For this I decided to ask my mum, someone who has never used a music app and would typically use physical media as well the radio as I wanted to get a fresh perspective on music apps
My mums thoughts on Spotify were that it looks easy enough to follow, I can agree, everything you need is there in 3 main parts. Home, you’ll find your recently listened to or recommended here as well as announcements etc. Search which allows you to search for music by typing, see what popular music, podcasts, audiobooks, live events and even courses there are. And then finally the search which can filter Recents to oldest to newest, standard feature really, but it helps you get what you want to listen to.
A complaint my mum had was how dark it was with no light mode being present within the app which is strange as most dark apps like discord or even notion have a white mode, while being uncommonly used there are people who do like a light mode, So that is something to keep in mind
My thoughts: I choose Spotify as I feel it is the most popular option for streaming, it is your basic music streaming app but Spotify has some unique features like Spotify wrapped and following artists so you know when they’re playing near your home
My mum commented on how the apps UI is too suggestive, now I’ll give the app the benefit of the doubt, This is the first time I’m using it so it’ll probably suggest anything, then again my age is 21 on the amazon app, maybe amazon should know that the average 21 year old does not really care about Supertramp or David bowie, most people my age like more modern music and 2000s songs. She also went on to say how boring the app is and how it is uninspiring, stating that it is simple enough which can be good to new users or bad to experienced users
I will say, I really like this artist page, I think the font is cool and it can be easily read.
What I don’t like is how limiting this music service is and how annoying it is with its adverts.
My thoughts: I chose amazon music as I thought it was the most accessible one with my prime subscription allowing me to stream music, It can. but at a limit which really sucks they asked me to pay more just so I could listen to a particular song, terrible user experience in my opinion, you’re seriously asking me to pay £9 for prime and then another £12 for music? awful, such a scam
But aside from that, it does have some cool features, I specially liked x-ray which tells you more information about the artist, I guess the Alexa feature is cool, but what’s stopping me from using Siri or Google Assistant? But hey, at least the font looks cool
My mum went on to say that this is very graphic and it sucks you in, influencing you to explore music, She also went on to say how the colours were more visually appealing
My thoughts: I chose YouTube music as I feel like people don’t even know it exists, you get it with YouTube premium which I have, making it instantly better than prime music, with that though I actually like the UI, now all these music apps are too dark and not that visually appealing to look at, and why does it need to be? I want my music app to play music or podcasts I don’t really care if looks like the Mona Lisa, If I can’t listen to music then what is the point, A good music app has accessibility and simplicity. I want my app to do this and more without taking away the main feature of a music app. The music.
I like the “samples” feature, essentially it is just Tik Tok but for the music videos, allowing people to discover more music and comment under them