SoundScope - Abraham Ayoola

Introduction

SoundScope is a web platform built to help music creators track their social media growth, streaming performance, and audience insights in one single place.
The goal was to design something that feels simple, friendly, and powerful enough to help independent artists understand their numbers without stress.

Most artists today promote their music on several platforms—Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Each of these tools has its own analytics, but they rarely speak the same language. Artists spend too much time switching between dashboards, trying to make sense of the data.

I designed SoundScope to bring all of that together.
It organizes everything that matters—streams, followers, engagement, audience growth—into one clean and clear dashboard.

My Role

Project Overview

Problem

Independent artists often struggle to track how their music performs across platforms.
They know their songs are doing well, but they can’t see the full picture. One app shows streams, another shows followers, and another shows likes or comments. This makes it hard to know what’s working or where to focus their energy.

During my early conversations with a few artists, they described their experience with analytics as “time-consuming” and “draining.”
Most said they prefer creating music over reading complex charts.
That became my main design challenge: how do I make data feel easy, even enjoyable, for artists who don’t love numbers?

Key pain points included:

Data spread across multiple apps
Confusing and overly technical dashboards
Difficulty spotting real progress
No clear summary of overall growth

SoundScope was designed to fix that. I wanted to create a dashboard that tells a story at a glance.

Users

The product was designed for three main user types:

Independent music artists managing their own releases.
Small music teams or managers helping upcoming artists.
Social media managers working with music brands.

To understand these users better, I conducted short interviews and a small online survey.
Here’s what I learned:

70% of artists check multiple platforms daily to track growth.
60% said they wished they had one place to see everything.
50% said analytics tools feel too technical or “too corporate.”

The insights made the direction clear:
Artists wanted a single platform that looks modern, feels human, and doesn’t overwhelm them.

So I created a simple user persona named Kelvin, a 27-year-old music producer.
Kelvin releases music on Spotify, promotes on Instagram, and often gets lost trying to understand his numbers. His biggest wish is to have one app that brings all his insights together.

Research

I started by studying tools like Spotify for Artists, YouTube Studio, and Instagram Insights.
These tools are data-rich but often feel intimidating for beginners.
They show too much information at once, and most artists I spoke with said they only care about a few key metrics—followers, engagement, top-performing songs, and countries where their fans are growing.

From that research, I decided that SoundScope should focus on clarity and relevance.
It shouldn’t show everything—it should show only what matters.

I began sketching simple layouts on paper, then moved to FigJam to map out possible screens and navigation flow.
I explored different ways to organize information—by time period, platform, and content type.

The early idea was to divide the dashboard into three layers:

Overview section for quick stats
Performance section for detailed charts
Audience and engagement section for deeper insights

I wanted it to feel familiar, like a social feed, but with data instead of posts.

Design

When moving into Figma, I focused on structure and tone.
I wanted the interface to feel clean, light, and encouraging.
I used soft colors, subtle gradients, and rounded cards to make data look less intimidating.

The typography is simple and readable.
Charts use calm blue tones and smooth curves that visually guide the eye instead of demanding attention.
Each data card includes short labels and small icons for easy scanning.

The main dashboard welcomes users with a friendly greeting like “Hi Edwin!” and a quick summary of their stats—total songs, albums, videos, and social reach.
Below that are easy-to-read charts showing their best-performing songs, albums, and streaming platforms.

Solution

The final version of SoundScope gives artists a single, visual space to understand their music performance.

Key features include:

Overview cards that summarize total songs, albums, videos, and engagement.
Clean charts that show growth across streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube.
“Top Songs” and “Top Albums” lists for easy comparison.
Audience map showing top five countries of followers.
“Social Media Growth” and “Engagement” sections that track Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube all in one view.

Impact and Results

Testing feedback showed clear improvement in how users interacted with data.
After using the prototype:

90% of participants said they understood their growth faster.
80% said the dashboard felt less stressful than other tools they had used.
70% said they would recommend it to other artists immediately.

SoundScope made analytics feel less like a chore and more like a progress check-in.
Instead of numbers that overwhelm, it tells a story that motivates.

If the platform were launched, success could be measured through:

Daily active users
Time spent on dashboard
Number of returning users each week
Engagement rate per artist

Conclusion

SoundScope began as a personal challenge—to make music analytics easier for creators who care more about art than data.
Through research, testing, and many design iterations, it grew into a platform that turns complex data into something clear, calm, and meaningful.

This project taught me a few strong lessons:

Simplicity creates trust.
Users value clarity more than features.
Real feedback always makes a product better.

SoundScope reminded me that design is not just about visuals or usability.
It’s about empathy—seeing from the user’s side and making something that truly supports their daily work.
In the end, SoundScope does more than show numbers. It helps artists feel in control of their growth.