The opportunity area of music as connection presented itself as a goal for the client as well as a need from users. By exploring the opportunity space through a number of lenses - artist-to-listener, friend-to-friend - our goal was to gain a better understanding on how music functions as an intangible medium to facilitate human-to-human connection.
As early as the kick-off meeting, the need for stronger artist-listener connection on streaming platforms was brought to our attention by the clients.
As we dived deeper into our research, we uncovered another need for connection through music within users’ close social groups.
“More about the connection, less about the content.”
- Jesse Stiles, Sound Designer & Musician
"I travel around the country to follow The Maine's tour. I just love the crowd and energy."
"It's important to have the right song for the right people."
It was ranked the highest among 14 other IRL needs during speed dating.
By identifying the need for stronger artist-fan connection and streamlined group curation, we created prototypes to further explore this opportunity area.
We created an artist reward feature, iterating on the existing top % feature, awarding gifts for top fans.
The gift is a special playlist, with audio files about the backstage stories on the making of the playlist, weaving into the list of songs.
By observing a pair of close friends taking turns picking songs for each other, we found that users would pick songs related to a common or shared experience.
Memory and nostalgia plays a major role in co-listening among friends
When curating for a group more than 2 close friends, the visibility of other people’s music preference helps this process.
The sharing and merging function in the Trading Card prototype allow users to easily adapt their algorithms to accommodate different social situations.
After exploring this opportunity, we were able to identify some areas and key insights that we are really excited about:
"Hearing about the behind-the-scenes stories is like having a backstage pass to concerts."
Understanding what the audience would enjoy relieves parts of the stress in group curation.
Group listening experience can be enhanced by eliciting emotional connection through shared memory and common experiences.
We see the potential for combination with the New Mixtape opportunity, because music identity in a social context can be extended further into the realm of individual identity in music listening.
In terms of obstacles, we see a slight misfit of this opportunity in a completely virtual platform, since group curation and artist-fan events traditionally happen in a non virtual setting. Given the current situation of COVID-19, if we are only able to focus on the virtual sphere, we face the challenge of incomprehensive findings.
However, COVID-19 also presents its own opportunities because there is raising need for methods of virtual connection. Opportunities are also blooming - such as virtual concerts and virtual listening parties.