Wavelink is a music application that aims to unite local artists with their local fans. Local artists receive quality service on a small scale while still treated like a big name musician. Local fans obtain direct and visible interaction with the local artists they love.

The problem with many music finding applications is that they focus on the big names of the industry rather than helping out local centers. Local artists need exposure and listeners need an easier time finding the music near them. WaveLink aims to create a network of local fans and artists who use each other to successfully promote personal interaction while building and maintaining passion for the local scene.

 

Artists can create unique profiles by pulling their works from outside accounts and level up their standing in the local scene by going through promotional steps provided by their personal manager. Fans can find their favorite local artist via genre and play an active role in artist promotion by sharing experiences and providing feedback.

 

Due to the team taking on designing an application that revolved around music, it awas critical that we were aware of not only all of the music applications that fans use to find their music, but also competition directly related to broadcasting band events. Bandcamp is an application that provides a platform for independent artists to sell and promote their music. Facebook is not a music specific application but due to its wide reach, many artists have ran to it as a system of networking and promoting their events. Soundcloud is an audio sharing platform where fans can listen to the selections for free.

The personas we created were derived from the artist interviews and research on competitive music applications. We used these personas to guide our user experience mapping.

 

Elijah is 26 years old and has recently moved to New York to begin his new job. He's new to the city but his job has helped show him around. A couple of his coworkers recently performed at one of the local bars. After enjoying the experience, Elijah has decided to find similar sounds and events. He's not very familiar with all of the artists in the area just yet, but he's eager to learn and experience more.

 

Payton is a 23-year-old recent graduate student who's finally deciding to launch her music career. Living in San Francisco with so many established artists makes it a bit difficult to put her foot in the door. She has managed to score a couple of performances at some of the local bars but is definitely aiming to expand her fan base. She hopes to be able to perform in some of the popular clubs, but is currently focused on working her way up.

Elijah wants to take his friends to alive performance in town so he downloads the Wavelink app for free. While creating an account, he inputs in the genres he listens to and immediately Wavelink compiles a feed of local artists based on his interests and location. He scrolls through the song previews provided by the artists and follows the bands he likes. He receives a notification that one of the artists he follows is having a live performance on Saturday. He adds the event which posts to his phone's calendar and upon arrival he captures the moment by taking a 10 second video of the show and posts it to the artist's page. He rates the artist, helping them with their promotion process, and continues to look for more similar artists.

 

Payton needs to get the word out about her upcoming shows so she downloads the Wavelink app for free. Creating a new account, she inputs information on her location, upcoming events, music samples, video samples, photos, a description, and genre classification. Local fans listen to her uploaded music and rate it, increasing her ranking as an artist and overall street cred. The application helps guide her through a promotional process to show great methods of increasing and maintaining her fanbase.

Wavelink is a service application that helps both fans and musicians realize their goals to connect; with this in mind we wanted the app to become a companion, a friend of sorts. We wanted the navigation to be unobtrusive and inviting, but in a way different from the dark aesthetic of many music apps. Overall, we designed along the theme of geometric, vintage, and faded. For the copy we chose to embody our app with an enthusiastic persona that willed people to get up, get active, and get excited about discovering.