Hey! I’m Robert, a Digital Designer graduating Interaction Design at the Belfast School of Art.
I’ve became fascinated with simplistic and minimalistic designs during my studies. I believe if simplistic design executed correctly provide a superior and more elegant presentation.
For my major project I created a platform called Amplify, which aims to aid musicians in finding gigs and events in their local areas and beyond. Additionally, the platform allows event managers and organizers to scout for talent.
During my research I found that many artists do not make any money from their music due to oversaturation on online music sharing platforms. It is also hard to gain traction as an upcoming musician, thus making little to no income from the craft.
Music platform such as Spotify do not pay artists much for streams on their platofrom. “Spotify generally pays between $.003 and $.005 per stream, meaning you'll need about 250 streams to make a dollar”
So you have to stream a lot to get something out of it. In addition, it doesn't mean that all the money goes to the artists. They often also have to divide the money: a record label or a manager often wants to earn some profits. So then there's not much left. There has been a lot of controversy regarding how much Spotify pays for royalties.
I am passionate about both design and music so it would only be fitting to create a platform for artists to potentially generate income from the work that they put so much passion into.
Amplify creates a bridge between the two parties involved, allowing for communication, collaboration, and construction.
I had some knowledge of this problem going into the project as music production is one of my hobbies.
The platform that was to be created had to be “for the people” in order to be successful. Over the course of the year, I did a lot of research to figure out what type of platform would be viable to aid the issue for artists.
Interviews and surveys with the potential users of the platform and artists were conducted, along with competitor benchmarking and other relevant research.
The research acted as the foundation that I built Amplify upon, from supporting materials such as user personas, user flows, both high- and low-resolution mockups. As a final process, prototype testing was conducted to ensure the key features of Amplify were meeting the needs of the users.
Working on Amplify has been challenging at times, but at the same time incredibly rewarding experience. I had an opportunity to create something that I am passionate about and grow as a designer at the same time. Overall, I’m happy with how this project has turned out.