MusicQubed
MONETISING MUSIC CURATION
MusicQubed App was a music app offering curated playlists updated weekly that could be stored locally on the device for offline use. The major selling point was the UK Official Top40 playlist. The idea behind this approach was that offering a ridiculously wast open catalog like Spotify was doing would push away casual users, while a focused curated approach with a limited number of curated playlists for half the price was ideal for most casual users, and with considerable less licensing headaches.
This might sound absurd now, but is important to note that back then Spotify didn’t have curated playlists and computer learning driven discovery like it does now, and was indeed an app still mostly popular with enthusiasts.
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Chris Gorman (CEO)
Sanford Dickert (CTO)
Alessandro Filippi (UX Design Lead)
Jason Grant (Senior UX Consultant)
Sheryl Ellis (Senior Visual Designer)
Alex Deruette (Visual Designer)
and many others… -
Axure RP Pro 6.5
Photoshop Extended CS6
Illustrator CS6
Flash Professional
Powerpoint -
iOS 6/7 App
Android App
BlackBerry 8/10 App
Windows Phone 7/8 App
’FOCUS ON THE USER AND ALL ELSE WILL FOLLOW’
This is one of the foundational values in some of the most successful tech companies. I really believe that, and my work has always be driven by it.
As a design leader I believe it is crucial to be able to present great user centred solutions. Solutions that can be pitched in less than ninety seconds to internal stakeholders and be positively received.
This became one of my focuses at MusicQubed, promoting user centred design in the pursue of product success rather than primarily going after B2B partnership appeal. The Official Top40 and local playback were a great selling point, but in my view, personalised playlists and discovery were the future.
Since computer learning was out of our reach, we expanded the offering with a number of several additional playlists, targeted at specific archetypical segments in the casual music listeners demographic, curated by a DJ from BBC Radio 1. That was a move in the right direction. And O2 took notice.
THE O2 TRACKS APP
The ideal target for us was mobile providers, which could pre-install the app it into locked handsets and sponsor several months of access to the biggest music tracks of the moment as a sales strategy to entice customers to switch to them.
The big break came when O2 bought into it. O2 has been a very demanding partner, from the styling to the subscription model, from custom onboarding tied to the sim card number to tight delivery deadlines, many were the challenges we had to overcome. But was worth it, as O2 put behind it millions of pounds of marketing.
I’ve was hired as UX designer in a company that was not about user centred design. But I managed to change that - or least enough - and everything else did follow. It felt incredible, MusicQubed being my first startup. And that’s when I knew I wanted to be a design leader.