To help me come up with ideas, I created a mind map of things related to music and then added sticky notes of features I could possibly add to my app to meet possible user needs.
Embedded Miro Board
https://miro.com/app/live-embed/uXjVPq1tqPo=/?moveToViewport=-1846,-1089,4543,2326&embedId=447797736522
Screenshot of Miro Board
Spotify is the music app, that I and most people I know currently use, so it seemed the perfect place to start my competitor analysis.
When you open the app you are greeted by buttons to allow you to jump straight back in to your six most recent listens. Spotify includes not only music but podcasts and audiobooks as well. Everything is very clearly labelled and laid out, with an emphasis on images and graphics. You can also see the use of Spotify’s green brand colour, but only as highlights in this case the genre of the podcasts.
Ass you scroll down you are given a stream of playlists linked to your recent listening. Spotify uses both vertical and horizontal scrolling to cram as much in as possible onto this home screen. At the very bottom you have your navigation bar, which includes icons with labels, the icons are simple and easy to understand. They are what would be seen as the standard symbols, the only different icon being their own brand logo for their premium service. Above this navigation is a slim banner for what is currently playing, with a thumbnail image, song title and artist, and three more icons. These icons do not have labels (probably due to size constraints) but again as they are the standard icon for each action (left to right, audio output, favourite and play) most people would not need the labels, however this is a accessibility concern and one I should consider in my app.
In terms of a landing screen/home screen I like the layout, I am a fan of the strong visuals and in my case, I very rarely need to go to anywhere else to get what I want from the app. I would rate the User Experience of this app as excellent.
When you tap the search icon this is the screen that appears. You have a standard search bar at the top if you have a specific song or artist you want to find, but they also offer a number of buttons to the most popular genres, each genre having its own colour. This make differentiating between each genre easy and again it makes it very likely you will find something you like without having to search and therefore type at all. The typography is clear and simple and all the contrast between background colours and foreground colours is high, perfect for readability.
Spotify as an app is best suited to playlists, these are set up like personalised radio stations. For example in this case because I have listened to Chvrches quite a lot they have created me a playlist which includes Chvrches and other artists and music in the same style. This is Spotify’s real power the way that you can get music very quickly and with minimum effort. In my experience the suggestions are very good and I have found a lot of music I may not have otherwise discovered this way. There is obviously a lot of data collection, analysis and work going on under the surface to create these playlists, but their ease of use makes them a real asset to the user experience and is why Spotify is the go to app for most people when they think of music apps.
