Spotify: Audio Match

Spotify: Audio Match

Spec design for a new audio matching feature to allow users to find music more intuitively. (Disclaimer: This project and the content presented here is speculative and for educational purposes only. I am not affiliated with Spotify.)

Spec design for a new audio matching feature to allow users to find music more intuitively. (Disclaimer: This project and the content presented here is speculative and for educational purposes only. I am not affiliated with Spotify.)

Category

May 15, 2024

App Enhancement

App Enhancement

Services

May 15, 2024

UX Research, UI Design

UX Research, UI Design

Client

May 15, 2024

Spotify (Spec Project)

Spotify (Spec Project)

Year

May 15, 2024

2022

2022

Background

Spotify launched in 2008 and transformed music listening as we know it. As a digital music, podcast, and video service, Spotify gives users access to millions of songs and other content from creators all over the world. Today, Spotify is the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service with 381M users, including 172M subscribers, across 184 markets.

The Problem

Spotify understands that users may be having trouble finding unknown music via their app and wants to solve this problem. They are doing research to better understand how to best include a way to help its users find music in an integrated application feature.

Interviewing Users & Gathering Data

In order to understand my target users and determine the problem I needed to solve, I conducted user interviews with individuals who have and regularly use the Spotify mobile app. I went into the interviews with these three goals in mind: 1) Understand how users find music outside of Spotify, 2) Understand how users find music within Spotify and 3) Understand pain points with Spotify app as it is.‍

Key Findings:

  • Outside of the Spotify app, in order to search for music, a majority of the users would Google lyrics. This is followed by Shazaming song playing or asking Siri what song is playing.

  • Within the Spotify app, the users would primarily search for lyrics and use Lyrics Match feature, or use the search bar and search for specific song or artist. In addition, users would scroll through home page recommended playlists, use the Radio feature, or check out their Discover Weekly or Daily Mix playlists.

  • Half of the interview participants wanted to see a better integration between Shazam and the Spotify, or a similar feature within Spotify (“One less app to use to drain phone battery”, “Built in shazam feature to not toggle between different apps”, “One stop shop to Shazam and Spotify”)

Market Research & Competitor Analysis

Next, I took a look at a few of the apps mentioned in the user interviews, along with other direct competitors to the Spotify app. I reviewed their similarities as music streaming services as well assessed some of the apps’ strengths and weaknesses.

Identifying the Ideal Persona

From my research, I created an ideal user persona that reflected the goals and needs of an ideal user in order to better understand who it is exactly that I am designing for.

Defining User Flows

I then created a user flow demonstrating how the app might be used by a user navigating through how a user might search for music, especially using the new audio searching feature of the Spotify app.

Preliminary Sketches

I explored a few different layouts for where this new feature might be placed within the existing application.

Hi-Fi Wireframes & Prototypes

Between my initial sketches and the existing layout of the application, I started building out the flows and designs I wanted to move forward with in a high fidelity wireframe.

Prototyping was fairly simple since I had clearly laid out the flows in the high fidelity wireframes. All that was left to do was to simply connect each screen with the appropriate sections.

Next Steps

Although this project is speculative in nature, it is necessary to consider what the next steps would be in a realistic situation. As this feature is rolled out, it will be key to continue to test and get feedback from users in order to continue to iterate and make improvements. It will be vital to consider any technical constraints, and figure out how this feature would be integrated across the various platforms and devices.

If you’re working on something exciting and need a designer who can bring it to life, let’s talk. I’d love to hear what you’re building.

Time for me:

Email:

hello@micahabalos.com

Reach out:

Hey, I hope you're having a good day :)

© 2025 Micah Abalos

If you’re working on something exciting and need a designer who can bring it to life, let’s talk. I’d love to hear what you’re building.

Time for me:

Email:

hello@micahabalos.com

Reach out:

Hey, I hope you're having a good day :)

© 2025 Micah Abalos