Interlude
Driving Visibility and Engagement
for Emerging Music Artists
Interlude is a 0-to-1 application built to drive visibility and engagement for emerging music artists. Currently being designed and developed in collaboration with a cross-functional design, engineering, and data science team, our platform introduces a more intentional, socially-driven approach to discovering and connecting with rising artists - inviting exploration beyond what’s surfaced by mainstream algorithms. Through thoughtful UX design, expressive interfaces, and a novel, non-traditional recommendation system, we're elevating new voices in the industry and delivering an experience as dynamic and layered as the music itself.
Product Designer
2 product designers, 1 engineer, 1 data scientist
9-month project
Sep 2024 - Present
Figma, FigJam
OVERVIEW —————————————————————————————————————————————–
MY ROLE
THE TEAM
TOOLS
TIMELINE
Emerging music artists face difficulties building a dedicated audience and marketing their music in authentic, sustainable ways.
Listeners face limitations within the current landscape of music discovery - where recommendation systems often overlook lesser-known talent, making it difficult to find new and promising artists.
How might we help emerging artists grow their audience and build authentic connections with listeners through more intentional music discovery?
A TWO-PART PROBLEM SPACE ——————————————————————————————————————————–––––
CURRENT DESIGNS - STILL TESTING AND ITERATING
Interlude is not a music streaming app - listeners can find music on Interlude through friends, recommendations, and exploration, then directly add songs from Interlude to their preferred music streaming platform.
OUR SOLUTION ——————————————————————————————————————————–––––
A platform for emerging artists and listeners that helps listeners discover lesser-known artists and connect with their creative journey.
Listener Onboarding
Listener Home Feed
Recommendations & Explore
Artist Profiles
Artist Create Post
DESIGN PROCESS ——————————————————————————————————————————–––––
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
We analyzed these platforms to understand how existing products support (or fall short in supporting) emerging artists and music discovery. These platforms represent a mix of: music streaming & discovery, artist-first platforms, social & algorithm-driven discovery, and live music & fan engagement. I was able to start identifying gaps in the emerging artist experience, specifically around visibility and community building, understand which discovery mechanisms were most engaging, and pinpoint where our product could differentiate itself and provide more value for both artists and listeners.
We interviewed listeners to explore how they discover new music and artists, what tools and methods they rely on, and what motivates them to engage with lesser-known talent. We spoke with artists to understand their experiences promoting music, building an audience, and how recommendation systems influence their visibility and growth.
ARTIST & LISTENER USER INTERVIEWS
PRELIMINARY RESEARCH FINDINGS
DESIGN PROCESS ——————————————————————————————————————————–––––
IMPACT —————————————————————————————————————–––––————––––––
WHAT I'VE LEARNED (SO FAR) —————————————————————————————————————–––––————––––––
As a self-defined, 0-to-1 capstone, my team is taking full ownership end-to-end - from shaping the vision to scoping features - all while balancing many moving parts. This has reinforced to me:
The importance of staying adaptable, leading through uncertainty, and keeping momentum even when things aren't fully clear yet.
People-oriented design thinking. Especially in early-stage product work, its been essential to validate decisions through ongoing user research. From the start, we involved both listeners and artists through interviews, usability testing, and feedback sessions to stay grounded in their needs and make sure we're designing a product that's actually valuable to them.
Early user testing revealed that listeners felt more connected to artists when given contextual stories alongside recommendations, suggesting strong potential for deeper engagement and more meaningful discovery moments.
How do we plan to measure success?
Increased number of streams, followers, and views for artists.
User discovery and engagement metrics (skip rates, playlist adds, saves, CTR on recs, # of new artists discovered/year).