Download pdf - How UX/UI Optimization Can Drive Revenue

Usability = Sensibility = Revenuefor Streaming Content Platforms in 2014

First, a look at the current music landscape.

Music is very popular today in the U.S.

US Music Listeners | 87%

270M

240M

Daily Music Listeners

Daily Radio Listeners

Analog (54%) /Digital (46%)

Source: Nielsen - U.S. Media and Entertainment Report - 03/19/13

But people no longer buy Albums = ($40bn) in Sales

1. The music industry is down 64% from peak

2. Full-length albums made up 90% of sales

3. Today people only buy 1 albums pp/yr

vs. 4 albums pp/yr twelve years ago

Adoption of paid streaming music is slow

US Paid Streaming Audience | 30% < 100M

250M Soundcloud Global

59M Pandora US

24M Spotify US

XXM Google Play /XBox

1M Sony Music Unlimited

1M Rhapsody US


New experiences and revenue streams emerged

US Music Industry ‘13 | $33.5bn Market Cap.

$21bn +3.7% | Events & Promotion US

$8bn -4% | Major Label Publishing US

$4bn -3.8% | Music Publishing US

$4bn +8% | EDM US

$358M -.6% | Independent Publishing US


40% of U.S. consumers drive 75% of Music related Sales

MillionSUPER FANS

100

BillionDOLLARS

$26


Super Fans are willing to spend additional money on music


$33.5bn

$26bn

100MListeners

40% of U.S. Consumers = 75% of total music spend

They are available to spend an additional $450M-2.6bn.on NEW ENGAGING CONTENT!!

Super Fans looking to Spend | +$450M-2.6Bn

Free

2005 2009 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Consumers are open to “New” if industry can deliver

Expensive +$9.99/mo or $199.00+ (sw)

Closed Model Open Model

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The U.S. market spells huge opportunityfor new and emerging platforms.

...goods

damaged

Americans were conditioned to consume content via scarcity tactics

that dictated programs, quality and time slots.

American music consumers today have more choices than ever.

As new platforms and formats emerge, its important that technologies are built with good UX from the start. Which sometimes means, sacrificing form over function if budget is a problem.

However, since form is also quickly becoming equally as important in the rapidly evolving multi-screen mobile environment, new platforms should consider a synergistic approach between front and back end experiences.

In a global marketplace, not all users have access to the same technologies, and platforms are accessed via a number of different devices and varying speeds.

Our hypothesis is that both fragmentation and variance between market access, usage and behavior make it difficult for non-U.S. born platforms to scale as rapidly in the U.S. market.

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New music platforms should consider both traditional and current user-centered design principles when developing

their experiences and interfaces.

A case for how user centered design, and optimized UX/UI can create

organic revenue streamsfor a music platform.

MIXCLOUD Challenge:

How does Mixcloud, a new entrant to the US Streaming market, position its assets to meet the needs of the consumer and

capitalize on the business opportunity to scale?

Single Minded Insight:

Music consumers value authoritative, curated content experiences with clear functional features,

and emotional benefits.*

*Sources available upon request.

REVIEW / REVISEUSER INSIGHTS

REVIEW / REVISEUNDERSTAND

BARRIERS

Re-think RadioStream the best DJs and Radio shows from around the globe

Surf the Cloud

Listen Anywhere

Find Your SoundREVIEW / REVISECORE BENEFITS

REVIEW / REVISEUNIQUE POSITION

FEATURES

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We looked at the challenge from a user, a producer and advertiser perspectives for six months, evaluating the platform’s value-proposition, function, usefulness and place among other established and emerging platforms.

Specifically, this segment of users are what we call, “Professional consumers” or Prosumers.

This roughly 20 million global population and growing are comprised of enthusiasts, hobbyists, professionals, beginners and advanced artists. We believe roughly 40% of this group are the heaviest producers driving 75-80% of the content. They may also be some of the largest consumers, and spend the most on music related equipment and experiences. ir primary platforms

This group tends to be early adopters and have already joined many platforms. Their primary use mobile/desktop platforms include twitter, instagram, facebook, linkedin, spotify, pandora, youtube, blogs and itunes for consumers.

Producers additionally use soundcloud, mixcrate, mixcloud, reverbnation, songkick, tumblr, amazon, google plus, beatport, and wordpress to share, distribute and sell music.

Here’s what we came up with when focused on a relatively new platform to the U.S. - Mixcloud.com

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1. Observations: There is a significant amount of open, unused real estate.

2. Limitations: The value proposition is unclear.

The term “Re-think” connotes “improved,” “smarter,” or “better.”

The term “Re-discover” connotes finding something that is lost.

“Unlimited Uploads” implies that anyone can upload as much as they want.

3. Implications: “Detractors” cause confusion by masking the platform’s implied value proposition.

Redundancy may trigger users to think something is being oversold, especially if they do not agree.

Equal access to upload may cause users to question quality and credibility, especially following the “best” qualification line on top.


>REVIEW

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4. Point of View: Optimize by rendering: - A clear value proposition - Clear features/benefits linkage that resonates with target users - Friends who joined already - Interesting content above the fold

5. UX Implications:Americans are lazy.* By optimizing real estate, users get more actionable information per pixel, increasing the value of your real estate.

Using common language and appropriating words like “surf” are likely to resonate since they are linked to a familiar action like “surfing the dial.”

6. Business Implications:Think about a restaurant that has a bar and three large tables for groups of 10, vs. a restaurant that has a bar and 10 smaller tables for 4. In a city like NYC, the later restaurant is more likely to succeed.

Streaming the best DJs and radio shows across the globe

Surf the Cloud

Search channels, hop stations or groove out with Music and Talk Radio from over (xx) countries. .

Stream free on-demand radio from your pocket with the Mixcloud mobile app,

almost everywhere in the world.

Listen Anywhere

Follow Top Stations, Cloudcasts and DJs. Feel confident Artists receive

royalties for songs.

Find Your Sound

Re-think Radio


>>REVISE

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1. US Music Background;The Recording Industry lost over $40Billion in revenue due to the decrease of full-length album sales. Today, the avg. consumer purchases less than (1) album per year, down from an avg. of 3 per year in 1999.*

2. Broadcast Standards;Traditional broadcast delivers content through national and local networks of stations. Stations are assigned channels, and typically fall within a genre. Various programs run or air along the program timelines of the channel.

3. User Expectations:UEs minimally, are the current standard (Youtube, iTunes, TuneIn) “Categories” connote groups of topics, in this case “Genres.” The expectation is that these are channels, on which we can find various programs/shows, etc..


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4. Observations: The current structure lacks sub or micro buckets, which causes a disconnect with user expectations and actual user experience. If users can’t quickly find, track or follow content, they bounce, abandon, and share negative news with friends.

5. Limitations: Users expect new platforms to (minimally) meet current market standards of functionality and experience. Currently this is highly customized, convenient, on-demand access to content within seconds.

6. Current Implications: Queries result in higher quantity of lower quality results. Users are required to perform incremental, non-working actions that don’t improve the quality of results. Leading to user:

● + Frustration● + Anxiety● + Abandonment● + Bounce rate

MUSIC TALK

GENRE

DATE UPLOAD TIMESTAMP TAGS

Current

>REVIEW

7. Point of View: Consider optimizing data structuring by adding sub-buckets to increase search and usability function.

8. UX Implications:Greater number of search buckets or variables will yield a lower quantity and higher quality of results, helping to ease the search and discovery process pain.

9. Business Implications:More users actions connected to search queries, results and subsequent actions will yield tons of new user data sets, which can quickly be monetized by advertisers.

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MUSIC TALK

CHANNEL

TYPE LOCATIONUSERDATE TAGSTOPICS

STATION

FOLLOWERSKIND*OFFICIALNAME FOLLOWINGSHOWS

SONGS ARTISTSLENGTHTIMESTAMPDATE UPLOAD TITLEDJ

EVENT SETVENUELABELGENRE GUESTS

CURRENT

MACRO

MICRO

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STATION

FOLLOWERSKIND*OFFICIALNAME FOLLOWINGCLOUDCAST

SONGS ARTISTSLENGTHTIMESTAMPDATE UPLOAD TITLE

10. Business Benefits:The business benefit of adding these features beyond an optimized user experience is DATA from which analytics can provide new monetizable products:

a. Increased Engagement:- Based on user actions and preferences, a reco engine can be used to drive incremental engagement, loyalty, sharing, promotion, following and fees.

b. Defend Attrition: - Driven by users following a particular channel or station and receiving a notification of a new show.

c. New revenue:- Leverage micro data for local and inche promo targeting and tiered fee structures for Channels and Stations.

MUSIC TALK

DATE

TOPICS USER TYPEMODIFIERS

<<115 CHANNELS 1,200 STATIONS 70,000 CASTS 159 DJS 200 TAGS

DJ

EVENT SETVENUELABELGENRE GUESTS

x

SELECTED

MACRO

MICRO

MODIFIERS

<<

CHANNEL

TYPE LOCATIONUSERDATE TAGSTOPICS

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1. Observations: The current user page sub-nav bar is defaulted to a creator’s view, rather than a consuming users view.

Much of the real estate is taken up by image area that provides little useful or actionable information.

3. Limitations: Users consider themselves either a consumer or producer.

Less actionable surface area decreases the value and number of actions that can be taken per page.

Playlists functionality is limited to serving a single list with no re-option beside going back.

3. Implications: Intuitively and experientially, when UX is sub par, users are turned off by lack of convenience and therefore interest or engagement.

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01 RECOMMENDATIONS>> 06.09.14

02 RECENTLY LISTENED>> 06.08.14

15 DATES 23 CHANNELS 12 STATIONS 7 CLOUDCASTS 38 DJS 68 TAGS <<

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4. Point of View: Consider global re-optimization of navigational elements.

The sub-nav bar would reflect the Channels, Stations, Casts, DJs and Tags a user follows, with modifier and toggle options hidden behind the far right “<<” tab.

A/B test to gain user feedback.

5. UX Implications:Optimization should yield more positive engagements, longer duration, usage, search, and increased positive actions.

Each of the previous actions create insightful and business driving information and DATA.

6. Business Implications:Re-optimization will increase the amount of aggregated data, which can be used to improve overall UX, and be monetized as previously noted.

>>REVISE