Project

MTV Artists

Read more about the project on Billboard, Mashable, The Verge, and Hollywood Reporter

TL;DR

I led the design of a first-of-its-kind music platform for MTV, giving artists a destination to showcase and control their music, videos, photos, tour dates, and more. The product later became the foundation for VH1 and CMT's music experiences and the music hub on MTV.com.

The Problem

MTV wanted to create a new kind of music destination that gave both established and emerging artists more control over how they presented themselves and their work to fans.

The Research

Working closely with a cross-functional team, we defined the core experience around what artists needed to showcase their work and what fans needed to discover and follow their favorite artists. Over the life of the product, data, feedback, and testing helped shape what came next.

The Solution

MTV Artists brought an artist's music, videos, photos, social content, and live experiences together in one destination. What started as a standalone music platform eventually became the template for VH1 and CMT and the music hub on MTV.com.

Stats

926K artist sign-ups
2M monthly visits
30M album streams
100 album premieres

Credits

Mark Mezrich, Kyle Eberle, Lily Szajnberg, Maxi Mikorey, AP Developers, Hydric Media - App, + Other talented people

"MTV Artists is a surprisingly useful one-stop music search and discovery app" — The Verge

A first-of-its-kind for MTV

Creating a first-of-its-kind music platform for MTV. The initial concept of MTV Artists was to create a music platform that provided both established and emerging artists a destination to promote their new album, videos, tour dates, photos, social media content and more. Artists were given complete control of what content populated their page.

What started as a stand-alone music destination, MTV Artists became the template for Viacom's other music brands, VH1 and CMT, and eventually become the music hub on mtv.com

I was involved in this project from the initial concept stages to the product launch. Post-launch, I continued to work on new features, updated versions and help improve the overall product.

Album player

One of the key additions to MTV Artists was the album player. This allowed artists to share their albums as well as premiere new ones.

The player was designed to be versatile:
• A standard album player
• A full page takeover for album premieres
• Embedded player
• Sponsorship opportunities

Over 100 album premieres and 30 million album streams

Discover Songs

Sound ID, a feature built into the app allows fans to easily discover songs by placing their phone next to the speaker or by typing in a few words from the lyrics.