Minim is a music social platform that delivers an experience centered around music discovery. In focusing on how music lovers discover music, tools that allowed the sharing and connection to others are at the center of Minims approach to music. Currently, algorithms fully dictate what users listen to based on a like system and listening time. Minim wishes to recreate the experience of sharing music with others in a user friendly way by incorporating a point system for users to trade, donate, and earn in order to promote new music to new ears.
Identifying a user group that could be focused on to communicate problems being solved
Create a brand that clearly communicates its position in the market by focusing on discovery and social features.
Design and prototype for user and viability testing
Create an ecosystem for a gamified point system to exist for users to engage with
The initial and crucial step in developing a successful platform is to comprehend and recognize the user, ensuring a seamless and impactful connection with the target audience. Surveys and user interviews proved to be essential tools in collecting valuable quantitative and qualitative data on the music listening habits of listeners. By doing this, we were able to pinpoint specific user groups that would be an ideal target market for our product.
After analyzing the data, we identified two key personas that would be ideal targets for Minim's position in the market. We found that some users enjoyed actively searching for music in a community-based format to discover new songs. These personas had a similar pain point surrounding AI algorithms limiting the diversification of their music tastes and AI limiting access to niche music.
Building an ecosystem for users to interact with that had Minim's business needs in mind was the next goal. Minim wanted to engage users in an organic way by allowing them to naturally like, share, and contribute to an artist's popularity without locking the entire product behind a pay wall. Research showed that users tended to trust close friends more that algorithms when finding music. The best way to do so was build a freemuim model to allow users to determine their own personal value to the product (music by an artist of choice) and allow them to build in app funds for them to spend on the platform.
Funds would be locked behind user actions like sharing, logging in or paying real money to contribute. These points would be a means for users to contribute to artist(s)of their choosing while simultaneously allowing artists to track analytics for the music they release. In doing so artists could release exclusive content to a specific user base that engaged with them or their music on a more frequent basis.
Due to users picking music based on mood the majority of the time, it is hard for them to always find music to match their mood. User profiles would be the launching pad for other users to build trusted connections to discover music instead of always using manual searching.
Users needed a familiar format when maneuvering through a music platform that encouraged that social interactions to occur. Below was the fist concept for how the minim platform could look modeling it after competitive platforms like Soundcloud and Spotify. Allowing users to view profiles, see listening stats and view connections to communities were at the top of the list when considering users needed to be able to share content.
Every song needed a page connecting to similar songs, recent users who spent funds to promote the song and a way for users to promote exclusive content. Testing with users was the next step to make sure users could accomplish simple goals such as sharing, buy and logging in to earn funds.
Minim required a brand direction that effectively showcased its intrinsic value in bringing together individuals with a shared interest in music discovery, sharing and community. The brand needed to convey that this product is designed for avid music lovers and individuals who are passionate about engaging in music-related discussions within a community setting. Therefore, the logo represents the connection between people, music and community through different mediums symbolized by a soundwave.
Building a music platform that incorporates social features is no easy task and will likely require further testing. Testing was done on the navigational experience of users engaging with minim's platform, but more would have to be done for users that were releasing music or wanting to engage with fans. Minim would also need to test if sharing led to accurate music suggestions or if users would abuse sharing content for the sake of earning points to like music. If users used sharing to simply build points and not make honest suggestions, a system to prevent this would need to be put in place by either limiting the user or adding another action for a community to take before funds can be earned.
I learned that users liked the idea of having a platform that was free to use and music could be listened to freely, but on a large scale if users didn't find it useful there would be no community to assist in accountability in music recommendations. I also learned that users questioned if the platform would turn into a music promotion platform instead of a good listening experience do to the social nature Minim was aiming for. This would have to be researched further and the next step would be to find out how what artist would need to feel comfortable on the platform.
