(2022)

Invest in breakout music

We built Robinhood, but for investing in emerging musicians. And everybody made money. The platform channeled hundreds of thousands of dollars into the hands of deserving artists and saw some fans 10x+ their returns in a single year. Our goal was to demonstrate that 1,000 super-fans was better than 1 million passive listeners

Role:

Lead Product Designer

Services:

Company:

Fringe 🔗

Team (3):

PM, Eng, Design (Me!)

CHALLENGE

Giving fans a platform to invest in music was the first step, the real hurdle was educating fans on how to do so and creating a sense of trust around the transaction. 100% of our users had never had the opportunity to partake in music royalties, because a platform like this had never existed.

Motivating purchases was going to be a two-pronged solution. First off, I needed to strive for product familiarity via a blend of conventions from stock trading platforms and music streaming services. Secondly, I had to acquire a deep understanding of what would motivate prospective users to invest in artists and our platform... my hunch was that it wasn’t all about the money.

GOALS & METRICS

In order to deliver against the challenge, I rallied the team around 3 goals:

1. Listing Page - Standardize a scalable listing page template

2. FTU Experience - Creating a familiar first time use experience, for net new product

3. Drive purchases - align product features with user motivations and encourage the urge to discover

4. Marketing page - Brand aligned custom marketing pages

PROCESS

Our first sale was manual and clunky. we showed up to a house concert with a QR code and stripe checkout page. We sold out in seconds. This signaled market demand for the team and investors... we were of to the races.

Step 1: Pre-product User interviews (50+ artist \ 50+ fans)

Step 2: PRD alignment and definition of design process and timeline

Step 3: Multiple rounds of product Lo-fi product iterations based on team feedback

Step 4: Delivering Hi-fi designs to engineering while working through engineering constraints as they came up

Step 5: Pushing FTU MVP live to test sales with a few key artist

Step 6: User interviews focussed on direct product feedback, both positive and negative

Step 7: Evolving the product as we got a deeper understanding of user motivations

Step 8: Solidifying product brand, design system, component library, and design process

01 | Asset discovery

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02 | Marketing site

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03 | Share purchase driven by fanship

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04 | Drop countdown & notifications

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05 | Asset listing page (desktop)

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OUTCOME

I deployed a first-time user (FTU) experience that integrated both qualitative pre-product feedback and quantitative post-product feedback. This included a scalable listing page that allowed fans to evaluate artist listings across all genres and fundraising goals. Additionally, I built a brand-aligned marketing site in Webflow. This comprehensive release drove significant purchases, enhanced user engagement, and solidified artists' trust.

• $100k+ purchases moved through the platform

• Onboarded 1,000 first time music investors within the first 6 months

• Grew to 46 artists using the platform within the first 6 months

• Some of our most successful partnerships saw a 10x investment return, massively outperforming the traditional market

• Through iterative enhancements focused on the emotional aspect of investment, increased average share purchases per investor from 1 to 2.6, multiplying average investment size by 160%

Create investment account

05 | Final product

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Next Project

Investor & Artist experience

Next Project

Investor & Artist experience

Next Project

Investor & Artist experience

Next Project

Investor & Artist experience