Noticlef
Be the first to know, be the first to tune in
Our Team: Aidan Strangeway, Ethan Trampuh, Jiali Bin, Joey Fisher, and Morning Glor
Introduction
According to the international federation of the phonographic industry, the music streaming market grew by 7.4% in the year 2020 (IFPI, 2021).
FPI Global Music Report indicates the total revenues in the music industry increased $21.6 billion USD in 2020. The music streaming industry embraces astronomical economic potential. However, in the current market, some user-orientated features remain unfledged. Our team had identified two primary lacking features:
- Lack of instant notifications for newly released songs and albums. Updates of new releases are highly dependent on independent social media which users need to pay extra attention to track.
- Lack of listing of upcoming albums or songs. An integrated system in which a calendar is shown of new music would be highly useful to track firsthand information. Musicians are releasing music every day, but the most fundamental functions of notification are still lacking.
Problems with current solutions
The most common user solutions to these problems are following the singer or label’s social media account through Facebook, Twitter, Billboard, or Instagram. However, regularly checking and following up on their account updates are time-consuming. a lot of extra attention would need to be dedicated to receiving first-hand information. Furthermore, there are different needs and listening habits among each listener, but they all want to find out some great songs. It is arduous to keep track of every singer’s social media account while there is usually much more information other than the publication of new songs listed in their social media accounts. Other alternatives are checking release calendars on music news. But it is still time-consuming and music news like Billboard is still lacking a comprehensive releasing calendar that is not user-friendly to follow.
Spotify and Apple Music are the pioneers of the music streaming service. They gained first market success. However, their shortage brings us the Last-mover’s advantage. First, the current user’s using experiences helps us to discover and define the current problem, this leads to the problem statement which we target on utilizing and creating the service they don’t have, with the purpose to simplify the user’s listening and song-exploring process.
Solution
What is Noticlef?
Noticlef was created to make it easier for music junkies and fans to get the fastest notifications and first word on upcoming releases within the music industry. We strive to be the most user-friendly music news software, and we want our clients to know that we are committed to helping them get the most out of the time they spend finding and listening to new music.
With Spotify & Apple music having around 165 million and 85 million subscribers, respectively, our solution would be able to provide service to a wide spectrum of users. Spotify alone has about 3 million artists by the first quarter of 2021 (Vultaggio, 2021). In contrast, Apple Music has about more than 5 million recording artists by the end of 2020 (Apple, 2021). Given those figures, there’s approximately a combination of 250 million listeners in total from both platforms — assuming every single listener only has one subscription. So how would we be able to personalize notifications & alerts regarding artists, albums, & music? There are multiple solutions available to us; with the internet, those solutions can seem endless. Alternatives come in various forms that can be either too complicated or too simple. Notifclef aims to impact the most saturation of stakeholders with regards to the music industry. We have proposed an app to make functions more user-friendly and could easily integrate with the already existing software and hardware.
How does Noticlef work?
The solution begins with the user entering our application and being sent to the login screen. The user can either establish a new account or continue by using their Spotify or Apple music accounts within the login page. This will allow Notficlef to supply users with relevant data. Users are prompted to provide Noticelf with their favourite artists and create notification selections for singles, albums, features, and show announcements. Noticlef will gather the notification selections relating to their preferences based on their choices. The user’s profile will now offer instant notifications called “Clefs” linked to their own preferences once they’ve expressed their interests upon release. The main page of Noticlef contains a toolbar at the bottom that allows users to access new artists' explore page, top music charts, upcoming content, user profile, and of course, recent notification ‘clefs’. Each page will provide users the information they need to customize and view their preferred notifications. As such, there are subsections inside each page to make the user experience as accessible as possible. Upcoming content is a unique feature of Notifclef. Noticlef users may view postings from industry experts about upcoming singles, albums, features, and tour announcements from artists. Traditionally, consumers would have to rely on social media and physically search for upcoming content from their favourite artists. The upcoming content page on Noticelf provides an all-in-one experience for users to navigate artist content quickly and efficiently.
Creation process (tools we used)
Step #1 Finding a name
The name of a company is critical to ensuring success in a startup venture (Green & Jame, 2013). Relationships, in general, are based on first impressions (Human et al., 2013) and the relationship with our customer is critical for success. Since the name of a company is the first thing the customer is going to see, it is crucial to create one from the start that represents the company’s objective and its values.
Struggling to brainstorm names that are both relevant and catchy is the reason many businesses pay thousands of dollars to outsource the naming of their company (Tungsten Branding, 2021) We didn’t have those resources, so we used Business Name Generator. This is a simple tool that allows you to enter a few words outlining your business, the industry, and a few name ideas. It will then output thousands of potential business names that offer a dot com domain name that is readily available for purchase. This ensures originality in the brand name.
Since fundamentally our application was based on providing notifications for music, we wanted to incorporate both of these characteristics in our name. We started by entering something simple, such as “notify” and “music”. The site suggested almost 2.5 thousand names to choose from. Searching from the list, we found “Notify Clef”. This was good, but to shorten it, we decided on “Noticlef”, which noticlef.com was available for use. Now that we had our name down, we started the next part of our branding.
Step #2 Creating a Logo
Before finding a logo, It was important to us that we used a palette of colours that were both unique to the industry and were appealing. To find an appropriate palette, we used coolors.com. We knew that we wanted to use a medium purple, so we inputted this colour and it returned four colours that would compliment it. It took a few times of cycling through different palettes to find one that was the most desirable, but the tool came through, creating the one shown below.
After we had our colour scheme laid down, creating our logo was our next objective. Without a professional logo, it is hard for customers and business partners to take our product seriously. Instead of creating our own logo from scratch or using a paid freelance service such as Fiverr, we opted to use one of the many free logo creators. We used Looka because of its ease of use and reliability in creating a modern-looking logo that should attract a customer base.
To use the tool, we followed the prompts, first entering our business information like our name, colour choice, and our industry. Right off the bat, Looka was able to present us with logos that were professional-looking and were directly related to our product.
We found that these options were great, but none really had a logo that caught our eye. Thankfully, Looka had thought of that. By pressing the “add a symbol” feature, you can type in ideas for a symbol, and it will output variations of logo designs using that symbol. The best part is how it generates thousands of icons that can be used and customized, along with everything else to create an ideal logo.
Step 3: The Prototype
Before creating our application, we had to discuss what we wanted out of the process and what our minimum viable product was going to be able to do. Not only did it have to feel like a native application for an iPhone, but we also wanted to show off a few features of the app, and ensure that they are portrayed as they would be if it were to be actually developed. Based on this, there were a few different services and options that we explored. After looking into MarvelApp, MockPlus, and Figma, we stumbled upon Proto.io. Because of its ease of use, the abundance of video tutorials, and the many advanced features that it offers compared to its competitors, we knew that we had to take advantage of its free trial to take a stab at our prototype.
When you first come across the dashboard of Proto.io, it can be a little bit intimidating. Not understanding the difference between a screen and a container was the first problem we ran into. Thankfully, proto.io released a series of quick videos as an introduction to the app, which allowed us to be on our way to creating a functioning prototype. When creating your first project, it prompts you to choose what kind of device you want your prototype to be on. We chose to use a smartphone, with the skin of an iPhone 12, the most common smartphone in North America (Counterpoint Research, 2021).
The next step of the journey is to play around and get familiar with the software. We stepped right in and started to develop a welcome page for the app. Instead of starting to use one of the many templates, we wanted something a little more custom. We started by inputting our logo, made easy by their drag and drop feature, dragging straight from a local folder saved to your computer. Some text was added to describe some of the features of our app, then we made a button. The search feature was incredibly handy in this process. By quickly pressing CTRL-F, you are prompted to search for templates, icons, and more. Instead of creating a button using the shapes feature, we were able to find one easily by using one of the many templates Proto.io provided.
The main reason we used Proto.io instead of its competitors is to take advantage of the use of HTML code on the prototype. We not only wanted to show off what it would look like but also, show it being used in real-time to connect to streaming platforms and to have the user experience the final product, even though it is a prototype. A feature of the app is to play new songs and music videos directly from the app. To accomplish this, both Spotify and Youtube offer HTML code to copy, which can be applied to websites and other hosts to play their content. This allows music and videos to be played directly in the prototype.
To add HTML code to your project, you can drag and drop the button where you want it, and then adjust the size. Using Spotify, you can convert any artist, song, playlist, or album to HTML code through the options -> Share -> Embed artist. This will show you a representation of what it will look like on your project. You simply copy and paste the code over to Proto.io, and you’re set.
After adding the pages desired, tweaking some templates, and adding HTML from a host site, a professional-looking and semi-functional prototype can be created. Although Proto.io is incredibly useful in creating a prototype, to make a fully functional app, a lot more development would be necessary. There are many options and considerations when developing the final application. A video walkthrough of the application is shown below.
Distribution Channels
Noticlef plans to be engineered in a user-friendly way and has a carefully designed user interface. This is to ensure that users can easily navigate the app and the music streaming platforms are properly integrated. The app will be mainly available for smartphones such as Apple and Android devices that can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play Store, respectively. As Spotify & Apple Music have more mobile-oriented users, utilizing a mobile application interface would be the most logical solution. Since the goal is to quickly notify the user of updates regarding their favourite artists, music, and more, users would typically have immediate access to a smartphone than a home or office computer.
Implementation
To develop a tangible minimum viable product, we intend to use Flutter. Our team has little experience in software development. Flutter is an excellent solution for those who have are new to coding or have an aptitude with computers. Flutter is a free app development platform for IOS or android that comes preloaded with basic app features and widgets designed by Google. Flutter will allow us to simplify the process of app development because it makes it easier for developers to construct their own user interfaces for people like us to utilize. It allows you to structure the user interface of your app in the same way as a blogging or logo design platform can.
As such, Flutter will automatically add any buttons, backgrounds, or other pre-made widgets to your app. One of the main reasons we had to leverage a code-oriented app development tool was to comply with Apple Music and Spotify’s software development kits and ensure our platform will be feasible from a technical standpoint. As we plan to integrate Apple Music and Spotify accounts with Noticlef, we are going to have to be granted permission for functionality and integration by using their respective authorization SDK code for access. Although coding is not ideal for our group, Flutter will allow us to avoid any unnecessary assumptions about software development to physically create Noticlef.
Possible additional features
- Rationale: Different platforms have different features, perks, etc.
Feature: Noticlef can show comparisons as well as a potential bundle of perks if you subscribe to more than one platform like both Spotify & Apple Music — may create more value to business stakeholders. - Rationale: Songs or albums can sometimes be digitally released after the physical album sales. Also, some songs may be released before the whole album. Some platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple Music) — may have different releases and/or release dates.
Feature: Noticlef can notify of impending release for both physical and digital releases as well. It can also show release per platform. It will show the prices and how to order the album before the digital release - Rationale: As a consumer and in general, you would want the most savings, deals, etc. As there are various platforms, competition is evident.
Feature: Noticlef can compare and contrast prices for different platforms as well as current deals that are available. For example, bundling Spotify for students with Hulu can save you 50% off on Spotify while getting free Hulu & Showtime access. Also, there are savings like with Spotify Duo and Spotify Family. Another comparison can be region-specific, maybe you’re a resident of more than one country, Spotify can be cheaper (ex. C$9.99 in Canada, but around C$3 in Brazil). - Rationale: Some music databases are bigger than others, and this can vary regionally as well.
Feature: Noticlef can possibly show the differences in each platform, like how many songs are in streaming platform A compared to B. There can be region/country-specific databases that can be compared too.
Monetization
When it comes to app monetization, we opted to leverage Google’s AdMob. AdMob is another Google product that connects app developers with app marketers. It’s a tool that allows mobile applications to join a network in order to fill ad space that is currently empty using any method of advertisement. We chose interstitial and banners ads as our means of promotion on Noticlef. When a user taps on a banner ad, it expands to full screen and automatically resizes when the user spins their device. Interstitials show at natural pauses or transition points in your app, allowing you to create interesting marketing experiences without interrupting the flow or user experience. Ultimately, We would join a network using Google’s AdMod, and the banner ad space would be filled. AdMob is a fantastic solution for creating monetization while also providing high-quality, interesting advertising that won’t upset app users. Noticlef can also benefit from AdMod because it provides thorough data insights. We’d gain extensive information on how users engage with advertisements and our app as a result of using AdMod.
Financial Analysis
The cost of creating this application is highly dependent on how it is produced. If the group were to develop this application without any outsourcing, costs would be limited to maintenance and the launch of the product. Because of our group’s limited experience in development, the cost of hiring a developer was estimated, shown below.
Competitor Analysis
Like most business opportunities, there are many alternatives to current solutions and Noticlef is no exception. With that being said, the purpose of our project was to identify, develop and implement technological innovation in an existing corporation and we believe our solution is ultimately feasible, innovative, and well within the scope of this course. As such, there will be competitors and workarounds to our solution.
Streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music currently offer some sort of notification for new music releases whether that’s part of an email subscription list or in-app notification that their “new releases” playlists have been updated, these notifications are far and few between with being up to date. It is not uncommon for either one of these platforms to notify users about new music for up to three days after content has been released. A potential workaround for these slow notifications is the “pre-save” feature, however, this is only for select artists if their record label has requested or opted for this feature.
Neither Spotify nor Apple Music offer notifications for artist tour dates. Another alternate solution is manually setting up post-notifications on social media such as Instagram or Twitter for your favourite artist’s profiles. Users would receive a notification from their respective social media about new posts. However, this alternative does not guarantee that whatever the artist decides to post will in fact be relevant to releasing music or tour dates. For example, If a user is a big Drake fan and they’re anxiously waiting for new music from him but their social media notifications are directing them to photos of his private jet or clothing line, this does not necessarily help the user discover new music effectively.
The last identified alternative is Google alerts. Google alerts send emails to users when it discovers new results that match the user’s search phrase, such as web pages, newspaper articles, blogs, or scientific research. Ultimately, the user experience with google alerts is far from seamless because you will still have to manually browse and search for release alerts in the emails without direct transition between streaming services. With all alternatives and competitors considered, good design is good business and we firmly believe Noticlef offers the best solution, design, and user experience compared to our competitors.
Stakeholder Analysis:
A stakeholder analysis is used to seek, differentiate and study the stakeholders interested or involved in an organization. This is on the basis of the stakeholders’ attributes and the criteria of the analyst appropriate to the specific situation. These may include:
- The relative power and interest of each stakeholder (Freeman 1984)
- The importance and influence they have (Grimble and Wellard 1996)
- The multiple “hats” they wear; and
- The networks and coalitions to which they belong (Freeman and Gilbert 1987)
A stakeholder is a group and/or individual who is affected by or can affect the success of an organization. For clarity and understanding we have broken the stakeholders down into four types:
- Enabling stakeholders: Stakeholders that have some control and authority over the organization that provide resources and the necessary levels of autonomy to operate. These boards and funders can also withdraw resources and the autonomy of the organization, and they have the power to limit, restrict, or regulate. Our enabling stakeholders would be our board members, which would include our group members, and any other person we deem necessary for the organization — including a CEO, CFO, and large shareholders in our company. These stakeholders would also include funders. For our organization, we would bootstrap, as we have little capital, and would have to rely on personal finances and/or operating revenues.
- Functional stakeholders: These stakeholders are essential to the operation of the organization, and they are broken down into two categories. The divided categories are input and output, the input being employees and supplies, and output being consumers and retailers. Regarding Noticlef, our functional stakeholder’s input would comprise of our employees, this could include, business development, data and analytics, design and user experience, engineering and IT, and sales and marketing. The output would include our consumer base, which is music lovers and people that want to get to know more music without the strain and hassle of finding it themselves. Due to our company being an online service we do not have any real forms of suppliers, or retailers, as everything will be done in-house, with little or no need for outside sourcing.
- Normative stakeholders: Associations or groups that have a common interest in our organization. This can be shared values, goals, or problems, and these stakeholders often include competitors. Our normative stakeholders would cover a wide range of people due to the music industry being extremely large, with exponential growth. Some of the main associations or groups would be the artists, labels, and the different platforms for music streaming, including Apple, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Our competitors would specifically be Apple Music and Spotify, as they are the leaders in the industry. As a company, we either need to get an industry leader to buy into our idea, or we need to separate ourselves from them by being unique and innovative.
- Diffused stakeholders: Final and most difficult to identify, due to the inclusion of the public who have infrequent interaction with the organization. These types of stakeholders usually become involved based on the actions taken by an organization in times of crisis. Regarding Noticlef the diffused stakeholders would include anyone that is looking for new music and struggles with the process of finding it themselves. This shows our organization that there is potential for us in the market, if the public knows the issue is there, we can make those infrequent interactions frequent, and turn them into one of our users.
Conclusion
Noticlef has demonstrated and outlined a clear and comprehensive organizational outline; this also includes a working prototype. Moving forward as an organization we want to continue to connect with our consumers, build a strong community of active users/listeners, and show that music can be found and enjoyed by everyone with ease.
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