Mobile App
Concept project
Social Platform
TuneTribe — A platform for independent musicians
Independent musicians have no place to grow their audience, collaborate, and get paid — all in one platform. I spent 6 weeks researching, interviewing, and designing TuneTribe from scratch.
Duration
10 weeks
My role
Team · UI & UX Design
Tools
Figma · FigJam
The Problem
Musicians are falling
through the cracks
Meet Rahul Verma — 29, professional musician, Mumbai. He performs at gigs, composes original music, and collaborates with other artists. But finding those collaborators means scrolling Instagram, cold-DMing strangers, and hoping for the best. He's not alone. Our research found that this fragmentation isn't a niche problem. It's an industry-wide failure.
50%
of musicians struggle to find gigs, yet few use any dedicated booking tool
75%+
want in-app messaging and booking tools built into one platform
41%
have under 1 year of experience, a new wave of artists with no infrastructure
Professional Musician
Rahul Verma
29 · Full-time musician · Mumbai
"I want a reliable platform where I can find trustworthy collaborators and focus on making music — not chasing people or juggling tools."
Key frustrations
No platform for musicians only
Unreliable gig sources
Isolating feedback loops
Hard to find serious collaborators
Hobbyist Musician
Vani Kapoor
27 · Software Developer · Bangalore
"Creating the life-changing sound for someone — that's the feeling I'm chasing. I'm just not finding the right people to create with."
Key frustrations
Hard to find collaborators
No community feel
Lack of mentorship
Too commercial for hobbyists
Research & Discovery
We didn't assume.
We listened.
We spoke to independent musicians, hobbyist artists, and event organizers across India. We ran surveys, conducted interviews, built empathy maps, and mapped full user journeys. What came back confirmed one thing: the problem wasn't motivation. It was infrastructure.
Discovery 01
The Trust Problem
Musicians don't just want collaborators, they want vetted ones. Cold DMs feel unsafe. They need profiles with work samples and reviews before committing to any creative partnership.
Discovery 02
The Fragmentation Problem
Most musicians promote inconsistently, managing Instagram, WhatsApp, SoundCloud, and email simultaneously. There's no single home base.
Discovery 03
The Booking Gap
Half of musicians struggle to find gigs, yet very few use dedicated booking platforms. They rely on word-of-mouth, a system that excludes new artists.
The Insight
"The problem wasn't that musicians lacked talent or drive. Every tool they needed lived in a different app, a different DM thread, a different mental tab. We needed to build one home."
How Might We
How might we create a single, trust-based platform where independent musicians can find collaborators, book gigs, and build community — without switching apps or starting from scratch?
Card sorting → IA
Navigation wasn't designed top-down. We ran open card sorting with 8 users. Their mental models directly shaped the final tab bar structure — Community, Explore, Feed, and Profile.
Task flows → User flows
We mapped detailed task flows across 7 core musician scenarios before touching a single screen. This uncovered the gig organizer side of the marketplace that initial scoping had missed entirely.
Design Process
Structured thinking
before pixels
Before any screens were designed, we mapped how musicians actually move through the world. Every flow was grounded in research — not assumptions.
[ Add your Task Flow screenshot here ]
Task Flow
7 core musician scenarios mapped step-by-step, from discovering a gig to completing a booking — before any wireframes were made.
User Flow
Decision trees for both user types — Professional and Hobbyist, showing how onboarding personalization shapes every downstream screen.
[ Add your Information Architecture screenshot here ]
Information Architecture
A full IA built from card sorting results — Community, Explore, Feed, and Profile as primary nav destinations, each with clearly scoped sub-sections.
The Solution
One platform.
Five problems solved.
TuneTribe is built around the 5 core jobs independent musicians need to get done. Every screen answers a specific pain point uncovered in research.
[ Add Home + Gigs mockup here ]
Feature 01
Home Feed + Browse Gigs
"I miss performances by artists I follow. And I can't find paid gig opportunities without knowing the right people."
The home screen acts as a musician's daily dashboard — a real-time feed blended with gig opportunities discoverable by genre, role, location, and skill. The Feed/Gigs toggle keeps both functions one tap apart.
Key decision: Showing community stories at the top creates social presence and signals who's active. The Gigs tab surfaces amount, genre tags, and a direct Apply CTA — reducing the 3-app process to a single scroll.
[ Add Explore screen mockup here ]
Feature 02
Explore
"I post music content but it gets lost — I have no way to discover other artists who match my style either."
Explore surfaces trending tracks, videos, and artist profiles in a unified discovery surface — filterable by genre, skills, and roles. Musicians control what they find and how they're found.
Key decision: Showing play counts and engagement metrics on trending content gives new artists realistic benchmarks and motivates consistent posting.
Feature 03
Tribe Circle + Jam Call
"I want to collaborate but I don't know who to trust. And geography limits who I can actually play with."
Tribe Circle is a live, interest-based listening room where creators and listeners connect in real time. Jam Call extends this into live audio rooms with clear host/co-host/listener role separation.
Key decision: Role-based participation emerged directly from card sorting — users wanted clarity about commitment level before joining any live session.
Feature 04
Create + Community
"I have ideas to share but no platform built for musicians as creators — not just performers."
The Create screen lets musicians post tracks, videos, polls, and collaboration calls in one place. Community surfaces these posts filtered by genre, role, and skill.
Key decision: "Only for artists" and "Approve new members" toggles were added after usability feedback — musicians wanted to curate their creative circle from the start.
Feature 05
Artist Profile
"I have no professional presence that shows my full range — skills, gig history, and music in one place."
The Artist Profile acts as a living portfolio and professional card — showing posts, gig history, follower count, and musical bio in one view.
Key decision: Separating "Posts" and "Gigs" tabs on the profile emerged from persona work — Rahul needed to present his professional gig history distinctly from his creative content feed.
Reflection
What I'd do
differently
"If I started TuneTribe again, I'd spend more time testing with event organizers and venue owners,the other side of the gig marketplace. I designed deeply for musicians but a two-sided platform only works if both sides are understood."
What worked well
→
Grounding the IA in card sorting gave us a structure users actually understood, not one imposed by convention
→
Designing for two distinct user types kept onboarding personalization meaningful rather than decorative
→
The task flow exercise surfaced the gig-organizer gap before any screens were designed
What I'd do differently
→
Run usability testing earlier, validate the onboarding flow with real users before committing to high-fidelity
→
Research the organizer/venue side more deeply, the platform's value depends on supply, not just demand
→
Consider a monetization model earlier, willingness to pay was a finding I didn't act on in the design
Next steps if this were real
Usability testing
5-user moderated test on the onboarding, gig-browsing, and Tribe Circle flows with task completion metrics.
Organizer-side research
Interview 6–8 event organizers and venue managers to design the supply side of the gig marketplace.
Premium model exploration
Define which features sit behind a paywall and validate willingness to pay with real musicians.
Independent musicians deserve
infrastructure.
TuneTribe isn't just a music app. It's a belief that independent musicians deserve the same tools that labels give signed artists — community, opportunity, and trust — in one place.
View Figma Prototype →
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