Internet powerhouse, Yahoo! Inc., turned to frog design to create their own online music subscription service.
frog and Yahoo! envisioned a music application designed around discovery. frog understood that the way files are traditionally organized has little to do with the way they are actually used and experienced. And music shared from person to person and recommended by trusted community members is far more relevant and valuable than music experienced simply by walking into a store and selecting something from a rack.
With literally a million music files to offer the user, frog wanted to build not just literal tools for navigating content, but more flexible and innovative ways of discovering that content. Design was critical to developing new ways to explore and manage a constantly growing stream of information.
frog worked with Yahoo! to develop visuals, structure, interactions, and look and feel that transform the listening experience from a solitary one into one of exploration and shared community. The interface is beautiful and approachable, drawing users in to the experience.
The design of Yahoo! Music design differs from other online music services by its focus on community (users can share their playlists over Yahoo's instant messenger), a powerful recommendations engine, and most significantly by its innovative use of the attributes (or metadata) of a piece of music - the genre, mood, year, community and personal ratings, etc - to guide users into un-chartered territory and delight them with new-found music. Since launch, Yahoo! Music has received industry wide acclaim, and beat out RealNetworks' Rhapsody, Napster and iTunes for the "Best Downloadable or Subscription Music Service" category in the 2005 Digital Entertainment and Media Excellence Awards.
