Music distribution SAAS. localizing music distribution for Africa
00
problem
The dominant distribution platforms, DistroKid and TuneCore, were built for a Western-centric artist profile. They assumed high digital literacy, stable payment infrastructure, and English as a primary language. For independent African artists, they were functional but alienating. Too complex: Platforms like DistroKid packed in powerful features, but with no clear structure or hierarchy, leaving new artists overwhelmed at every step. Culturally misaligned: Existing tools weren't designed with the African artist's context in mind — payment methods, terminology, or onboarding assumptions all felt off. No clear user flow: Even for artists who pushed through the complexity, the journey from sign-up to live distribution was fragmented and undocumented. Trust deficit: Artists didn't know where their money was, how royalties were calculated, or whether the platform was even working for them.
solution
Learning the industry before designing for it I started with structured research — artist interviews, user surveys, and a thorough competitive analysis of the major distribution platforms. Because this was a new domain for me, I treated the discovery phase as non-negotiable. I couldn't design a distribution flow I didn't fully understand. Key insights from research: 01 Artists wanted simplicity, not just features Most artists didn't care about advanced royalty splits on day one — they just wanted to upload their track and know it was going somewhere. The entry point had to feel effortless. 02 Earnings transparency was a trust signal Every artist asked some version of "how do I know my money is safe?" A clear, readable earnings dashboard wasn't a nice-to-have — it was foundational to platform credibility. 03 Existing platforms had no information architecture Competitor audits showed a pattern of feature dumping with no hierarchy. Artists were left to navigate by trial and error. There was a clear opening for a platform that thought structurally about the user journey. 04 The artist's identity matters Artists are creatives first. The product needed to reflect their identity — not look like accounting software. Visual design and brand personality were part of the product strategy.
With research in hand, I moved into information architecture, building the entire product structure in FigJam before touching a single UI frame. This was the hardest and most critical decision of the project: defining how every section of the product related to every other section, and what the user's mental model should be.
01
Information architecture
Built the full IA in FigJam — mapping user flows, defining navigation hierarchy, and identifying where complexity could be progressively disclosed rather than front-loaded.
02
Wireframing key flows
Wireframed the five core flows — onboarding, music upload and distribution, royalty dashboard, artist profile, and store — validating structure before committing to visual design.
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Visual design direction
Chose a visual language that balanced brand personality with usability — expressive enough to feel like a music platform, clean enough that the artist's content always led. Not minimal for minimalism's sake.
04
Prototyping and testing
Built interactive prototypes in Figma and ran testing with real users, plus structured stakeholder review cycles. Iterated on the upload flow and dashboard in particular before sign-off.
year
2024
timeframe
3 months
tools
Figma
category
Product design
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see also
