Yndie
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We created a premium experience which delights not only within the app, but also in the real world, where musicians can truly connect with their audience.
Yndie is a platform for local musicians to be discovered and supported by a young, tech-savvy and media hyper-consuming audience. After having built a healthy customer base with a freemium version, the app is now looking to bring in a steady revenue stream with the introduction of premium features.
role
Solo Designer
duration
90 hours
processes
Discover - Design - Validate + Iterate
tools
Figma
The Brief
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Create the opportunity for new users to subscribe to the premium product upon registration in the signup flow.
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Create the opportunity for returning free users to become paid subscribers in the sign-in flow as well as within the product (once logged in).
By creating a paid product with better features than the free experience and giving users the opportunity to upgrade to a better product, users will pay the subscription fee. This will lead to a profitable revenue stream.
The Plan
This project was undertaken with 90 hours and a solid game plan in hand. Here's the timeline.
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Phase 1 - Discover
Surveys
A survey of 50 of our target users helped figure out what the users’ music consumption patterns were like and what they expect from their media apps.
I interviewed two local musicians who are featured on online streaming platforms and have performed live across the country. They told us about how they sustain their music careers and how the tech world is helping musicians.
Key Insights
Independent musicians do not have enough exposure or stable sources of income:
Existing streaming platforms aren’t viable sources of income for the artists and Live Streaming is problematic for technical reasons and not profitable in the long run. Live shows are also not stable sources of income.
The two main motivators for users to upgrade are ads and personalization.
While Spotify is the platform that most users pay for (followed by YouTube), users mainly upgrade to skip the ads and enjoy recommendation algorithms seamlessly.
Conform in some ways, surprise in others:
Users expect certain basic features on their music platforms- the option to “like” songs, curate playlists, optimized recommendations etc. With existing music platforms already providing them with the same music for free, Yndie has to add value by providing exclusives (Features that cannot be found on any other platform).
“The revenue model on streaming services is not geared towards indie artists. Even if you do get paid, it’s a couple of dollars that goes off into transaction charges and taxes.”
"I would share my music with friends upon request, otherwise my music is for me"
“If I can achieve the same thing for free somewhere else, I’ll go there- like if the lyrics are a premium feature, I'll just google them."
Phase 2- Design
Instead of going for the traditional music player upgrades with ads, I decided to create a premium experience that includes real-world experiences that boost the local music scene. Inspired by Zomato Gold and Sofar Sounds, I wanted to design a membership that would truly appeal to Yndie's audience.
ORIGINAL CONTENT
Yndie will feature exclusive video content with artists talking about their inspiration, production tips, Behind-the-scenes, acoustic covers etc.
YNDIE EVENTS
At partner venues, Yndie will host exclusive, member-only events with live music featuring up-and-coming artists that could use the support. Members get two tickets a month to the events. It's a win-win.
DISCOUNTS & DEALS
This one's simple. Members get offers on the biggest music events in the country.
The Screens
The design phase started off with low-fidelity sketches for ideation and mid-fidelity wireframes based on user flows that focused on adding information and CTAs within the natural user flows. The additional screens were as follows.
Overlay at the end of Sign Up / Sign In flow
Premium announcement
with appropriate illustration
Information about premium
features
A video with popular Indie
artists supporting the app
CTA
Information page to encourage users to upgrade
Premium plans with varying durations and price points
Reminding the user of what the brand stands for
Answering all questions and providing ample customer support
Pitching the premium features once again with the CTA
Showing users how they can contribute to the cause even if they do not want to upgrade
In-app upgrade message
Original, exclusive-to-Yndie content
After one minute of viewing time, an upgrade message shows up.
All Wireframes
Phase 3- Validate
With a simple set of wires adhering to the conventions of a music app in most ways, I began my user testing sessions. The chosen participants were:
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18-24 years old
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used several media apps
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were subscribed to at least one
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Had at least three local/ independent musicians on their playlists
“I would go for the shorter duration plans if there was no money being saved, even if it means renewing my subscription by paying again.”
“Artist’s endorsements won’t make that much of a difference to me, I’m more interested in learning about the artists, knowing the story behind the songs etc.”
"I don't think I would upgrade without ads."
Observations
All of the users could not recollect the premium features after the flow was complete
Recommendation:
Restructure the overlays with focus-pulling visuals and bold lettering. Enable users to be selective about their premium features so they can learn about each and choose according to convenience.
4 out of 5 users skipped the tutorials or skimmed through the titles
Recommendation:
Keep the tutorial pages very focused on the main purpose of the app: Learning about and supporting local musicians, keep titles and text brief, use visuals that support.
Users prefer to read about the musicians and their stories WHILE listening to their music
Recommendation:
Create an artist hub for when the users click on an artist’s name where they can learn about the artists and access premium content.
Phase 4- Design
For my high fidelity screens, I started with a palette inspired by the Woodstock poster. I tried some bold colors and got a very retro feel but I wasn’t quite satisfied with the in-your-face look.
I then came across a floral print that seemed to work very well with the theme I was going for- bold, yet understated. I pulled out colors from there to create a mood board and eventually, Yndie’s style guide.
Mood board
Style Guide
Hi-Fi Screens
With my newfound knowledge from the user tests and fresh ideas flowing out, I began work on the high-fidelity screens. I was especially excited to create an Artist Hub where artists could be featured with all the information about them- videos, events and discography included. This would be the feature that would make Yndie truly stand out.
I was also perplexed about how we could build recall for the premium features. This was resolved by the creation of membership tiers corresponding to the requirements of the users. We associated each tier with a “character” or a kind of fan- this was the birth of Yndie Mellow, Groove and Hardcore.
The call-to-upgrade screens were designed with sleek gradients and isometric illustrations for the "fan" characters. Here are some highlights.
Phase 5- Validate
With my second round of user testing, I mainly wanted to understand whether users:
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find it easy to upgrade to Premium features
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find the premium packages suitable to their requirements
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Can remember the features of the premium version after navigating through the flow
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feel pressured to upgrade or abandon
Here's the affinity map I compiled with the responses:
“I would not be open to premium immediately but I would want to see how much it costs so I’ll check it out” (About the initial overlay with CTA to upgrade)
“If I’m listening to ads on an app, I’d rather learn about the album/ music rather than other brands”
“I would like the option to choose languages. A north Indian might not be as keen as me about Tamil music.”
Observations
Recall of premium features is pretty good, but can be improved
Recommendation:
The initial CTA is enough for users to check the pricing and features, but to help with recall, premium branding should be used wherever there are premium features. The natural user flows should incorporate the appearance of these features.
4 out of 5 users wanted to know what the original content consisted of
Recommendation:
Instead of original content, use the term “Video content” to communicate the idea of exclusive videos better. Also have more fleshed out explanations to the premium features through a “learn more” link and FAQs.
Users prefer their artist links to open music directly. The opening of Artist Hub was confusing
Recommendation:
Create a new tab for Artist Hub so that people can access it to learn more about their favorite artists. It remains optional to those who want to use only the audio streaming platform.
After the final round of iterations, here’s what Yndie turned out to be. Play with the prototype and let me know what you think!
Challenges & Scope
Yndie is a project that is very close to my heart as I'm quite the local music enthusiast myself. Doing usability tests geared towards testing out premium features and whether a user would pay for them was quite the task because I couldn’t be 100% sure that they weren’t just giving me the answers that I wanted to hear. This kind of project is also very geared towards profits and needs KPIs to test out its long-term sustainability.
Several users requested a “comment” feature for fan-to-fan / fan-to-artist interactions which can certainly be incorporated in an app like Yndie. We can also create direct booking for the events and create a new way to monetize the app. With the ultimate aim of being a fully functional support system for local and independent musicians, Yndie has real potential to build a healthy audience.