In Molly's Service Design class, I've been working with Zahin and Lily on a music service research project. We were assigned SOUNDMACHINE, a cloud based music service for businesses, and were given a week to research and present our findings. Together, we dug into the company's business model, stakeholders and licensing agreements with artists. We also developed value flows and a service blueprint to illustrate the oft-unseen complexity of music licensing.
What is interesting about SOUNDMACHINE is that they are helping bridge that value gap between artists' compensation and music usage by businesses. The company faces a lot of competition, especially with companies like Spotify Business who have a much larger loyalty base and more sophisticated design + ux. That said, they have an opportunity to generate broad awareness of music licensing policies to small to medium-size businesses and offer a lower price point than competitors.
Next project, we will be designing our own unique music services. As subscription models and custom playlists (like Spotify offers) takeover the music market, it will be interesting to analyze just how the music experience has changed since the height of CDs and even, iTunes. How might we design a music service that captures a unique audience and is also structured to benefit the artists?
