Artists today are dependent on streaming giants, labels, ticketing agencies, and social media algorithms in order to connect with their fans to make a living.
What if artists could capture and own their fan data to target their marketing, know where to tour, and secure brand sponsorships?
These are the solutions Music Audience Exchange (MAX) provides with its SET suite of products. I have been working here since late 2022 and have had the opportunity to spearhead a number of new products and features as Lead UX/UI Designer. What follows are some highlights from my time with the company.
My work at MAX has consisted of adding powerful new products and features and making them easy to use.
Self-Service Sign Up
Prior to joining the company, each artist account on the SET platform had to be created by a member of our team. Providing a way for a user to create their own account was crucial for MAX to grow its client base and reduce friction to use the product.
Working with our engineering team and product managers, I created various flows for the different types of artists and the information we needed to capture from each. I made decisions on what data to capture at which step, and how the steps could be grouped together or split up to reduce mental effort for the user. I also considered the mobile experience, knowing that many small artists without large labels or managers would likely be doing this on a phone.
Frictionless sign up for large and small artists
“Artist Matching” for user confidence
Helpful emails and account onboarding
Show Experience Creator
The core product (SET.Live) is what artists use at their live shows to collect the most contacts. Until recently a member of our team had to create a custom live experience for each artist. With the Show Experience Creator, I was tasked with building a self-serve version to allow artists to make their own experiences.
I started by leveraging our database of upcoming shows for a particular artist, then ran an analysis of their profile image to generate templates and colors that fit with their style. Once they were happy with the visuals, I created ways for them to allow fans to check-in or vote on a song, run a sweepstakes, or promote merch or an upcoming release.
Once an artist went through the creation wizard, they were given access to a robust show editor that allowed them to fully customize every aspect of their live experience.
After launch, we saw a large uptick in the number of shows in our system, and received positive feedback from artists and their teams about the ease-of-use and customization options.
Designed a step-by-step wizard enabling artists to build their own live experiences
Immediate adoption led to a record number of live fan experiences in 2023
Developed a dashboard to manage upcoming shows and view past show data
Fan Survey Creator
SET.Fan allows artists to create digital engagements, such as surveys, to collect deeper information about their fans. Things like consumer behaviors, tour ideas, and dream setlists help artists do everything from picking their next merch design to landing a brand sponsor. They are incredibly valuable at creating a more personal relationship with fans.
Similar to SET.Live, our SET.Fan product had no way for an artist to build their own surveys. I was tasked with creating an easy-to-use creator that allowed for full customization not only of the response types but of the design of the survey. Using AI, we could ask a user about what their goal was and suggest different pre-made templates. These templates are ready to use out-of-the-box, or an artist can customize further.
After launching this new feature, we saw positive feedback and strong response rates from artists and their fans.
Designed an easy-to-use survey builder for artists to connect directly with fans
Created new templates and customization options for artists of all types
At-a-glance dashboard for past survey results and live survey progress
“Link-in-Bio” Page Builder
Many artists use link-in-bio pages to promote their new release, upcoming tour, or latest merch drop. The challenge is often getting these pages up and running, which often requires lots of work for the user to add sections, upload content, and modify their theme.
SET.Bio solves this problem by taking everything SET already knows about a particular artist - like their merch store, streaming links, and tour dates - and building a turnkey page. We even offer a variety of examples of their page in the last step of the builder showing them how it looks with different templates, fonts, and colors.
Artists that have used the new page builder have raved about the “magically-styled” streaming links, drag-and-drop section control, and auto-updating video channel content.
Created easy stepped building experience
Leveraged artist data to pre-build pages
Content auto-updates for easy maintenance
