Spotify Following Tab — Here’s How It Could Work

Kevin
Kevin
Sep 3, 2018 · 5 min read

As of today September 03, 2018, Spotify is the number one streaming service globally followed by Apple and Amazon. Spotify has the most listeners, paying customers, and consumer mindshare. It’s widely known for utilizing their data for personalization capabilities especially seen with generated playlists and recommendations.

As a Premium user of more than 2 years, I love to use Spotify. It allows me to access all my favorite artists’ music and discover new music. However, I find it personally hard to learn about the new music by my favorite artists without going to their page by myself or looking on social media. Spotify currently allows you to follow your favorite artists and I get the occasional emails about new music and events, but emails aren’t the place for anyone to find out about new music. I opted in for push notifications instead, but I don’t know if this applies to anyone else, but Spotify doesn’t have a tab or page for me to view the new music. My music app should be a one stop shop to listen to my music and find out about my favorite artists’ new music all in one.

Source

The ‘Prime’ Example

To me, the best example for Spotify to follow is YouTube, specifically the ‘Subscription’ page. YouTube allows you to subscribe to creators and see their newly uploaded content in real time and in chronological order. I don’t need to rely on using other social media outlets to tell me when my favorite content creators upload their new videos. For my top favorite creators I subscribe to, I can opt in to receive push notifications for when they upload.

Here’s my proposal to improve my favorite product for music:

Stakeholders

  • Users: Users would be able to easily discover new music by their favorite artists which would make their overall experience using Spotify a lot more enjoyable.
  • Holder of the Music Rights (Artists and Record Labels): Artists and Record Labels would see an increase in the amount of users listening to their new music. The ‘Following’ page would help promote/advertise their new music. They would see an increase in the revenue they earn due to users being able to easily learn about their new music.
  • Company: Spotify could see an increase in users, engagement, and revenue. Spotify could benefit from having the reputation of being the one stop shop for listening and learning to new music. This would certainly give them the competitive advantage over their competitors like Apple and Amazon.

Why Implement?

To not only increase the overall listening experience for me, but for every user. Spotify will be the one stop shop for anyone wanting to find out if there is new music without having to check other social media like Twitter or Reddit.

Vision Statement

Make it easier to find out about artists’ new music.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

The simplest form of the following page would be a straightforward, chronological feed of new music of users’ favorite artists. The page would update the same time as when the music is updated onto the artist’s page. It would display the album art of the new album or single that can be clicked on to take you directly to the page itself.

The feed will be viewed chronologically in terms of when it is uploaded to Spotify. There is no need to ‘optimize’ or ‘personalize’ this feed like how Twitter and Instagram’s feed currently works. It should be the same as YouTube’s ‘Subscription’ page curren. Users will use this page solely to discover the new music from their favorite artists. Optimization can be saved for the ‘Home’ page.

Post-MVP:

  • Add ‘Alert ’option for artists users care the most about
  • Add a ‘Grid View’ vs ‘List View’ option for viewing
  • Add an option to also receive Artists’ new/updated public playlists
  • Improvements and Fixing Bugs

Key Performance Indicators (KPI)

  • Increase in Active Daily Users: If Spotify can be the one stop shop to discover new music, users should be using it more often instead of referring to social media.
  • Increase in User Engagement with Artists’ New Music: Because users can discover when artists upload new music more easily, there should be an increase in activity on the day of release when compared to normally.
  • Increase in User Base: While Spotify is the number 1 music streaming service, it can’t afford to sit comfortably with Amazon and Apple slowly catching up. Consumers will know Spotify is not only the app to easily listen to their favorite artists, but know directly when their favorite artists upload new albums or singles.

Feature List

  • View New Release by Artists they are following
  • Click to go to page & listen to new music
  • Add to Playlist(s)
  • Go to Artist’s Page
  • Hide from feed

Wireframe

I put the new ‘Following’ tab inside the ‘Browse’ menu tab putting the original ‘Discover’ tab alongside it. This ensures the ‘Home’ menu tab maintains its function of showing personalize content and promoting artists and playlists to users.

Left: ‘Following’ Tab; Right: Side Menu View

User Flow

Drawback: Lack of User Research

The only problem with this proposal is a lack of user research conducted. This was solely based off of the author’s (me) own personal thoughts. The interview or survey questions (to users) would mainly relate to:

  • What does Spotify currently do to tell you there is new music from your favorite artists ? Does it differ between mainstream artists and underground artists?
  • How do you find out there is new music from artists you like?
  • How important is it to you for a music app to be not only a source of listening, but a source of discovering new music?

Conclusion

This is my product proposal for a feature I believe would improve the overall experience of using Spotify. Spotify would not only benefit from an increase in user enjoyment and engagement, but also help maintain their lead over Apple and Amazon.

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