Spotify
A research study to understand the needs of Spotify’s 2 distinct user types.
Introduction
The Spotify client is its users. It has 2 user types: Artists vs Listeners
The Artists have profiles where they can post their music and latest releases, along with sharing their favorite artists. You can also see which playlists these artists have been featured in.
The Listeners are the people who go into the app to look for their favorite artists, or find new ones to add to their own customizable playlists that can be public, or made private. They can also connect their accounts with other listeners to get a “blend” mix of similar curated music. They get weekly personalized curated playlists which is another alternative to finding new music.
User Research Methodologies
01 Individual Interviews
02 Personas
03 Competitive Analysis
04 In-Person and Remote User Surveys
05 Scenarios
06 User Journeys
How might we statement
How might we provide listeners with a good database of music-related tools and knowledge libraries within their preferred music listening app, Spotify?
Competitive Analysis- Direct Competitors
Apple Music also streams video rather than only music.
Pandora only allows for songs “radio stations”. Users cannot search for specific songs or artists to listen to.
Soundcloud is a much more raw and unfiltered music streaming service. More quantity than quality on this app.
Competitive Analysis- Indirect Competitors
I compared Rate My Drip, Like To Know It, and Instagram as well when in search of the original problem statement with fashion in the Spotify app.
After doing the user research and analysis, I have changed my problem statement due to the lack of evidence that any one of my users actually wanted to go shopping for clothing in their music app.
Recruiting Process
I began my recruiting by making a Facebook and Instagram story calling out for users to volunteer in the study.
My cousin recommended a friend of the Family, Aadam stone. I messaged him directly and asked him to be a part of a research study. Meanwhile I also reached out to Artist Gianne on Instagram, individually, since I know her through some mutual friends. She was thrilled to help. I set up a time to conduct a zoom call for these 2 users.
For my users on the listener’s end, I texted my brother to give me some time to interview him online via zoom. I then reached out to my longtime high school best friend and she agreed to participate, also, via zoom. My last user was a work colleague. I did her interview in a pedicure spa chair while pulling up my questions on my phone and asking them directly 1 on 1.
After gathering all the data, I went on Miro and created a mind map for each user while highlighting the following:
User Wants
Needs
Goals
Pain Points
Listeners- Mind Maps
Artists- Mind Maps
High level analysis: Trends and Patterns
Artists Trends and Patterns- They wanted to see their “fans”. They wanted more transparency in the analysis within their profile, rather than an e-commerce approach. They wanted data such as usernames, and comments for their new-releases to get their own feedback for optimization.
User Trends and Patterns- Most listeners (⅔) were not interested in the e-commerce feature on the app. They wanted music-related items only, they did not want to be sold to. They come to Spotify to listen to music, not to shop.
All users: Whenever the fashion question was thrown into the interview, most users seemed puzzled as to why that was even a question.
Interviewee quotes on the e-commerce topic:
“I wouldn't buy a Spotify t-shirt. Maybe things that artists need, such as microphones, headsets for recording sessions, and musical objects but not instruments. More like tools that independent artists might need like books or online courses. Tools for independent artist.. maybe merchandise” -Aadam Stone- Artist
“I’d buy records, albums, vinyl, speakers, record players, instruments, concert tickets” - Daniel- Listener
“I would like to sell Vinyl records make to help promote my merch and music” -Gianne- Artist
“Nothing. Very uninterested” -Allie- Listener
“No, Get it away from my face”- Ale- Listener
Key Takeaways
Recognized patterns- Users wanted to purchase only music-related items on this platform- not fashion. I also noted that a lot of the users, both Artists and Listeners wanted a better music discovery experience within the app.
Insightful lessons- Learned that people go on Spotify for music, not shopping for clothing.
This research and data have made it evident that Spotify is not the most ideal platform to sell clothing. Two users said merchandise might be okay, but they really did not want shopping involved in their music experience.
The Artists did want a more social media-like approach for their profiles like an Instagram feed or bio description that doesn’t disappear.
For the next steps of this research, I would like to do more interviews to further validate the point that users do not want to go shopping on this platform. It seems by the average responses that the artists would not mind shopping on the app, rather the users did not want to be targeted at all. With more research, I could solidify the answers and determine whether or not this feature would be useful or not.
Moving forward, I would change my questions and gear them more toward different types of features such as social media-like aspects (photo/video feeds). The artists wanted more connection with their fans, so taking the social media approach would be more relevant than e-commerce.