Commercial Music Integration
A partnership with a commercial music library brought 1000s of top hits to TRASH's music selection. Major components included: API integration, UI redesign to accommodate search, and internal CMS tooling.
The Opportunity
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Market research, competitor analysis, and user interviews consistently showed that users wanted to be able to choose the music for their videos. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram proved that songs themselves are often the inspiration for video creation by providing users with a way to share their interests and connect with others. A partnership with a commercial music API opened up the opportunity for TRASH to provide this outlet for expression as well.
My Role
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As someone with expertise in the music industry, I was able to communicate licensing constraints and provide key insights on user experience to the engineers. I performed market research of other platforms with music selection experiences to inform design concepts. I also built an analytics dashboard to monitor music selection journeys and trending genres so we could better understand user needs and preferences.
Challenges
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Licensing constraints meant:
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no pre-release testing with users​​​
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territory restrictions
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video length caps
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mandatory reporting
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negotiations for off-platform sharing
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Because users would be looking for specific songs, we had to develop search functionality
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User expectations were high
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Needed to integrate the catalog with the existing music in the app
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Needed a way for staff members to manage music selection based on user trends
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Maintaining differentiation from competitors
