Designing a music app for full album listening

Summary

• I have designed a new mobile music listening app from the ground up, for which I have suggested an innovative business model and created a smooth, gesture-based user interface.
• I have researched a market niche, developed app positioning in the ecosystem of the music service.
• The goal of the app was to effectively transition free users towards subscription, attracting them with a delightful experience and a special pricing model.
• The app reached a 2nd place in Music category in Russian App Store.

App concept

The number of slots in the app was limited, therefore only a certain number of albums was available for listening at the same time. No streaming — the app would play only offline synced music. The limitations allowed us to negotiate the lowest subscription price possible: USD1 per month.

The app was designed to complement the desktop unterface of the streaming service. While desktop UI facilitated immersive discovery and offered online streaming, mobile app Fonoteka allowed users to take their liked albums and playlists offline in a limited number of "slots", without paying a full subscription price for mobile streaming and discovery.

For the music rightsholders it was important how much offline music they are going to let users have for this kind of special subscription. As the app went live and paying users started coming in, we optimized the model towards the best user experience and price combination.

My impact

• Researched a market niche for a previouыly non-existent product
• Developed a UX strategy, suggesting an innovative model
• Designed an interface based on gestures and animations
• Iterated the product based on feedback from real users