How can you go to a concert without leaving home?
You keep it in your back pocket with live streaming from Spotify
The challenge.
Please note that this is a speculative project, I am not affiliated with Spotify.
Identify an existing website or app that serves more than one user type and proposing a new feature or product that would enhance the experience in 8 weeks. Then present the findings and recommendations to a panel of stakeholders (aka my grad school classmates).
Spoiler Alert: I built a prototype for it to continue digging into this work for an additional 5 weeks
My role.
This was a solo project, so I took on the roles of Project Manager, UX Researcher, and UX/UI Designer.
My users.
Spotify Artists (focus on musicians)
Spotify Listeners
The summary.
This project started towards the beginning of Covid-19 in the US when festivals like SXSW had recently announced cancellations. Social media was filled with both musicians and fans mourning the loss of live music for the foreseeable future as the country shut down. For many, concerts and festivals were a major stress relief, allowing people to cut loose and see their favorite artists live.
For others, their livelihood disappeared overnight.
During the research phase, a trend started to emerge on platforms that offered live streaming like Instagram and Facebook — musicians were offering intimate “concerts” from their homes or studio spaces. This was a way for them to reach their fans, regardless of where in the world they were, and offer the comfort of music.
Artists were able to reach those Listeners that interacted with them on social media, but not the ones that might be listening to them on a streaming service like Spotify.
By adding the ability for Artists to live stream from Spotify:
We could meet the Listeners where they already go for music
Artists could benefit financially via tipping and streams
Ads could be integrated into the streams for those without subscriptions
Listeners and Artists could connect while the world needs to stay apart
The problem.
Seeing how the music industry was trying to adapt by utilizing social media for impromptu concerts helped form the problem statement that would drive this project:
For Artists who want to offer a live experience digitally, there’s no easy way for them to invite their Spotify Listeners to the show
The phases.
While this project was primarily focused on research, I did expend it into a prototype for another class.
Phase one - Research
I used a combination of surveying (to screen for interview candidates while getting quantitative information) and interviews to learn about the current experience and pain points. In addition, I also did market research which looked at the current offerings of other audio streaming platforms and platforms offering live streaming.
Phase two - Analysis
Taking all the research learnings and using them to find opportunities and recommendations for the future product.
Phase three - Ideation
Using the idea that it’d be more lucrative if Spotify built the feature instead of integrating with an existing product, I built wireframes based on the existing Spotify then transformed them into a prototype.
The research.
The user research for this project focused on three key aspects:
Spotify
When, where, and how long Listeners listen to Spotify
What features Listeners use (and don’t use)
Any existing pain-points or concerns
Interactions with the other user group
How Listeners keep up with Artists
How Artists interact with Listeners
Live music and live stream experience
How many concerts/festivals do they go to in a year
Thoughts on live recordings
Experience with live streaming
After 5 hours of interviews (5 Listeners, 1 Artist) and a few hours of reviewing bootleg live streams for candid feedback from Artists during the streams, there were a few key takeaways:
Spotify’s tailored content keeps listeners engaged
Carefully curated playlists based on what a Listener listens to and it’s never ending stream of recommendations, Spotify shows that it pays attention. One Listener noted that she’s officially changing over to Spotify after being on Pandora 10 years because of how catered to her the service is.
Recommendation: Tie the personalized experience into the existing recommendation modules. Extend Top Listeners special access to their most listened Artists.
Live recordings feel intimate to some, and trigger FOMO in others
Just like missing your favorite band on tour, live recordings can trigger some digital FOMO and turn some Listeners off from interacting with them. However, some Listeners noted that they love live recordings because it makes them feel like they’re part of the experience even if they weren’t there in person
Recommendation: Give Listeners a way to opt out of notifications of live events if they’re not interested in the content.
Live Streams are interesting, if you know where and when to tune in
When talking with Listeners, most were interested in live streams but mentioned that it’d be hard to tune in with little notice, especially if it’s on a service they don’t already use. Listeners spend an average of 25 hours a week streaming on Spotify, why not meet them where they’re already listening?
Recommendation: Connecting Listeners to a live experience with their favorite artists could prompt more listening.
Something that also came up in the interviews was that the majority of Listeners do not follow with Artists on social media. This came as a surprise, given the amount of viewers who tuned into livestreams. Taking a look at three Artists that had been actively streaming, in 2 out of 3 situations, the Artists had more followers on Spotify than Instagram.
While Spotify is the top music streaming app, it was also important to look at what other streaming services were doing, along with live streaming services. These were the main learnings and opportunities from the competitive review:
Music Streaming
Positive: Recommendations and the ability to skip songs freely drove the positive feedback. Listeners want to own the experience and services like Amazon Music and Apple Music stand out in those regards.
Negative: Ads and their frequency were a common complaint in feedback for those with free accounts (like Pandora). Additionally, some major apps (Amazon & Apple Music) struggled when it came to information architecture.
Opportunity: Youtube Music has some crossover between the music and video offerings. Their toggle options for having the video playing or not could offer a more robust experience if utilized on Spotify.
Live Streaming
Positive: There’s minimal barriers between creating an account and going live. They allow anyone with a device to upload and make it accessible regardless of technical skill by offering additional editing within the app.
Negative: There’s so much content that users can spend less time interacting with a single piece of media (like watching a live stream) because they’re used to short clips.
Recommendation: Tiktok offers a built in editing suite that allows creators to polish their media before publishing. While visual tweaks might not be extremely necessary for Artists, having a way to mark the beginning and end of a song for easy uploading could be helpful
The success of this feature could be tracked with the following KPIs:
Average listen time
For Artists that live stream
For uploaded streams
Listener Adoption
Percent of active vs. inactive Listeners that tune in
Watch/listen time during stream
Amount of reminders set vs. amount of reminder nudges seen
Artist Adoption
Percent of Artists that engage
Average length of stream
Based on the findings at the end of the discovery process, Spotify would benefit by either building out its own live streaming option or by integrating with an existing service.
However, given how many hours the average Spotify Listener listens on the platform (it’s a lot), building out a streaming option within the platform would be more favorable.
Don’t stop me now.
After 8 weeks, I was pleased with the final product but I didn’t want to stop there. When the option to continue diving into live streaming for Spotify was offered, I jumped on it.