IndieShare is an app designed with indie rock bands in mind. Unsigned artists don't have fancy record labels, or tons of extra time and money to spend on marketing themselves and posting their music. This means musicians are often forced to wear many hats and perform certain tasks that are outside of their skill set. IndieShare makes it easy to post songs and share them with your fanbase, friends, and other musicians.
It is designed to be a low-stress environment in an age where social media curation means that what you post could, at any time, be seen by anyone so it's always encouraged to be the best version of itself. This is not necessarily best for all musicians as, for some, it is just a hobby. On IndieShare, you can choose to seek feedback or post Just For Fun. When posting Just For Fun, you have the option to turn off comments if you would like. However, if you are looking to develop your music professionally, there will also be an option to post for Feedback. When posting for Feedback, other users will have a set of responses they can give the original poster. This is to prevent harassment and bullying on the platform.
IndieShare is currently in progress and updates will be posted here.
01
Research Goals
To start off, I chose a few goals for my research. I wanted to know how my users' needs differ from larger, signed music acts, and I also wondered if there were any barriers to indie rock bands posting on apps such as SoundCloud, BandCamp, etc.
Characteristics of my target users included: being in an indie rock band, either urban or suburban, all genders and abilities, likely between the ages of 18 and 60, and likely having a full or part-time job aside from being in the band.
The following interview questions were prepped:
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Could you describe your experience with sharing music online?
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How do you think your music-sharing needs differ from individual musicians or larger rock bands?
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Which apps or websites for indie musicians do you use to share music?
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What do you not like about sharing music online?
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If you’ve ever hesitated or regretted posting or sharing music, why? What happened? What did you feel?
02
Personas
After reviewing some bios and working through the interview questions with an empathy exercise, I was able to group the users into two personas:
The first is Linda (she/her), a mother who is in a band with friends just for fun and wants an easy way to share music to her friends. She is not looking for feedback since her band is not trying to be professional. They just want some likes and compliments from friends, perhaps an easy place to post and send the link out to other social media platforms.
Ao (they/them) is in a band that is trying to make some money and book professional gigs. They are looking for a place to get helpful feedback on the band's music and spread the word about their band. They want a platform that can double as a marketing tool to help them gain gigs.
03
User Journeys
Once the personas had been created, I considered some potential user journeys for each persona. I used their goals and pain points to imagine how they might move through the process of sharing music. As I went through their tasks, I considered how they might be feeling at each step and what improvements could be made along the way.
04
Problem Statements
The personas were also used to explore some problem statements to explore what, at their core, these users need. Common frustrations were negative comments, and playing too many roles in the band.
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05
Hypothesis Statement
A hypothesis statement for each was also made to help conceptualize how the app will help these personas, and therefore help the targeted users of the app.
06
In Progress - Early Sketches
I am currently working on early design sketches for IndieShare.