Apple Music: Add a Feature

Role

UX Designer

Timeline

4-6 weeks

Tools Used

Figma

Able

The Problem

Apple Music is popular but it is second to Spotify. One of the main reasons Apple Music lags behind Spotify is that it’s lacking in social features. For example, on Spotify, users are able to follow their friends and collaboratively build playlists.

What is Apple Music?

Apple Music is the second most popular music streaming platform in the world with an impressive user base of 98 million users as of 2023. Apple Music has many features that make its users choose it over its number one competitor, Spotify. These features include integration with the Apple ecosystem, spatial audio, and offline downloads.

Hypothesis

My hypothesis is that more users would use Apple Music if Apple Music had more unique social features like a comment section, visible social likes on songs and albums, and easily accessible user profiles.

The Competitors

  1. Spotify

  2. Amazon Music

  3. Youtube Music

    • The majority of the streaming services offer free trials and/or free membership tiers.

    • All of the services use an algorithm to recommend music to listeners based on listening history.

    • All of the services have extensive libraries with a minimum of 5 million songs.

    • All of he platforms utilize subscription-based models.

    • You cannot stream high-quality audio from Amazon Music in the web browser. It needs to be within an app.

    • Amazon Music has no live radio.

    • Apple Music is the only service without a free tier.

    • Spotify has a difference in audio quality between their free and paid tiers.

    • Youtube Music has the lowest quality audio of the music services.

    • Apple Music has a smaller user base when compared to its competitors because there is no free tier.

    • Spotify is Apple Music’s biggest competitor.

    • Spotify is the most accessible music streaming platform as it is integrated into TVs, game consoles, speakers, and more.

    • Spotify has collaborative social features like Collaborative playlists, which sets it apart from its competitors.

User Interviews

I conducted interviews with five participants in October 2023 over Zoom and in person. All participants used at least one music streaming service regularly and all were in their mid to late twenties.

    • We want to understand what attracts users to different music streaming platforms.

    • We also want to understand what features would make the user experience better on a music streaming platform.

    • Spotify is the most popular music streaming platform in general and this was reflected in the participants. 3 out of 5 participants prefer Spotify.

    • There doesn’t appear to be a correlation between OS and platform because half of the iPhone participants preferred Spotify.

    • Most of the participants were only aware of Spotify and Apple Music. Only 1 out of 5 of the participants knew of another platform.

    • Most of the people who considered switching music streaming platforms weren’t willing to take the leap due to how long it would take.

    • The features users seem to value the most are the ones based on personalization. These features are music curation and the ability to follow or chat with your friends.

    • None of the users appeared to actively dislike any specific platform. It seems like most users chose one platform and stuck to it or they only tried 1-2 platforms.

Personas

  • Natalie

    STUDENT - 17 YEARS OLD

    Natalie is a highschool senior from Newport Beach, California. She’s going to UCLA for Pre-Law in the fall. She is known as a planner, a perfectionist, and a keener. She is a member of almost every single club on campus, but her favourite club is the Prom Committee. She is seeking to collaboratively build a playlist with her classmates for the Prom and the after party.

  • Derek

    SALES ANALYST - 25 YEARS OLD

    Derek is a Sales Analyst from NYC. He is overworked at his job and is still adjusting to the demands of the workplace after graduating. He doesn’t go out much anymore, and spends the little time he does have available to run laps around Central Park before and after work. Derek wants to be able to read comments from other users while he runs or chat with other users about music. It would make his days a little less lonely and boring.

Task Flows

Lo-fi

Hi-fi

The Solution

Our solution was to add comment sections on songs and visible social likes on songs and artists, as well as more easily accessible user profiles to Apple Music. We tested our solution by conducting a usability test of the final hi-fi using the same five participants that we initially interviewed. All five participants were satisfied with the experience and found the interface intuitive and easy to understand. One participant suggested adding category pods at the top of the search engine which we did in the final prototype.