VUMBUKA RECORDS
Creating a web appearance for a newly founded record label.
- Project period: 2019 Apr – 2019 Jun
- Duration: 3 months
Due to the project being available only during the record release the website has been taken down
Vumbuka Records was a new record label founded in 2019 by Simon Lundsgaard alias Simone Ahá and Sandile Bhengu alias Sandy B. At that time they were working on their first record release which happened on May 18th, 2019.
As they were producing a record in a very unknown genre, kwaito, they needed support reaching their very specific audience and making a name for their new record label in the music industry. Therefore creating a digital solution gives them a place to show their work and reach listeners as well as other artists.
“How to create a digital solution that enables Vumbuka Records to reach its target audience and help them get a successful first record release?”
RESEARCH
- Desk Research – looked into statistics, literature, articles, social media, and more.
- Competitors’ Solutions – researched different labels approaches of advertisement, social media presence, and websites and looked for patterns of what work the best.
- Interviews and Observations – talked with record store salespeople, where we found out more about our target group and questioned the people in the record stores.
- Target Group – vinyl store sellers pointed out what are their usual customers, also our client shared who are regular listeners of the genre.
- Business Model – describes nine parts that create, deliver, and retain value for the company. (Customer Segments, Value Proposition, Customer Relationships, Channels, Revenue Streams, Key Resources, Key Activities, Partners, Cost Structure)
- SWOT/TOWS – used to establish opportunities, threats, strengths, and weaknesses. TOWS analysis to look at which of the strengths and opportunities can reduce the threats and weaknesses.
Used some of the data from desk research, BMC, and added new sources of information. - Personas & Customer Journey – based on the interviews held, two personas were made that are related to the target group. The personas give a good impression of what our target group looks like.
Design
Design Process
Creative Brief - main purpose is to help Vumbuka Records get in touch with their audience. Firstly to introduce the people to the new record label, secondly to raise the brand awareness around their label and thirdly to eventually make prospective buyers buy the new release.
Brainstorm - after defining digital solution as a website, brainstorming on the main categories and functions for it. While doing that taking websites from other record labels and research conclusions into consideration.
Mind Map - combined the before mentioned brainstorming sessions and focused on the parts that are actually going to implement in final solution.
Moodboard - to get a first visualization and a feeling for the style that is used in website, gathering pictures which would go best with the ideas had for the final product.
Sketches - collection of ideas lead to individually working on sketches of how the website should look like.
Sitemap - to get an overview of how final sketches are connected on the website and to establish which different subpages have to be created in the wireframes, the mockups and in the final code.
Wireframes - before working on the actual design of final solution, creating wireframes in order to have a basic guideline for the look of website.
Style Tile - to add styling to sketches and wireframes style tile was created. Main colors are orange and purple in different variations.
Mock-ups - after figuring out the layout with wireframes and design guide in the style tile, final design can be made.
Testing - AB testing with our target group.
CONCLUSION
Interviewing the client as the first step in the project research was difficult as they were working in a very small and specific field of underground music. However, the collection of qualitative and quantitative information by intensively searching the internet and interviewing record store owners in Aarhus and a few young adults, who fitted our target audience, was enough to draw a picture in order to develop a digital solution.
The target audience was suited well to the description from the client. Based on research two personas were established. One represents the main group of the target audience by being interested in buying records and discovering new artists and tracks. Another one represents the artists that are looking for a record label, that will release their music.
Through those initial steps, it was established that a website would be perfect as a final product as it can be used to deliver information to the users, make potential collaboration partners interested in the label and contact them and also give users the option to buy the released records. During the process of designing the website, the main focus was on fitting the appearance to their already existing design and creating a website that would not limit itself to any kind of music genre.