audience, mission, community + 15 activity scenarios.

new + improved chart.

THE AUDIENCE: 21-25 year olds interested in or currently apart of indie music culture. The audience includes established bands, aspiring bands, and fans.

THE MISSION: The goal of the learning community is to reach a level of independent music production as defined by each individual member. Bands will learn what it takes to be successful. Fans will learn what their favorite bands are doing to move toward success and how they can help.

BUILDING COMMUNITY: Community is built through the sharing of insight, information, and feedback between members. This information can be anything from where a band can crash for a night on tour to how to use certain production technology. Fans provide support for bands, so bands can provide entertainment for fans.
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15 ACTIVITY SCENARIOS.

Need: how to find a place to stay.

Online Solution: Select the day and location that you will be at. The app will pop up with information depicting the different available locations and ratings; will also have information of people to contact in the area. All locations will state which bands have stayed at each location. It will also state on the band’s profile page which places they have stayed at.

Need: help professionally mixing my record.

Online Solution: There would be a video/tutorial section where videos have been uploaded from users to help with various mixing software. Users would also be able to contact professionals in the recording business that may offer up advice, trouble shooting or help mix for a cheaper price.

Need: venues to perform at.

Online Solution: User has the ability to select for performing: location/size (house/bar/amphitheater), cost to rent/play, time of day, day of week, location distance from where staying. The user will then be able to place in their contact information + some mp3s, to later be contacted by the facilities to see whether or not they were accepted to perform.

Need: band openers.

Online Solution: Speculative technology that records your band as you play and translates it into a formula that gets saved onto their profile. The online hub would also create a map that places all of the different bands with their similarity to one another. It also recommend to the bands, other ones that would compliment their performance.

Need: establishing an online presence.

Online Solution: The online hub would allow each band to have his or her own profile. On that page would speak more about the members, the history of the band and what they’re currently doing. It would also work as a behind the scenes of all that the band is going through, similar to what some bands do now via YouTube or what used to be done on MTV Cribs and similar shows. Within the bands network/ community, the band and other fans could recommend other sites to go on to help promote events and their music, as well as state which ones they have already spread the word on.

Need: better connection with the fans.

Online Solution: Via the online hub, the bands have the ability to give access to fans/promoters of their touring, recording, or any other aspects of their daily life via their profile posts. They can also use an app that allows fans to “follow in their steps” via geo-tracking, coordinates, photo or text posts. Bands could even create contests for fans to figure out where they are based on those posts or reveal places to pick up “rare” band artifacts.

Need: how to become a band.

Online Solution: Via the online hub, members are able to view any band’s history of how they got to where they are on their profile. This would cover how all members of the band met, where they bought their instruments, learned, played, etc. Via the use of an online forum people could post about different kinds of members that are needed for their band or they could post what instrument they play and state that they want to be in a band. An artist can post up what they are doing and see if anyone else is up for collaboration and then become a band.

Need: I want to promote my band.

Online Solution: The online hub would allow each band to have their own profile. Within the community, the band and other fans could recommend other sites to go on to help promote. There would be a trade off system of promoting information about that band via physical printouts + place in public places, tweet or other forms of promotion about new music, events, or other information about the band. Then the fan would take a photo or screenshot to prove their promotion and upload it to their page, where then the band would reward the fan with points to be redeemed for mp3s, free merchandise or tickets to a show.

Need: I want to support local/indie music.

Online Solution: Users have the ability to sort through different criteria such as location, specific forms of promotion needed, estimated amount of time to post materials/promote, genre of bands, points each post is worth, etc. Fans will also receive points for attending events and tweeting or posting about the events. The points earned by fans can later be redeemed to get free tickets to events put on in the community. Fans will also be featured on the online hub as top promoters in a specific category that allows bands to find specific kinds of promoters.

Need: how to judge my bands growth.

Online Solution: Via the online hub, bands will be able to track all of their events including the number of attendees at the event, size of the venue, the number of fans/friends on the hub, there will also be a graph charting their numbers, also a percentage on their profile stating how close they are to become a “known” band via goals that they achieved with post entries, fans, profile filled out. Bands will also be able to log completion of recording and chart their sales on merchandise and albums.

Need: feedback on music.

Online Solution: Using speculative technology there would be an ability to have a virtual collaboration, which allow people to: give feedback in real time to a live recording. There would also be a visualization using the app, the user would be able to select instruments and pull them into “the real world.” Users then would be able to add the changes in musical arrangement to the song, then upload back online and submit to the band.

Need: feedback on lyrics without a beat.

Online Solution: Similar to the above, fans would be able to create a beat using the above app and hub collaboration to build the beat and send it to the band. Artists/bands would be able to handwrite or type their lyrics via the notepad part of the app, while “on the go” and able to post online to get quick feedback. There would be an interactive feature allowing the artist and fans to circle/write on the lyrics on points where work should be made or possible wording changes.

Need: my band is moving to a new city, how do we get involved in that music scene.

Online Solution: This should involve a speculative technology that we’re going to call THE HUB. It would be a physical space that has a digital projected layout of the city on all of the walls. Bands have the ability to experience the city and see the top places to know. This would also allow bands to experience what the venues look like, to easier decide which venues that are best suited for their music. Bands could also test to see what their music would sound like in those venues, similar to a sound check.

Need: old instruments for sale/purchase of new instruments.

Online Solution: Speculative technology that allows the instrument to be scanned and lives in the larger hub. Interested buyers may download the instrument and bring it into “the real world,” which then would be able to test the instrument out, before going to the home or store to buy the instrument.

Need: how can I get a specific band to come to my city.

Online Solution: There will be an online visual form that fans can put together to get a specific band to come to their city. Via the form, various fans can collaborate on filling it out; fans will find a place for the band to stay, venue for them to play, and the estimation for how much the gig would cost. After finishing the form and adding any additional comments, the information would be sent to the band to look over. The files received by the band would also include more information about the venue and other bands that have performed there. Then if interested the band could get back to the fans about whether or not they wanted to do the gig. This eliminates the majority of normal touring costs including time of pulling all this information together, not staying at a hotel and possibly fed by the people whom they’re staying with.


mood board / pinnings.
click.