The professional music industry can be a difficult world to navigate for emerging & early-career music artists.
Muse is a platform that was created with the purpose of connecting music artists entering the industry with their audience and network to make authentic connections, grow their career and ultimately make the industry a less daunting place.
Case study conducted by Elisha Fitri
Mobile App
Interview
Prototype
Muse.
Connecting musicians, connecting music.
USER RESEARCH
PRIMARY RESEARCH
Speaking to users
I conducted interviews with five members of the community. Each participant was unique in their field, background, skills, goals, and stage of their career. It was important for me to research a diverse group of participants to ensure a range of responses and attempt to represent the community as best as I could with a limited number of participants.
Click on dropdowns to view each participant:
Participant A
Violinist of a post-punk, jazz-layered band that formed earlier this year and is in talks about gaining management and a record release
Participant B
Techno DJ with sound healing and spiritual influences, rewriting what it means to be a “typical” musician
Participant C
One half of a DJ duo recently named as an “up-and-comer” and making their first international debut
Participant D
Anonymous member of a small punk band based in Connecticut, US, that began as a joke but found online viral success
Participant E
Teenage aspiring singer and songwriter and their dad, a professional, experienced music producer based in Australia
Following both primary and secondary research objectives, I organised mind maps and affinity maps of potential interview questions into the three main areas I wanted to investigate:
Affinity mapping during the primary research phase allows for better organisation of objectives
DATA SYNTHESIS
What were the responses?
I used the interview data to create continuum groups and multiple-choice visualisations based on commonly mentioned topics, mental models and opinions that fell under my three research objectives. The visualisations revealed that most users felt confident in their current place in their industry based on an optimistic outlook on their futures. However, most felt disheartened by the lack of access to the industry. In addition to this, many were concerned by a high sense of competition in the industry and a large gap between seasoned professionals and those just starting out.
Examples of continuum groupings based on primary research findings
Task flow of typical target user: connecting with an industry professional via social media
Algorithms: Good or Bad?
INSIGHT
While most participants expressed similar concerns and perspectives, the opinion around algorithmic recommendations for the purpose of discoverability (think: Spotify song recommendations, Instagram suggested posts, Tik Tok's 'For You' page) varied greatly. This was an important aspect to consider regarding the final solution as it showed that there was a need for choice and user control.
The variation in responses was due to a mixed interpretation of the question based on the perspective of the interview participant and whether they first considered themselves primarily being a musician or a listener. Participants who primarily contextualised themselves as a musician considered the algorithm as a tool used to increase their discoverability. These participants felt negatively impacted by this system due to biases in the companies that used them. They felt that these “discover” features did not accurately portray upcoming artists and therefore were not genuine.
Participants who first considered themselves a listener expressed a less negative view of algorithms and viewed it as a helpful feature to explore and discover new music. The result of this question calls attention for a solution that considers differing perspectives of an algorithmic recommendation system.
COMPOSING SOLUTIONS
To translate research findings into ideas and an initial concept solution, I drafted visualisations of the solution by sketching low fidelity wireframes, including major pages and featured functions. These were developed into mock-ups created in Figma, with interactions then added to create the prototype.
Each feature of the prototype endeavoured to provide a solution for at least one of the research objectives proposed at the beginning of the design process.
INDUSTRY ACCESS & TRANSPARENCY
The moderated forum-style platform allows users to post and discuss topics related to their professional music career and experiences in the industry to learn from and connect with people in similar positions or stages of their career.
This feature also assists in building a bridge between more seasoned music professionals and those who are just starting out, as well as music-enthusiasts who are interested in the industry as well. Different viewing and commenting formats as well as moderators for the forum will help to establish a safe and welcoming space for discussion between peers.
Talk Topics
Talk Topics: Forum
Sign up: Algorithmic preferences
Recommendation notification
EXPOSURE & RECOGNITION
A big concern of users was that many felt that algorithms on social and other online platforms tended to push recommendations and did not feel genuine. With an ability to ‘personalise’ their algorithm and control how much of and what they want to be recommended, users can feel assured that their homefeed and content is to their preferences.
Homefeed: Discover
Homefeed: Favourites
In their homefeed, users have the ability to view favourited artists and content as well as new in the “discover” tab. This separation in the feed is also favourable for emerging music artists as new listener users will likely be more receptive to new recommendations having that choice.
This feed can also be further filtered to the type of content they want to see- for example they may only want to see what events are coming up, or just quick updates from their favourite artists.
COMMUNITY & CONNECTION
Along with these forum-style features, users can communicate with their community members directly, through messaging. There is the option to chat to individuals and groups, as well as create private and public chatrooms surrounding a certain topic, to further foster a sense of community and allow users to expand their network with like-minded peers.
Another point that these music artists made about authenticity was using their online presence to relate with their listening audience and share their experiences. This is a major way of connecting with their audience and network by being appreciative of their community. In the solution, content is categorised in a way that allows users to digest content and information in a more approachable way.
Direct Messaging
Individual music artist profile
Home
User Experience & Interface
Visual Design
Motion Design
Creative Coding
About
Contact
© 2024 Elisha Fitri
THE ENCORE
TESTING
How do we measure success?
Interview participants as well as additional potential users of the mobile app were asked to complete a Tree test and a Design survey surrounding the prototype. The tree test would help test the effectiveness of the prototype’s organisational model, while the purpose of the survey was to ask open-ended questions to users of the mobile app in order to specifically gain feedback on the homefeed and algorithm feature. These responses would inform the next iteration to make further improvements.
Design survey
Tree test
RESULTS
How did we test?
The general response in the survey was that the ‘Discover’ and ‘Favourites’ feature were helpful in separating content. It seemed that the users appreciated the organisational model of user-generated content as well as the algorithm preference sliders.
Most suggestions for improvement included interface and style choices. Users preferred a more structured and centre-aligned feed, as well as softer shapes. Immediate improvements to the prototype UI in the next stage of iterating included rounding corners and organising layout. A streamlined vertical feed with centre-aligned content will provide a more familiar and structured view that improves scannability (and therefore efficiency and ease of use).
1st iteration with original layout of alternating content
2nd iteration with immediate changes made to UI before next stage of testing
In the tree test, when users were asked, “Where would you go to discuss a topic concerning your music career?” 50% were successful at directly finding the Talk Topics section. This brought to attention a need for a clearer identifier (or better name) of the forum feature.
Despite this, when users were asked, “Where would you go to discover new music artists and music-related content?”, 80% of users successfully directly navigated to the ‘Discover’ tab in the homefeed, indicating that clear identifiers, familiar UI features, and patterns increase recognition even in new environments.
REFLECTION
What can we do better?
In the next stage of investigation and re-testing, it would be beneficial to explore which specific type of users (musicians or listeners) answered the test successfully. This would require two sets of moderated tests to be conducted with each subgroup of the community, to further understand the individual user’s behaviour and mental models. Furthermore, the various perspectives and current relevance of algorithmic features (both in the community and in the general digital sphere) would be interesting to test and gain more qualitative feedback from.
The overall success in testing, particularly in its organisational model and effectiveness of use demonstrates that the minimum viable prototype is on the right track to achieving its main goal of acting as a bridge between actors in the professional music industry, as well as providing new music artists some more confidence about their place in it.
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Interested in learning more about this project? Read about the extended process here.
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THE CHALLENGE
Who are we catering to?
The emerging/early-career music artists community consists of aspiring musicians who are just starting their careers or are still in the process of developing their industry and career skills. To inform my understanding of members of this community and their context to improve it, I investigated user priorities and common experiences, particularly in the context of the current digital age.
What problems is this community experiencing?
A lack of exposure and recognition due to a highly competitive environment and false algorithmic recommendation feeds leads to further isolation of emerging artists from potential larger audiences, communities, and professional connections. This is exacerbated by control of online competition and global attention by giant labels and management agencies, increasing the imbalance of opportunity in the industry and further tipping the playing field.
These pain points call for a solution that centres around the community and their peers, to increase discoverability in an accessible and genuine way by using a user-controlled, unbiased algorithm feed.
Research Objectives:
INDUSTRY ACCESS
& TRANSPARENCY
How can we provide better industry access and transparency to musicians who are just beginning their professional career?
EXPOSURE
& RECOGNITION
How important is exposure and recognition and how can musicians achieve this in a way that feels authentic to themselves?
CONNECTION
& COMMUNICATION
How do we maintain this both between musicians of varying proficiencies in the industry as well as between musicians and their audiences?
Tools such as empathy and context mapping, 5Ws and a H, affinity mapping, and task and domain exploration helped to further explore the main areas of investigation in the community and where they fit within my research objectives. Many of the notes were based on prior knowledge or assumptions which were to be filled through a more thorough investigation in the stage of primary research.
5Ws & an H
SECONDARY RESEARCH
Why are they experiencing this?
Secondary research findings in the exploration phase revealed that many issues arose from a lack of access to or an unfairness in the professional music industry, leading to consequences of mistrust and isolation for individuals within the community, as well as a general negative outlook on the industry and their role in it.
Some key findings
Click on dropdowns to read more:
...are becoming the fastest growing sector in the music industry, while record label giants such as Sony and Universal have experienced low growth rates (Paine, 2021)
In a shrinking online world, both artists and labels are fighting to gain recognition and increase engagement through social platforms, leading to major labels purchasing fake online views and followings, thereby creating an uneven playing field (Clark, 2023)
...on social media such as Tik Tok and Youtube are becoming the preferred method for promotion and streaming, as well as being a major source of revenue (Paine, 2020). From a fanbase perspective, 63% of TikTok users heard new music that they've never heard before on TikTok (MRC Data, 2021)
22% of musicians believe that lack of diversity in algorithmically curated content is one of the top barriers keeping the music industry from being more inclusive (Köerner, Kladzyk, 2019). And when asked what had most helped them to gain traction in the music industry, 29% of musicians said “having an in.” (Köerner, Kladzyk, 2019)
Most musicians find that collaborators, bandmates, and other musicians are a great source of guidance when it comes to navigating the music industry (Köerner, Kladzyk, 2019)