We spend a lot of time online. Even more time listening to music. We use many platforms, and as a DJs, Producers, Composers, Creators and Marketers, we use many additional programs and applications as well. This deck is simply an application of our experience with user flows, interfaces and revenue models from user, client, consumer, marketer, designer, developer and service provider perspectives. Hypothetical of course, but intended to provide a case for UX/UI optimization from the start as a way to create new, organic revenue streams. Specifically, we use Mixcloud.com, on e of the newer entrants to the U.S. Market as a way to illustrate the concept.

1. Usability = Sensibility = Revenue
for Streaming Content Platforms in 2014

2. First, a look at the current music landscape.

3. Music is very popular today in the U.S.
US Music Listeners | 87%
270M
240M
Daily Music Listeners
Daily Radio Listeners
Analog (54%) /Digital (46%)
Source: Nielsen - U.S. Media and Entertainment Report - 03/19/13

4. But people no longer buy Albums = ($40bn) in Sales
1. The music industry is down 64% from peak
2. Full-length albums made up 90% of sales
3. Today people only buy 1 albums pp/yr
vs. 4 albums pp/yr twelve years ago

5. Adoption of paid streaming music is slow
US Paid Streaming Audience | 30% < 100M
250M Soundcloud Global
59M Pandora US
24M Spotify US
XXM Google Play /XBox
1M Sony Music Unlimited
1M Rhapsody US
Source: Nielsen - U.S. Media and Entertainment Report - 03/19/13

6. New experiences and revenue streams emerged
US Music Industry ‘13 | $33.5bn Market Cap.
$21bn +3.7% | Events & Promotion US
$8bn -4% | Major Label Publishing US
$4bn -3.8% | Music Publishing US
$4bn +8% | EDM US
$358M -.6% | Independent Publishing US
Source: Nielsen - U.S. Media and Entertainment Report - 03/19/13

7. 40% of U.S. consumers drive 75% of Music related Sales
Million
SUPER FANS
100
Billion
DOLLARS
$26
Source: Nielsen - U.S. Media and Entertainment Report - 03/19/13

8. Super Fans are willing to spend additional money on music
Source: Nielsen - U.S. Media and Entertainment Report - 03/19/13
$33.5bn
$26bn
100M
Listeners
40% of U.S. Consumers =
75% of total music spend
They are available to spend
an additional $450M-2.6bn.
on NEW ENGAGING
CONTENT!!
Super Fans looking to Spend | +$450M-2.6Bn

9. Free
2005 2009 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Consumers are open to “New” if industry can deliver
Expensive +$9.99/mo or $199.00+ (sw)
Closed Model Open Model
PLAY
DISCOVER
VALUE
INSIGHT

10. The U.S. market spells huge opportunity
for new and emerging platforms.

11. ...goods
damaged

12. Americans were conditioned
to consume content via scarcity tactics
that dictated programs, quality and time slots.

13. American music consumers today have more choices than ever.
As new platforms and formats emerge, its important that technologies are built with good UX from the start.
Which sometimes means, sacrificing form over function if budget is a problem.
However, since form is also quickly becoming equally as important in the rapidly evolving multi-screen mobile
environment, new platforms should consider a synergistic approach between front and back end experiences.
In a global marketplace, not all users have access to the same technologies, and platforms are accessed via
a number of different devices and varying speeds.
Our hypothesis is that both fragmentation and variance between market access, usage and behavior make it
difficult for non-U.S. born platforms to scale as rapidly in the U.S. market.
HYPOTHESIS

14. New music platforms should consider both traditional and
current user-centered design principles when developing
their experiences and interfaces.

15. A case for how user centered design,
and optimized UX/UI can create
organic revenue streams
for a music platform.

16. MIXCLOUD Challenge:
How does Mixcloud, a new entrant to the US Streaming market,
position its assets to meet the needs of the consumer and
capitalize on the business opportunity to scale?
Single Minded Insight:
Music consumers value authoritative,
curated content experiences
with clear functional features,
and emotional benefits.*
*Sources available upon request.
REVIEW / REVISE
USER INSIGHTS
REVIEW / REVISE
UNDERSTAND
BARRIERS

17. Re-think Radio
Stream the best DJs and Radio shows from around the globe
Surf the Cloud
Listen Anywhere
Find Your Sound
REVIEW / REVISE
CORE BENEFITS
REVIEW / REVISE
UNIQUE POSITION
FEATURES

18. APPROACH
We looked at the challenge from a user, a producer and advertiser perspectives for six months, evaluating the
platform’s value-proposition, function, usefulness and place among other established and emerging platforms.
Specifically, this segment of users are what we call, “Professional consumers” or Prosumers.
This roughly 20 million global population and growing are comprised of enthusiasts, hobbyists, professionals,
beginners and advanced artists. We believe roughly 40% of this group are the heaviest producers driving 75-
80% of the content. They may also be some of the largest consumers, and spend the most on music related
equipment and experiences. ir primary platforms
This group tends to be early adopters and have already joined many platforms. Their primary use
mobile/desktop platforms include twitter, instagram, facebook, linkedin, spotify, pandora, youtube, blogs and
itunes for consumers.
Producers additionally use soundcloud, mixcrate, mixcloud, reverbnation, songkick, tumblr, amazon, google
plus, beatport, and wordpress to share, distribute and sell music.
Here’s what we came up with when focused on a relatively new platform to the U.S. - Mixcloud.com

19. A.01CURRENTNON-USERLANDINGPAGE
1. Observations:
There is a significant amount of
open, unused real estate.
2. Limitations:
The value proposition is unclear.
The term “Re-think” connotes
“improved,” “smarter,” or “better.”
The term “Re-discover” connotes
finding something that is lost.
“Unlimited Uploads” implies that
anyone can upload as much as they
want.
3. Implications:
“Detractors” cause confusion by
masking the platform’s implied
value proposition.
Redundancy may trigger users to
think something is being oversold,
especially if they do not agree.
Equal access to upload may cause
users to question quality and
credibility, especially following the
“best” qualification line on top.
*Sources available upon request.
>REVIEW

20. A.02NEWNON-USERLANDINGPAGE
4. Point of View:
Optimize by rendering:
- A clear value proposition
- Clear features/benefits linkage
that resonates with target users
- Friends who joined already
- Interesting content above the
fold
5. UX Implications:
Americans are lazy.*
By optimizing real estate, users get
more actionable information per
pixel, increasing the value of your
real estate.
Using common language and
appropriating words like “surf” are
likely to resonate since they are
linked to a familiar action like
“surfing the dial.”
6. Business Implications:
Think about a restaurant that has a
bar and three large tables for groups
of 10, vs. a restaurant that has a bar
and 10 smaller tables for 4. In a city
like NYC, the later restaurant is
more likely to succeed.
Streaming the best DJs and radio shows across the globe
Surf the Cloud
Search channels, hop stations or
groove out with Music and Talk
Radio from over (xx) countries. .
Stream free on-demand radio from your
pocket with the Mixcloud mobile app,
almost everywhere in the world.
Listen Anywhere
Follow Top Stations, Cloudcasts and
DJs. Feel confident Artists receive
royalties for songs.
Find Your Sound
Re-think Radio
*Sources available upon request.
>>REVISE

21. B.01CURRENTCATEGORIESSEARCHPAGE
1. US Music Background;
The Recording Industry lost over
$40Billion in revenue due to the
decrease of full-length album sales.
Today, the avg. consumer purchases
less than (1) album per year, down
from an avg. of 3 per year in 1999.*
2. Broadcast Standards;
Traditional broadcast delivers content
through national and local networks
of stations. Stations are assigned
channels, and typically fall within a
genre. Various programs run or air
along the program timelines of the
channel.
3. User Expectations:
UEs minimally, are the current
standard (Youtube, iTunes, TuneIn)
“Categories” connote groups of
topics, in this case “Genres.” The
expectation is that these are
channels, on which we can find
various programs/shows, etc..
*Sources available upon request.
>>REVIEW

22. B.02CURRENTCATEGORIESSEARCHPAGE
4. Observations:
The current structure lacks sub or
micro buckets, which causes a
disconnect with user expectations
and actual user experience. If
users can’t quickly find, track or
follow content, they bounce,
abandon, and share negative
news with friends.
5. Limitations:
Users expect new platforms to
(minimally) meet current market
standards of functionality and
experience. Currently this is
highly customized, convenient,
on-demand access to content
within seconds.
6. Current Implications:
Queries result in higher quantity
of lower quality results.
Users are required to perform
incremental, non-working actions
that don’t improve the quality of
results. Leading to user:
● + Frustration
● + Anxiety
● + Abandonment
● + Bounce rate
MUSIC TALK
GENRE
DATE UPLOAD TIMESTAMP TAGS
Current
>REVIEW

23. 7. Point of View:
Consider optimizing data
structuring by adding sub-buckets
to increase search and usability
function.
8. UX Implications:
Greater number of search buckets
or variables will yield a lower
quantity and higher quality of
results, helping to ease the search
and discovery process pain.
9. Business Implications:
More users actions connected to
search queries, results and
subsequent actions will yield tons
of new user data sets, which can
quickly be monetized by
advertisers.
B.03NEWCATEGORIESSEARCHPAGE
MUSIC TALK
CHANNEL
TYPE LOCATIONUSERDATE TAGSTOPICS
STATION
FOLLOWERSKIND*OFFICIALNAME FOLLOWING
SHOWS
SONGS ARTISTSLENGTHTIMESTAMPDATE UPLOAD TITLE
DJ
EVENT SETVENUELABELGENRE GUESTS
CURRENT
MACRO
MICRO
>>REVISE

24. B.04NEWCATEGORIESSEARCHPAGE
STATION
FOLLOWERSKIND*OFFICIALNAME FOLLOWINGCLOUDCAST
SONGS ARTISTSLENGTHTIMESTAMPDATE UPLOAD TITLE
10. Business Benefits:
The business benefit of adding
these features beyond an
optimized user experience is
DATA from which analytics can
provide new monetizable
products:
a. Increased Engagement:
- Based on user actions and
preferences, a reco engine can
be used to drive incremental
engagement, loyalty, sharing,
promotion, following and fees.
b. Defend Attrition:
- Driven by users following a
particular channel or station and
receiving a notification of a new
show.
c. New revenue:
- Leverage micro data for local
and inche promo targeting and
tiered fee structures for
Channels and Stations.
MUSIC TALK
DATE
TOPICS USER TYPEMODIFIERS
<<115 CHANNELS 1,200 STATIONS 70,000 CASTS 159 DJS 200 TAGS
DJ
EVENT SETVENUELABELGENRE GUESTS
x
SELECTED
MACRO
MICRO
MODIFIERS
<<
CHANNEL
TYPE LOCATIONUSERDATE TAGSTOPICS
>>REVISE

25. C.01CURRENTREGISTEREDUSERHOMEPAGE
1. Observations:
The current user page sub-nav
bar is defaulted to a creator’s
view, rather than a consuming
users view.
Much of the real estate is taken
up by image area that provides
little useful or actionable
information.
3. Limitations:
Users consider themselves either
a consumer or producer.
Less actionable surface area
decreases the value and number
of actions that can be taken per
page.
Playlists functionality is limited to
serving a single list with no re-
option beside going back.
3. Implications:
Intuitively and experientially, when
UX is sub par, users are turned
off by lack of convenience and
therefore interest or engagement.
>REVIEW

26. C.02NEWREGISTEREDUSERHOMEPAGE
01 RECOMMENDATIONS>> 06.09.14
02 RECENTLY LISTENED>> 06.08.14
15 DATES 23 CHANNELS 12 STATIONS 7 CLOUDCASTS 38 DJS 68 TAGS <<
<<
<<
4. Point of View:
Consider global re-optimization of
navigational elements.
The sub-nav bar would reflect the
Channels, Stations, Casts, DJs
and Tags a user follows, with
modifier and toggle options
hidden behind the far right “<<”
tab.
A/B test to gain user feedback.
5. UX Implications:
Optimization should yield more
positive engagements, longer
duration, usage, search, and
increased positive actions.
Each of the previous actions
create insightful and business
driving information and DATA.
6. Business Implications:
Re-optimization will increase the
amount of aggregated data, which
can be used to improve overall
UX, and be monetized as
previously noted.
>>REVISE