THE IDEA

Audiocitizen surfaced as an idea around 2004 while I was in a musical group. The project was very engaging and brought a lot of joy into my life. At one point we began discussing a potential move to California. While the idea seemed great, I simply did not feel ready for the big move with the band. Naturally, I started thinking of ways to continue collaborating on music with the group in the event of their move. Audiocitizen was born... in my mind. Ever since then, I have felt almost haunted by this idea. I started writing down random thoughts about it, later sketching them on paper. In graduate school, I built the first prototype as part of my Capstone project. It was a rough vision of the application created in Flash (yup, we're talking early 2007 here). With time, Audiocitizen began to take form of my baby project and design therapy in one. I keep going back to it, creating wireframes of its features, then translating those into high fidelity mockups. I certainly hope to build the app at some point.

COLLABORATIONS

OPPORTUNITY

Any type of music we listen to is usually made up of tracks layered on top of each other to form anything from simplest to most complex musical arrangements. These tracks include commonly recognizable vocal lines, guitar, drum or electronic parts, to name a few, forming a cohesive unit when "glued" together. Each of these elements, in a traditional sense, is composed and recorded by individuals getting together to form and promote a band. While it's an amazing social experience to be a part of such project, its drawbacks are usually related to the fact that those individuals must be in close physical proximity to each other in order for the engagement to work.

SOLUTION

Audiocitizen allows people from around the world to collaborate on and compose music. Each contributing member has the ability to pitch in their creativity on track-by-track basis. Physical proximity is no longer a constraint, while creativity can run wild.

MUSIC TAILORED TO YOUR TASTE

OPPORTUNITY

With the abundance of streaming audio services, users have a wide range of products and musical genres to choose from. This open model is an amazing way to experience music, but there is an opportunity to go deeper into it. What if, as a user, you could have a chance to customize not only the types of music you're interested in, but actually have the ability to carefully craft the music itself?

SOLUTION

Since Audiocitizen collaborations are created on track-by-track basis, let's give users the ability to choose the tracks they like and omit the ones they don't. Each collaboration can be customized, then added to a playlist. Each contributing member's information is tracked within the collaboration, so it's the user who forms the band of their liking, not the other way around.

SPINOFFS

OPPORTUNITY

As a musician, I may like certain collaborations more than others. How can I contribute my talent to something that resonates with me on an artistic level? Can I use what has been created thus far to add a bit of my personal touch to it?

SOLUTION

Musicians can contribute to any open collaboration. If their contribution is accepted by the collaboration's owner, then we have a winning formula for a great project. But what if it's not? Introducing Spinoff! Spinoff allows new contributing members to take a snapshot of the collaboration they like and create a new one based on that, just so they can freely explore the creative possibilities that stem from it. The new contributing member becomes the owner of the Spinoff, giving them control over how the arrangement unfolds. Once again, the original contributors' information is still tracked, so the credit is given where it's due.

PROFILE

OPPORTUNITY

As a contributing artist, I would like a way to keep track of all the collaborations, tracks and songs that I have contributed to the Audiocitizen community.

SOLUTION

Contributor's profile provides a snapshot of everything that the individual is involved with. It presents entry points to recognizable areas of the application, with clear and visually appealing interactive elements, all in a neat mobile framework. Here, users can also check their account status and upgrade it with a touch of a button.