Spotify's Musical Moment

UX Research & UX Design
Introduction
Music is an integral part of many people's lives and is capable of connecting people with different backgrounds and cultures. However, outside of concerts or music-specific discussion platforms, listening to and discussing music is a very personal and independent activity. This is unfortunate, as using music to foster interaction can make listening to music a more fun activity in people's daily lives.

As the largest music streaming platform with 602 million users, Spotify has the power to create extensive social experiences for its user base. However, its features and interface do not allow for easy user-to-user interaction. Other music platforms on the market also fail to combine music and social interaction in an enjoyable and effective way.

As a result, we created Spotify's Musical Moment, a Spotify extension that uses a daily activity capitalizing on ephemerality and hyper-locality to foster new connections and strengthen existing ones. Furthermore, with the addition of user-to-user communication features like group chats, we increase the capacity of social interaction on Spotify.

To use Spotify's Musical Moment, users would opt-in to the feature within the Spotify app and confirm that they want to participate in the daily activity. Once they do, they will receive a prompt (such as "What song makes you feel inspired?") every day at a random time between 9AM and 6PM in a separate tab within Spotify. Users will then choose a song to respond to the prompt. Afterwards, they can join a group consisting of four other local Spotify users who also answered the prompt. Within the group, the five users can see each other's song choice for the prompt and discuss various topics about music. If conversations go well, users also have the option to send a friend request to each other. Lastly, 2 hours after the prompt is released, local playlists consisting of prompt responses are released. Each local playlist can only be seen by users within the local area of the playlist. Both the local playlist and group chat of local Spotify users expire at the end of the day. Optionally, users can also use the groups feature to create group chats with friends to discuss and share music.

Tools

  • Figma
  • Google Forms
  • Discord
  • Spotify

Team

  • Erik Pak - UX Researcher & UX Designer
  • Shashank Thattai - UX Researcher & UX Designer
  • Daniel Herrick - Product Manager, UX Researcher, UX Designer
  • Nicholas Chiu - UX Researcher & UX Designer

My Role

    • UX Researcher
    • UX Designer

    Timeline

    • Overall: 10 weeks
    • Discovery & Research: 3 weeks
    • Design & Testing: 7 weeks

      Design Process

      01
      Research & Exploration
      02
      First Prototype
      03
      Second Prototype
      04
      Final Outcome
      Research & Exploration
      01
      In the early stages of brainstorming, we knew that we wanted to create a social experience utilizing Spotify and music. However, we first needed to conduct research to ensure we were creating a novel social computing experience that was both usable and interactive for our community of interest — college-age students who use music streaming services regularly. Consequently, we decided to conduct semi-structured interviews and research the competitive space. Additionally, we discussed extensively with Professor Dow over the first few weeks of the quarter as we worked to establish our first prototype and its features.
      Semi-Structured Interviews
      Through semi-structured interviews (n = 10) consisting of nine specific guiding questions, we aimed to answer the following general research questions:
      1. How do people interact with friends and/or strangers through music?
      2. Are people interested in sharing their own music taste or meet people with similar music tastes?
      3. How do people discover new music currently?
      Findings
      Through our interviews, we found that 8/10 (80%) of interviewees shared similar music tastes with each other. However, even though many interviewees shared music tastes with friends and 7/10 (70%) of interviewees expressed interest in sharing their music, only 4/10 (40%) of interviewees interacted with others on music streaming platforms. 2 of the 4 used the Spotify Blend feature while the other two used the link sharing feature to send songs or playlists to other people. Additionally, 0/10 (0%) of interviewees used some form of online forum to discuss music. Overall, while people expressed interest in sharing music, they did not do so for various reasons. Interviewee 8 mentioned that they prefer to keep their music taste private while Interviewee 6 noted that they are embarrassed to be potentially judged for their music taste.

      For discovering new music, only 2 people (20%) listened to new music weekly. The most common frequency was approximately once a month (6/10 or 60%). Among methods for discovering new music, 6/10 (60%) of interviewees used Spotify's inbuilt discover features. Other mentioned methods were word of mouth, social media, and concerts.
      Competitive Space
      In order to determine the novelty of our idea, we first analyzed the competitive space to evaluate the different products and services that shared similarities to our idea. The two main platforms we looked at were SoundCloud and Audius.
      1. SoundCloud
      • Allows users to comment on specific parts of the track and reply to other comments
      • Feed where people can post or repost songs/playlists
      2. Audius
      • Similar UI as Twitter (likes, shares, comments on tracks)
      • No direct user-to-user interactions
      While SoundCloud does allow for interaction, it facilitates more general interaction over specific songs rather than interaction between people or groups of people. We wanted to create a platform where people were able to talk to each other. Audius creates a great platform which gives more power to artists, but like SoundCloud, it does not support direct user-to-user interaction. Tastebuds, an additional platform we looked at, serves as both a dating and social networking site by connecting people locally through music taste. While Tastebuds moves closer to our idea, we wanted to ensure that our social experience was built off of an established platform like Spotify as many people and artists are already familiar with it.

      Spotify's Musical Moment is designed to create and sustain daily social interaction through music by employing ephemeral and hyperlocal features through an already established platform like Spotify. By adding additional social features like group chats, we create a novel social computing experience which Spotify users can enjoy.
      First Prototype
      02
      Summary
      In our first prototyping session, we gave participants the following scenario: You received a prompt from Spotify's Musical Moment and have been paired with someone also from La Jolla. Share your song response with that person and chat together! Will you add them as a friend? Have you found your new concert buddy?
      We then showed them the following prompt that they were to respond to, along with guideline questions to facilitate discussion amongst each other:
      Cycle 1 Prompt:
      • Send a song you wish people would sing to you on your birthday instead of “Happy Birthday”
      Cycle 1 Guiding Questions:
      • Why did you choose to share that song and how does it relate to the prompt?
      • Are there any specific lyrics or lines in this song that you like the most? Why?
      • Do you have similar music tastes?
      To simulate Spotify Musical Moment's user pairing process, we had the participants fill out a Google form to inform us of their preferred music genre. Also, within the Google form was a link to a discord server that they were to join and use to simulate Spotify Musical Moment's chat function. On a Google sheet, our team matched each participant to a partner based on genre preference and we assigned each pair a number that corresponded to a specific Discord server text channel (as shown on the left side of the image below). We displayed the Google sheet, had participants join their assigned text channels on the Discord server, and had them share their song responses to their partner and chat for several minutes.
      To simulate a new day, we repeated this same process but with a new prompt:
      Cycle 2 Prompt:
      • Send a song that makes you think of someone you love.
      Cycle 2 Guiding Questions:
      • Why did you choose this song?
      • Who do you think of when you think of this song? What memory is associated with this song?
      • Are there any specific lyrics or lines in this song that resonate with you the most?
      While participants were chatting in their pairs, our team added the songs that the participants linked in the text channels to a Spotify playlist called "Musical Moment".  After pair discussions were over, we displayed a QR code that sent them to the Spotify playlist consisting of their prompt responses. This playlist was representative of the local playlist that Spotify's Musical Moment would curate from users' prompt responses.
      Results and Feedback
      Feedback:
      • There were too many platforms required to do the task
      • People wanted to be able to message and share experiences with close friends
      • People didn't interact as much in Discord as they felt they were going to
      Results:
      The first prototype worked for the tasks we assigned. However, it took more time and less participation than we expected. Additionally, there was a lot of downtime between tasks which contributed to loss of attention from participants. We did two cycles of our task, but it seemed too much to fit both into one prototyping session. For future prototypes, the sharing works better if we split it up into groups instead of pairs on Discord.
      Second Prototype
      03
      Summary/What We Changed
      Prompt:
      • What is a song that reminds you of where you grew up?
      Guiding Questions:
      • Why did you choose to share that song and how does it relate to the prompt?
      • Are there any specific lyrics or lines in this song that you like the most? Why?
      • Based on song choice and profile, would you go to a concert together?
      To meet the participants' previous demand for a reduction in number of platforms used, we eliminated the use of Google Forms and Discord. Each of them was given an index card, which represented their Spotify profile, on which they wrote their song response and favorite genre.

      To facilitate the pairing process, our team made a Google Sheet beforehand that assigned participants to be in groups of ~4 to different sections of the classroom, alongside a visual representation of where they were to go. Participants accessed this Google Sheet via a QR code, went to their respective locations, and shared their song responses with their group. This was the simulation of a group chat on Spotify's Musical Moment with random local Spotify users. To simulate a Friends group chat, we had people move back to their Prototyping groups and once again share their song responses with each other. To reduce confusion, we used the same prompt for both discussions. We changed to a format of group in-person discussions in response to participants' previous feedback which indicated that the previous prototype's discussions had issues of a non-responsive partner and general Discord-related problems. After group discussions finished, we once again gave them a QR code to the Musical Moment playlist consisting of their song responses. Our team compiled the playlist by going around the classroom, adding the songs shown on participants' index cards.
      Results and Feedback
      Feedback:
      • People were confused on how to split up into the groups assigned
      Results:
      The second prototype worked better after we reduced the number of platforms users needed to use. People were able to interact and discuss their song choices as intended. Allowing them to reconvene in their original groups enabled them to form a "close friends" group.
      Final Outcome
      04
      For the final design of our project, we created our prototype through Figma. The user flow consists of users answering the prompt given for that day by looking up the song they would like and choosing it, as shown in Figure 1. Then, users can join the group that either fits the genre they most listen to or any other group if they are trying to expand their taste, as shown in Figure 2. In these groups, users can discuss with other users about the songs they all picked, as well as explore some new songs, as shown in Figure 3. Lastly, if a user goes onto their home page of the app, they will be able to see their past Musical Moment Picks, as well as their top genre, seen in Figure 4. Through all the screens shown, the user is able to get the complete, immersive experience of Spotify's Musical Moment.

      Reflection & Next Steps

      After completing two rounds of prototyping, we believe that existing Spotify users would enjoy using Musical Moment to discover new music and interact with others. Our participants loved answering the creative prompts and discovering the story behind why someone chose a song for a certain prompt. 

      For future iterations, we want to continue testing the post-friending interactions between users. We want to implement features like games, trivia, and concert notifications between friends with similar favorite artists in order to foster greater social interaction between those who use Musical Moment. Additionally, we are interested in introducing a "global" feature so that users could meet others outside of their initial area and learn about local music in new places. 

      Contributions

      • Nicholas ideated the initial Proximity Radio idea for P1: Teams and Ideas. For P2: Research, he researched technology and conducted two interviews as well as attending Professor Dow's office hours to iterate the initial idea to the Musical Moment in the first prototype. In P3: Prototypes, he worked on the intro slides, instructions, and guiding questions for the first prototype. He also did the iteration, the presentation slides, and the feedback form for the second prototype. For P4: Portfolio, he formatted the website and wrote the "Introduction" and "Research and Exploration" sections.
      • Erik brainstormed functionalities/features for the initial Proximity Radio idea for P1: Teams and Ideas. For P2: Research, he conducted a literature review for background research, researched competing products in the space, and conducted two interviews. For P3: Prototypes, he added Spotify screenshots and edited the presentation slide format. During the prototype sessions, he added participants' Spotify songs to the Musical Moment playlist. For P4: Portfolio, he wrote the Summary portions for the "First Prototype" and "Second Prototype" sections.
      • Anvitha worked on the "Social Setting" and "Social Computing" pitch slides for the initial Proximity Radio idea for P1: Teams and Ideas. For P2: Research, she researched the social setting and conducted two interviews. For P3: Prototypes, she worked on the guiding questions, edited the presentation slides, and created the Figma screens. During the prototype demonstrations itself, she added participants' Spotify songs to the Musical Moment playlist. For P4: Portfolio, she wrote the "Final Design" section and edited/added to the Figma screens.
      • Daniel acted as the project manager throughout the creation of Spotify's Musical Moment. For P1: Teams and Ideas, he brainstormed the prototype experience of the initial Proximity Radio idea and attended Professor Dow's office hours to discuss and iterate the first prototype. For P2: Research, he generated interview questions, conducted two interviews, researched the technology, and created the first Figma mockup prototype. For P3: Prototypes, he created the Google forms/sheets and conducted the outline for how the prototyping sessions would run, and helped run the actual sessions. For the slides, he worked on the "Hypothetical Scenario" slides and created the prompts for the sessions. For P4: Portfolio, he wrote "Reflection and Next Steps" section and edited the writing for the website.
      • Shashank helped implement a social scenario with a task for P1: Teams and Ideas. For P2: Research, he researched the Competitive Space and conducted a literature review before the creation of the first prototype. For P3: Prototypes, he worked on prompts and questions and helped with the creation and restructuring of the presentation. He also helped brainstorm how to make the tasks easier for participants to complete. For P4: Portfolio, he wrote the Results & Feedback portions for the "First Prototype" and "Second Prototype" sections.
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