Interlude
Driving Visibility, Engagement, and Community for Emerging Music Artists
Interlude is a 0-to-1 music-centered social media platform that aims to foster meaningful connections between emerging artists and listeners through authentic, community-driven discovery – inviting exploration beyond what’s surfaced by mainstream platforms. Difficulties gaining visibility and building meaningful engagement with listeners limit artists’ career growth, contributing to high turnover and reducing the diversity of voices in the industry. We strive to transform passive listening into more impactful discovery experiences, offering artists a path to sustainable growth while empowering listeners to connect with music in a more personal and engaging way.
Product Designer
2 product designers, 1 engineer, 1 data scientist
Sep 2024 - May 2025
Figma, FigJam
OVERVIEW —————————————————————————————————————————————–
MY ROLE
THE TEAM
TOOLS
TIMELINE
We started this project as a group of music lovers who've seen how difficult it is for emerging artists to build their circle of listeners in today's music landscape, often overlooked by mainstream algorithms and buried in a crowded industry. This shared understanding sparked our capstone: a project aimed at helping emerging artists reach new listeners and build authentic, lasting connections.
How might we help emerging artists grow their audience and build authentic connections with listeners through more intentional music discovery?
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 ——————————————————————————————————————————–––––
Listener Onboarding
A platform for emerging artists and listeners that helps listeners discover new artists and connect with their creative journey.
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).
🛠️ PROJECT IN PROGRESS… TO BE CONTINUED