LZTN | All-in-one music bio site builder for music marketing

Company:  LZTN

Role

Product Design / Product Strategy / User Research / Co-founder

Duration

2023- present

Problem

Current music streaming platforms offer significant convenience to listeners, making them difficult to disrupt or replace. However, they don't provide artists with the same level of income as selling records did in the past. While membership platforms like Patreon offer an alternative, they often require artists to engage in extensive community building and non-music-related activities, which may not appeal to musicians who prefer to focus solely on their craft. On the other hand, Bandcamp allows artists to sell digital and physical copies of their music, but streaming remains the predominant method for music consumption today.

🤔 How might we help artists to generate more income?

Discovery Stage

When we initially conceptualized the solution, we considered offering early exclusive streaming access for fans before the official launch.

Our idea was to create a platform allowing musical artists to provide early exclusive streaming access for their new releases. Fans could purchase and enjoy exclusive access for a specified period before the release becomes available on major streaming platforms.

This approach aimed to increase the yield of a music release compared to direct streaming uploads, potentially resulting in increased income for musical artists.

However, we were uncertain about the actual product-market fit for our target audience, as well as the operational implications. To address these uncertainties, we conducted user interviews to gain insights into the operational aspects and to find answers to our questions.

Each group interview sample size: 5

Highlighted Insights

Musicans 🧑‍🎤: Producing songs is not our main income, we would also rely on shows and events.

Music label operation staff🧑‍💻: The big music label has already signed contracts with the streaming platform, and they would have special deals for the promotion.

Music lovers 🤓 : I like to collect the exclusive release album or live from the musicians I love.

After conducting interviews with indie musicians, mainstream label operation staff, marketers, and music lovers (including fans of both mainstream and indie artists), we realized that our original solution would be difficult to implement operationally. The product-market fit is significantly limited, as people generally don't show strong interest in early releases. Moreover, established artists have already signed collaboration agreements with streaming platforms, making it challenging for a new platform to break through in this space.

Based on the insights collected, we decided to shift our direction toward to music marketing and rethink the problem statement:

New Problem statement

Musicians need to manage multiple platforms and have difficulty generating sustainable income.

Solution: All-in-One platform for musicians' income generation and fan engagement

Our new approach enables musicians to easily manage and generate income through a single platform while allowing music lovers to discover exclusive releases via social media

We have created LZTN, a Link-in-Bio tool that offers multiple functionalities:

• Selling music tracks

• Selling and managing merchandise

• Notifying listeners

LZTN provides the value of at least 4 different tools in one unified platform. We help users save money by reducing monthly subscription costs and eliminating the hassle of navigating multiple platforms.

Sign up flow

Musicians can directly claim a bio link, or create an account and choose between fan mode or musician mode.

Artist Link-in-Bio Page

Directly upload and manage album, merch and show in one platform

Direct checkout from the payment gateway

Current Step

We are initiating our beta launch phase and commencing outreach to prospective users for product trials. This strategic rollout allows us to gather valuable feedback and refine our offering before the full market release. We are actively seeking early adopters who can provide insightful input on user experience, functionality, and overall product value. This beta testing period is crucial for identifying potential improvements and ensuring that LZTN meets the diverse needs of our target audience in the music industry.