My Project for Spotify
August 2022
Spotify has changed my life in so many ways. I use the app 24/7 to explore new music, listen to podcasts on walks, and share what I'm listening to with friends.
I decided I wanted to dive deeper and start a personal project to better understand and improve the app. After spending days doing research, conducting interviews, and designing wireframes, I came up with a new segment for the app:
Unify is a new proof of concept created for the Spotify app. Its goal is to foster a community within the Spotify app and help users create a deeper connection with other people and what they're listening to.
Because what's better than sharing music with friends?
Be You
Allows user to share what they're currently listening to during a 3 minute timeframe during the day.
Once posted, user can see and interact with friends' posts.
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Check it out:
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Notification alerting user pops up on lock screen
Explorify
Displays all concerts and events happening nearby.User can share attendance status and see friends that are going to the event.
Helps promote upcoming artists, podcasters, DJs, bands, and more!
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Here's what it looks like!
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Explorify can be accessed from Unify's home page (as well as the previous feature "Be You")
Unified Playlists
2 types of Unified Playlists:
Blend
Start by selecting friends and genre.
A playlist will be generated based on the favorite songs of the selected friends in that genre, plus added recommendations.
Capture
AI-generated playlist based on the mood of the picture taken.
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Swipe for more:
Unified Playlists can be accessed from Unify's home page
Spotify Share
Send and receive content to and from friends directly through the Spotify App! Sliding into the DMs has never been easier...
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Take a look!
Tap the three dots on the upper right corner...
...or the share button on the bottom right
Hear it, Add it, Share it
Built-in music detector within the Spotify app. Listens and identifies songs playing in the background.
Once a song is detected, the user is able to like, share, and add to playlists.
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This is what it looks like:
"Hear it, Add it, Share it" can be accessed from Unify's home page
Want to learn more about what happened behind the scenes?
Keep scrolling.
Secondary Research
To start with, I conducted market research and competitive analysis as part of my secondary research. This helped me understand our target user and competitors.
Market Research
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People are most likely to discover music through recommendations from friends, the radio, or hearing new music at events.
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In a survey of users using streaming services, 17% of users found new music through playlists, and 14% through browsing similar artists.
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Half of Spotify’s users are 34 and under.
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Spotify creates playlists based on both content (genre or period) and context (events, activities, time of day, etc.), with content playlists being more popular as users tend to prefer playlists based on their tastes.
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Around a third of Spotify listening time is spent listening to Spotify-curated playlists. Slightly more than half of that amount goes on playlists personalized to each listener based on their listening history.
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Another third goes to listening to user-generated playlists.
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According to Spotify, 55% of users connect their accounts with Facebook, which makes it easier for Spotify to use users’ friend lists to create music social sub-graphs of friends with similar tastes.
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35% of music streaming users are using Whatsapp to share links or music while using the app, while 23% use Instagram to talk about music, and 30% of Facebook users share links to music using the app.
Competitive Analysis
