Abandon
Normal
Instruments

Re-designing the content creation infrastructure for the modern era—a new studio booking and networking system working in tandem with reinvented physical studio model to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving industry.

Project Summary

Role

Founder • Product Design
UX/UI • Prototyping

TIMELINE

6 months

PLATFORM

New IOS App

TOOLS

Figma • Webflow • Airtable
SurveyMonkey

USER DEMOGRAPHICS

Professional Music Creators:
Writers, Producers, Performers, Instrumentalists,  Podcasters

PROBLEM STATEMENT

The modern music and entertainment market moves at lightning speed, demanding content at an ever-increasing pace. The lifeblood of this new era, independent creators, are primed to rise to the occasion but are impeded by an antiquated system (from production studios to scouting/booking logistics) that is too slow, expensive, and disconnected to meet the moment.

opportunity

While emerging technical advancements would contribute to the cratering economics and resulting splintering of the established music industry, it would also bring a wealth of new tools to reimagine an outdated infrastructure. No digital networking and booking tools had been successfully introduced to this market, and mass closures of antiquated recording studios provided an opportunity to reimagine the system from the ground up. I was a professional musician, studio owner, and designer, perfectly positioned to tackle this issue.

RESULTS

This was a real project, garnering $1.2M+ in investment, strategic partnerships with notable industry organizations, and a large buy-in from users and industry professionals prior to being put on hold during the Covid-19 pandemic. What began as an exploration into adapting existing studios evolved into a user-based mobile application design paired with reimagined music production space that could achieve lower costs, increased production speeds, and connect the newly independent workforce—.

IMpact

Preliminary testing and field studies showed promise for this new system, with estimated production cost decreases of up to 55% and cutting production times in half.

55%

COST 
REDUCTION

2x

PRODUCTION
SPEEDS

Goals

Business

Create a product for a growing market segment

With traditional studios closing en masse, there is a large opportunity in designing a new workspace for this growing market.

Operational Efficiency

Optimize a system that hasn't been updated in decades, delivering increased profitability in a traditionally expensive environment.

USER

Increased Productivity

Decrease the time that it takes users to scout and book talent and production studio spaces.

Decreased Costs

Decrease costs of a notoriously expensive industry to realign with the economics of a new era.

Process

To solve this complex problem, I would assemble a diverse team from both sides of the market—industry professionals and creators—to research and analyze how the industry got here, where it was going, and how this affected its creators.

This process would be rooted in months of research, followed by synthesizing the data, defining the problem, and then ideating, designing, prototyping, testing, and refining solutions iteratively. 

Discovery

Interviews

16+ interviews with Industry and creators to gather goals, pain points, and trends.

Surveys

3 digital surveys obtaining feedback on workflows, needs, pain points, and ideations.

Field studies

7 embedded recording sessions exploring what is and isn't working in the current process.

3rd party data

What role are emerging trends playing on user processes? What is and isn't serving users in the current process?

Initial Competitive Analysis

Based on our initial assumptions and understanding of the problem, I would explore the existing environments—both direct and indirect competitors—that music professionals were utilizing to accomplish their workflows. The initial assumption—that the competition was only physical spaces—would be revised soon after as it became clearer that emerging digital networking apps, and "personal" production rigs would need to be considered.

Analysis

USER demographics

Growing, more diversified, and cross-functional community of creators than previous generations

What we discovered was diversified, multi-disciplined demographics. Many users would not just fit into 1 particular category but wear many hats. Each of these categories would have very different needs, and each would need each other’s talents to complete their tasks. 1-size would not fit all—Our first glimpse into the idea of a modular, adaptable space.

Instrumentalists

Engineers

Producers

Songwriters

Podcasters

Industry Pros

PERSONAS

Users' needs greatly differ from the previous generation.

We developed 2 original personas, making assumptions about 2 main user groups— the first a more amateur-level music professional, and the second, a more experienced professional but as the process went on, it became clear that a third persona representing industry professionals was needed.  


Name
Alma

Description
Young up-and-coming audio engineer building a new client list

Needs
Affordable, soundproofed workspace on-demand

Access to an industry community for collaboration opportunities

PAIN POINTS
Traditional studios too expensive

Hard to scout talent and work opportunities in decentralized industry


Name
‍Jake

Description
Seasoned professional in a touring band who also produces other artists

Needs
Pro studio environment on-demand. Often for long periods of time.

Access to a wide array of gear on-demand.

Pain Points
Owning and running your own studio is expensive, and dificult when on the road half the year.


Name
‍Sean

Description
Independent record label executive with a roster of about 10 artists     

Needs
Multi-room "writing camps" for his roster of artists.

Full artist roster to produce and release content fast, affordably, and collaboratively.

Pain Points

Current studios too expensive.

Current studios do not have multiple spaces and multiple functions.

Affinity mapping

Patterns begin to emerge.

No. 1

Curent System
Too Costly

No.2

Disconnected
community

No.3

Curent system
too slow

No.4

Lack of
knowledge

The Current journey

Creating songs is an inspiring experience, producing it in the current landscape is not meeting demands.

The production infrastructure was built for a previous generation, centralized around record labels, and funded by larger, up-front revenue from physical record sales. Even though there is more demand for content than ever, the "traditional" studio model is not serving its users.

Competitive analysis - Round 2

The solution will likely be more than just a physical one.

I decided to do a second round of competitive analysis now that there was a better understanding of user needs. Community disconnection would become more pronounced as a core pain point—especially in a growing independent workforce— so I realized that competition would largely come from other networking apps.

linkedIn

soundbetter

co-working Apps

Audience: Professional talent and scouters of talent worldwide

Audience: Independent music creators looking for talent and spaces to make music

Audience: Entertainment + business pros looking to network and entertain.

Large pool of professionals

Not optimized for showcasing music + audio

Not curated

Access to network of talent and potential opportunities

Does not solve for the inaccessibility of physical space

Lack of Curation

Access to a beautiful workspaces

Access to a entertainment community.

Not audio environments

Community not accessible or searchable

early insights

The music production infrastructure has remained static for decades. There is a lot of opportunity to update it.

Disconnected community without a hub

With labels no longer the central hub, the increasingly dominant independent creator community needs each other now more than ever— They need easy access to each others talents.

Much waste and redundancy in traditional studios. Bad for user AND business.

Booking talent and studios are too slow and antiquated.

Booking is now completed mostly by phone and word of mouth. This is too slow for the speed of modern industry. Losing money and opportunity. Phone calls or emails often go unanswered.

Product costs AND turnaround times need to drastically decrease

Content is released faster than ever, and the existing system is too slow non-agile to rise to the occassion.

Growing use of “Home Studios”... but pro environment still a MUST for some tasks.

Defining

PROBLEM STATEMENT.

“A newly independent music creator workforce needs a faster, more affordable, and collaborative way to produce their product.”

How Might We?

Decrease costs to realign with new financial structures

Reduce redundancies in the current system by designing a modular, on-demand system rather than the previous "kitchen-sink" method. A digital app would increase the ability to accomplish that system.

Rather than fight the “home production” trend, we can design a space to compliment it—catering only to the items which modern users could NOT accomplish at home?

A membership-based system could also help reduce costs and increase user trust.

Increase networking opportunities

Design the mobile application to offer direct scouting and booking of users' talentsNo digital networking interface has yet to successfully focus on this market.

This system could additionally be utilized for industry opportunities and consulting.

A membership-based system could create a self-generating ecosystem.

Increase the speed with which content is created

A digital application building and connecting a talent ecosystem would greatly decrease the time it takes to .

Big Picture Ideation

No digital networking interface has yet to successfully focus on this market...
yet the average user was VERY tech savvy. A digital infrastructure could be implemented to reduce costs and increase efficiency across the production AND scouting/booking processes.This could connect users to talent, industry consulting, and opportunities, then allow product to be produced in a cost-effective manner in a redesigned space.

A lot of waste in existing model for current needs.
Many, now-redundant aspects of the traditional studio model can be streamlined to optimize cost and efficiency. Rather than fight the “home production” trend, we can design a space to compliment it—catering only to the items which modern users could NOT accomplish at home?

IMPACT/EFFORT MATRIX.

Pursuing the industry's first networking app that connects them to a modular studio system.

Reinvented Modular Studio Infrastructure

• Feasibility point 1

• Feasibility point 2

Digital Booking App for Studio

• Feasibility point 1

Digital Booking App for Talent

• Feasibility point 1

Knowledge-base for Independent Pros

• Feasibility point 1

Our decision

Our stakeholders and investors helped us to see that this was a rare opportunity—where current physical studio spaces were on the decline at the same time that users were demanding a new, multi-pronged solution.

We would be provided the resources to lease a vacant industrial warehouse to construct a paired-down, 10-room, modular production space test model that would be booked with a limited-feature mobile application where members could network, book each others' talents, and ultimately reserve a production space scaled to their needs.

If the test model was successful, we would then explore additional spaces—either adding more rooms to the existing location or expanding to other smaller, more intimate locations that members could select from.

This process would be approached iteratively with constant feedback from users and stakeholders.

Metrics

By what measures would we monitor the success or shortcomings of our solutions?

Cost
For these ideations, we chose to measure the estimated per-song production cost of each variation.

Time-on-Task
‍With shared-economy/co-working methodology on the rise, could we leverage a system like this to optimize bookings in a physical space and achieve profitability where other studios have failed?

Conversion Rate
Since this was a new business opportunity, we couldn’t calculate true conversion rates until a product was launched, but for this initial stage, we would calculate this with membership waiting list signups.

Design Ideation

Task Flows

Booking a Studio On-Demand

Search available studios

Book
studios

Add
talent and
gear

Confirm +
pay

Access studio

Scouting + Booking Talent On-Demand

Search available talent

Book
talent

Add
gear + studios

Confirm
+
pay

Connect with talent

DESIRED USER FLOWS

I would elaborate on the previous flows with a user flow that we desired to create before I began considering lo-fi designs. This would help to get an understanding of which screens and actions I would need to consider.

EARLY ITERATIONS

I would expand on the task flows with user flows before I began considering eve lo-fi designs to get an understanding of which screens and actions I would need to consider.

Early Iterations of the physical structure

A mobile application as a gateway to a reinvented physical production space for a new generation.

Using design thinking for the physical space as well. How the physical facilities could be reinvented to even allow for the digital application to do its work would greatly inform the app itself. I met with the studio design team on a daily basis for insights and our collaborative conversations would

Early ideations: a main hurdle to reimagining the studio environment was that they would all end up resembling the traditional model, just with a greater amount of compact rooms

Revised designs based on digital integration. All rooms would be a consistent design to allow for easy transition from one to another depending on availability.

FEEDBACK + IMPROVEMENTS

Iterative design with user feedback at the heart of the process.

I would employ an iterative design process, gathering regular user input and testing, and fostering a valuable feedback loop that would help me to regularly refine this new product to user needs.

High Res USER FLOW

Scouting and booking a studio instantaneously.

Conclusion

Cost
To measure  I chose to go with an estimated per-song production calculation

Time-on-Task
‍With shared-economy/co-working methodology on the rise, could we leverage a system like this to optimize bookings in a physical space and achieve profitability where other studios have failed?

Conversion Rate
Since this was a new business opportunity, we couldn’t calculate true conversion rates until a product was launched, but for this initial stage, we would calculate this with membership waiting list signups.

PROTOTYPE

A mobile application working in tandem with a new, modular production space to cut costs, save time, AND re-connect a valuable ecosystem.

CHALLENGES

I had been leading creative, entrepreneurial projects for my entire career, but this was my first venture into digital product design, which this venture was not even intended to be. My passion for problem-solving would let the problem and user needs lead the way

RESULTS

This product would garner more than $1.2M in investment, strategic partnerships with notable industry organizations, and a large buy-in from users and industry professionals prior to being put on hold during the Covid-19 pandemic.

By developing a small test model in an existing studio, and with follow-up testing, we were able to decipher rough metrics on what a product like this could mean to the current industry operations.

IMpact

Preliminary testing and field studies showed promise for this new system, with estimated production cost decreases of up to 55%,  and cutting production times in half.

55%

COST 
REDUCTION

2x

PRODUCTION
SPEEDS

REFLECTIONS + NEXT STEPS

As this project was forced into an indefinite pause following the Covid 19 pandemic, I would have a lot of time to consider alternate paths that could have been taken to ensure its success.

What would become more important than ever during this time was connecting with your community, and working with them if even just remotely. A digital-first approach would have been valuable, not only under this circumstance, but in building a pre-launch user base even if the pandemic had never occurred. This approach could have introduced an opportunity to monetize exiting studio shares for individuals' current production spaces and may have bypassed the immediate (and costly) construction of our physical studio model. Because we were designing both the physical and digital infrastructure in concert, we may have missed this opportunity.

This lesson has taught me to always consider "minimum viable product"—as we likely could have launched the digital application prior to building a physical space—and to not let perfect be the enemy of the good.

Not only did this project initiate a path to product design, but its complexity has infinitely increased my problem-solving skills, and the ability to lead a massive collaborative effort amongst varied specializations.