91Èȱ¬

91Èȱ¬ R&D are always on the lookout for new areas of public value to help our colleagues that make the 91Èȱ¬’s digital products look beyond the next few years. In 2023, 91Èȱ¬ R&D ran some exploratory user research and prototyping with young people aged 25 and under to discover new internet-based audio services. From that research, three things stood out. 

1. People can feel “boxed in” by algorithms and personalised recommendations.
2. People want to feel like they have spent their time well.
3. Young people want to discover and support novel content and creators.

During this time, one concept gained particularly positive feedback, a music discovery prototype we nicknamed “Fuzzic” (a blend of Fuzzy + Music) powered 91Èȱ¬ Introducing. 91Èȱ¬ Introducing is the 91Èȱ¬'s home for brand new, undiscovered, and upcoming artists and is where many musical journeys begin. Bands and musicians can upload their new tracks, which get listened to by our team of local Introducing presenters and producers based around the country.

From here, artists can end up being broadcast on the 91Èȱ¬’s local and national radio stations, performing live at intimate Introducing gigs, or playing to thousands at national festivals. It is a means of being 'discovered' and connecting new and original creators with music lovers.

Discovery is one of the hardest things in music, both for artists and for fans, and the Fuzzic prototype stripped away many of the things that can distract from the music discovery experience and allowed users to really focus on what they were listening to without any bias.

Armed with our learnings, we reached out to our editorial colleagues at 91Èȱ¬ Introducing and told them what we’d been up to. They were really excited to see our work, and gracefully offered to help us take the idea to a public pilot. Overtime, Fuzzic developed into our new music discovery prototype, Orbit.

Orbit changes up the music discovery process in several ways. Orbit's core mechanic involves audio-led navigation, controlled by a joystick in the centre of the screen. Users move the joystick to different dots on the screen to tune in to different tracks from 91Èȱ¬ Introducing. Tracks play without artist names, genre descriptions, or cover images, and users get to experience the tracks without any distractions. If the song matches their vibe and what they like, they can choose to reveal the artist, or they can drag the joystick to a different dot to discover something else.

After months of iterative design, development, and iteration, Orbit was ready for wider testing. Starting with our colleagues in 91Èȱ¬ R&D, we tentatively asked them to have a go and give us their honest thoughts. We’re very grateful that they didn’t hold back and introduced a raft of changes before we went wider and did some guerrilla research with colleagues across TV, Radio, and other departments.

More recently, we welcomed members of the public to our usability lab in Salford to really see if our design held up with minimal barriers. We came out of those sessions with a good level of confidence that Orbit was usable, with one or two more tweaks needed to be sure.
Alongside this, we took the time to speak to some artists about how they felt about their music being discoverable in this way. The overwhelming response was positive, so we knew then that launching the pilot was the right move.

We believe we’ve designed something unique - a tool for people to find undiscovered artists in a way that helps them stand out against the vast back catalogues available in current media streaming services.

Hopefully, through people trying Orbit, we’ll be able to prove its value and consider how the 91Èȱ¬ could turn it into a fully-fledged offer.