| edjing Mix | MWM (France) | 2012 | 116M | 119k | A legitimate DJ brand, subscription-based, charted on Top Grossing (#12 in Argentina's music category) |
| djay | Algoriddim | 2015 | 25.1M | 85k | A pro DJ app that integrates streaming and offers AI stem separation, #23 in UK Top Grossing music |
| Cross DJ | MixVibes | 2014 | 34.6M | 82k | An established semi-professional app |
| rekordbox / WeDJ | Pioneer DJ | 2017/2021 | 1.94M / 4.14M | — | Official app from a hardware maker |
| Drum Pad Machine | agminstruments from the Easybrain family | 2014 | 223M | 83k | The leader in the drum pad category |
| Beat Maker Pro | MWM | 2018 | 93.7M | 115k | Drum pads, subscription |
| DJ Music mixer - DJ Mix Studio | Easyelife | 2023 | 79.1M | 260k | The same kind of factory app, aimed at markets like Vietnam and India |
| DJ Mixer Studio - DJ Music Mix | Mobile_V5 | 2023 | 54.7M | 297k | Same as above |
| DJ Mixer Studio - Beat Maker | TBS Solution(asianmobile) | 2025-08 | 4.15M | 195k | A Vietnamese factory app that reached $4M in a year |
| DJ Mix Studio - DJ Music Mixer | iMediaStar | 2025-05 | 5.68M | 204k | Same as above |
| Octapad: Pro Kits & Mixer | SCA Software | 2026-09-26 | 610k | 210k | Launched around the same time, ramped faster, mostly in India |
| DJ Mixer Studio & DJ Mix Music | FunGear inc | 2026-10-25 | 14k | — | Launched just over a month later and already charting in 18 countries |
| DJ Mixer - DJ Music Studio 3D(com.djmixer.djmusicmix.editorstudio) | Lavender Dev | 2026-10 | 500+ | — | Nearly identical name, package prefix and description (see "Copycats" below) |
Big-platform features: Spotify has discontinued its DJ mixing API for 2023 years; YouTube Music and Spotify only offer automatic transitions / AI DJ, not manual turntable mixing, so they're not a direct substitute.
Takeaway: this category has many competitors and is already crowded with factory apps from Vietnam and India. This app's feature set (dual decks + drum pads + 6 drum kits + recording + editing) is simply a bundle of what similar apps offer, with no visible unique capability.
3. Growth: where users come from
- Paid acquisition / ad network swaps (inferred, fairly confident)
- The developer website points to lutech.vn/app-ads.txt. It's a complete ad monetization list: AdMob (2 pub IDs), Meta Audience Network (3), Pangle, Unity, AppLovin, Mintegral, TopOn, plus a long list of resellers (2026-11-06 in total). That's a typical setup for "buy installs first, then recover the money via ad mediation." lutech.vn belongs to Lutech Digital: also based in Da Nang, founded 4 years ago, describing itself on LinkedIn as "investing in and developing Android / iOS apps and games." Play also has accounts like LUTECH and Lutech Tools (Jina search). TOMODEV is likely a publishing account within the Lutech ecosystem, or a partner, sharing the same monetization and distribution backend (ownership relationship between the two not verified).
- The combination of countries where it climbed charts is unusual: Poland, Sweden, Italy, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Germany. Similar Vietnamese factory apps usually chart in India, South Africa, Nigeria and Vietnam (see best_cat_chart in the competitor table), and organic search traffic usually starts from the US and India. This pattern of smaller European countries all pushing into the top 10 together looks more like Google App Campaigns or ad-network buys by country than organic traffic. The same developer's Origami Joy, listed in Sep 17, also started in Poland (#8 in the Art & Design free chart, followed by Sweden, Turkey and the UK). Two completely unrelated apps from the same company following the same country route is a trace of the distribution strategy.
- Our Google / Meta / TikTok (Europe) ad libraries show no results for TOMODEV, lutech, or this package name (2026-11-06). However, these libraries only track a set list of products, so a lack of results doesn't prove there's no spend.
- Store search (ASO): the title stuffs in keywords like DJ Mixer and DJ Music Studio, and the description repeats terms like DJ mixer, beat maker, drum pads, bass booster and audio editor, targeting long-tail search. Once it reached the top of the category chart, chart visibility brought in some organic installs too. The share of that not verified.
- Rating management: out of 1,626 ratings, only 7 include text, nearly all are 5 stars, and 2 stars is 0. It's safe to say a rating prompt appears inside the app, and it probably asks "do you like it?" first, sending only people who like it on to Play to rate. A 4.5 rating helps its conversion rate in the store compared with similar apps.
- Content / creators / media: no results on TikTok (TikHub searches for "DJ Mixer DJ Music Studio" and "dj mixer app"), none on X (x-radar search for tomodev returned zero posts), and on the web only APK sites, AppBrain and Similarweb-type index pages. No sign of organic buzz.
IV. Why it took off
- Demand for the category is steady: phone DJing and drum pads have long been part of Play's music category, the audience skews young and entertainment-focused, and it suits ad monetization. Factory-made competitors reaching tens of millions of installs show the model works.
- Choosing markets with low barriers to chart: on the Music & Audio free chart in Poland, Sweden and the Netherlands, apart from the top 10, most of the list is Spotify, Suno, Shazam, JBL and radio apps (chart_rank #11-06 in Poland, top 12). About 10k installs a day split across several countries is enough to squeeze into the top 10, and once charted it gets more organic exposure.
- Factory-style distribution: the same developer launched Control Center themes, Home Workout, DJ Mixer, Origami Joy, GymWorkout, AI Video and at least 6 other apps between 2026 and October 8, with no connection between categories. The 7 apps in the library total 1.33M installs (developer table). This is the "test many, scale up whichever pays back" approach, and DJ Mixer and Origami Joy were the two that worked this round.
- Using rating prompts to keep the score around 4.5 and protect store conversion.
5. Differentiation
Its product has no differentiation: the feature set is a collection of what similar apps offer (dual decks, drum pads, 6 drum kits, recording, editing, plus bass boost). What does set it apart is its distribution choice: where others cluster in India, Southeast Asia and Latin America, it pushes volume into smaller European countries, where chart thresholds are low, ad CPMs are higher than in emerging markets, and users are more willing to pay. So its "differentiation" is in geographic distribution, not in the product, and that's what made it work.
6. Visibility and copycats
- Visibility: few people know about it yet. No public revenue, no media coverage, no discussion on X or TikTok. Only auto-indexed pages on AppBrain, Similarweb, APKPure, Aptoide and appfigures (#18 in the Trinidad and Tobago music chart).
- Copycats: Play already has com.djmixer.djmusicmix.editorstudio, "DJ Mixer - DJ Music Studio 3D", from developer Lavender Dev, 500+ installs, 2026-10-19 updates. The package prefix, app name and description structure are nearly identical. It could be the same operation rebranded, or simply copying, not verified. Separately, FunGear inc launched "DJ Mixer Studio & DJ Mix Music" in Oct 25, which has also charted in 18 countries. But this category has always copied names from each other, so it's hard to say who copied whom.
VII. What others can borrow
- Use an old-category utility app approach: skip the India and Southeast Asia fight with factory apps and go after the category charts in smaller European countries. Low barriers, higher ad CPMs, and about 10k installs a day is enough to crack the top 10, plus organic exposure from the chart.
- One publishing account launching several unrelated apps, with the same monetization SDK and the same country-targeting route, scaling up whichever one pays back.
- Prompt for ratings in-app, filter for mood first, and keep the score around 4.5 to support store conversion.
8. What's still uncertain
- Whether it's actually buying installs, how much, and through which channels (Google UAC, Meta, or ad-network swaps). Our ad libraries don't cover this.
- What the exact relationship between TOMODEV and Lutech Digital is.
- Whether ads and in-app purchases are profitable: it hasn't entered any top-grossing charts, and 1-star reviews complaining about ads suggest it's aggressive with ad load.
- Retention: too few reviews to judge. What the relationship is between Lavender Dev's "3D" version and this one.
Sources
- googleplay library (agent-im server DuckDB): app_snap, chart_rank, app_profile, app, developer, 2026-10-29 to 2026-11-06
- Play store page: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.djmixer.djmusicmix… (2026-11-06 read via r.jina.ai)
- Developer page: play.google.com/store/apps/dev?id=6816615380285202076
- app-ads.txt:lutech.vn/app-ads.txt (2026-11-06)
- TOMODEV:tomodev.vn/ ,www.facebook.com/tomodev.vn/ ;Lutech Digital:www.linkedin.com/company/lutech-digital
- Suspected copycat package: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.djmixer.djmusicmix…
- Ad libraries googleads / tiktokads / metaads searched for tomodev, lutech, djmixer: no results (2026-11-06); TikHub and x-radar: no results