Screens
Guided and free-flowing interaction
Music artists are simple, and they’re emotion-driven creators → straight-forward, familiar and structured set-up (AI is assumed but not front and center).
Setlist board workflow allows artists to be free-flowing in their brainstorms and experiments, mirroring the creative process.
Tablet as primary device
Increasing use and preference on tablet for music creation.
Intuitive interaction model, bigger working space, portability and affordability (great balance between phone and laptop).
Interaction model
Scope
14 weeks,
Individual Project
Course
Emerging Tech: AI,
ArtCenter College of Design
Skills learned & applied
Design with data and LLM, Prototyping, UX, Branding
Arc is an interactive setlist creation tool that allows indie music artists to make data-informed decisions for their setlist. LLM serves as a powerful AI setlist tool, allowing the artists to hit the sweet spot between continuing to have full creative control, and leveraging data to craft their set emotional journey.
Core flows
01
Structured set-up process, allowing artists to fully customize their goals and control their data input
Artists go through an easy 3 steps set-up process to help Arc calibrate and create the right setlist template for the artist.
Node-based setlist board and visualizer
Artists edit and refine their recommended setlist in a fluid manner with node-based interaction. Turning on Arc visualizer provides deeper insights on feels, rhythm, and the picture emotion arc of their setlist.
Audience sentiment analyzes and keeps track of real-time audience reaction to the setlist
With a completed setlist, artists set up a mic pointed at the crowd. During show, Arc monitors and logs audience sentiment for the correlated setlist song. Whenever the artist can stop recording, Arc provides key learnings and suggests any recording removal for cleaner history log. Learnings are saved to the artist’s setlist for future reference and more accurate suggestions.
In the past 4 years, a whole new music artist generation has risen to popularity at a speed never-seen before thank to social media.
Because of this untraditional approach, they haven’t accumulated enough performing experience, such as crafting the right setlist for their crowd or reading the room while performing.
They’re used to performing to a much smaller crowd. All of the sudden, they’re now able to perform to a much bigger audience in a short amount of time.
These artists have already been releasing songs for a few years on streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, while posting short clips of them teasing and singing their songs in short-form content. All of this build up a well of data that can be used to the artist’s advantage.
As a music artist, avid live show goer, and social media user, I’ve observed an interesting trend.
I designed Arc to help artists leverage these opportunities.
Research
02
Market research
DIY Indie Artist is the new norm:
The “creator economy” is expanding in music, with a large portion of artists choosing to self-manage, self-release, and book their own shows.
Platforms like Bandcamp, DistroKid, SoundCloud, and TikTok have empowered artists to grow followings without labels — but tools to help them with live performance strategy are still limited.
Artists can distribute their music easily, but tools for performance storytelling, audience engagement, and post-show reflection are either generic (Google Docs, Notes app) or nonexistent.
I conducted a broad market analysis on the tools and platforms indie artists are using to prepare for their live shows, from planning logistics to visual and lighting preparation, to finding inspiration and analysis for their setlist. I saw while visual tools are developed, tools for setlist research are outdated. So I dived deeper into the an artist process around their setlist, from the moment they book a show to the moment they finish performing.
Competitive Analysis – Live Show Prep
User journey
Initial brainstorming and learning
Crafting and learning
Logging
Persona
Her recent song “We Hug Now” went viral on social media. This moved her from performing to a small crowd of hundreds of people to 20k people crowds at big festivals.
She has 12 upcoming shows, and already journaled down some songs she feels that her fans would want to hear.
Inspiration artists:
Mainstream pop artists: Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo.
Indie pop artists: Phoebe Bridgers and Lizzy McAlpine.
Setlist goals:
Strategically placing certain songs on the setlist to increase streams post show.
Making sure her audience stays for the whole set.
Bringing her audience on a captivating emotional journey, the same way she felt when she went to a Phoebe Bridgers concert 2 years ago.
Highlight her vocal range.
Sydney Rose | Rising Indie Artist
Ideation
03
A big part of our class is to consider different types of data an AI tool would need to automate actions, and consider where and how the system get that data. For Arc, those decisions fall under the setlist setup process, and the live audience sentiment feature. Seeing how intertwined data is with how I could design Arc successfully, I created a user/data flow to identify the most critical points in the user flow data needed to come in. This helped me decide the right UI and interaction for those moments.
User + data flow
Wireframe
UI
04
Design system
Next Steps
05
User survey + test:
In addition to research and drawing from my perspective as a music artist and audience, the next steps is to get more verification of interest in the tool from other indie artists.
Test core flows:
Adding/removing a setlist item on the setlist board.
Using the Live Audience Sentiment feature.
Setting up a new setlist.
Data transparency and control:
Intellectual and creative property is what matters the most to the artist, especially in the current landscape where AI generative tools are using artist’s work to train and create music without their permission. Arc is not a music creation platform, but when an artist start making decisions to edit and refine a setlist to curate the right emotion arc, it becomes their intellectual and creative property. So it’s important for an artist-facing tool like Arc to address this concern in the product.
The next step is to flesh out a system where:
Artists can opt in or out of giving Arc their setlist data for training and reference.
A reward system, or something that can benefit the artist if they decide to give their setlist data. At the least, maybe the action of uploading their setlist to an Arc community would give Arc permission to reference it, but also make it a public resource for the whole Arc community.