Apple Music
The gap between "I'm interested" and "It's in my library"
Apple Music is a subscription-based music and video streaming service. For a flat monthly fee, it provides unlimited, ad-free access to a catalog of over 100 million songs, music videos, and curated playlists.
The app
Key Friction Points:
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While projects are temporarily added to my library, they are actively influencing my algorithm, whether I actually like them or not
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I have to manually remove any project or song I end up disliking
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The existing "Add to Queue" feature allows me to line up a bunch of songs temporarily, but also requires me to sacrifice the ability to listen to anything else during this process
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The speed at which music is now released means I'm constantly seeing projects that interest me, but without a way to manage it, the excitement turns to feelings of overwhelm
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I've tried to resort to my own workaround using the Notes app, but it's inconvenient
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The only relationship you can have with music in Apple Music is binary. It's either in your library or it's buried among the full 100 million song catalog. There is no middle point for wanting to keep track of the songs you'd like to try before adding them to your library.
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The app is so effective at encouraging and facilitating the discovery of new artists & new music, but the follow-through is not as strong. When I see anything that interests me, I only have two options:
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Add it to my library now, fully committing to it completely unheard or
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Make a mental note and try to remember to come back to listen later
The gap
I did a quick & dirty version of my own field research by creating a survey for my friends and crawling social sites like Reddit and X, which are great places to find raw, unfiltered opinions. It wasn't just me, this was a problem for many users.
Validating the problem
The results from the small survey I conducted with my friends crowned "app features" as the most important factor for respondents' preferred streaming platform. When you consider the fact that most platforms have the same music catalog and a similar price point, the experience becomes very important to retaining existing subscribers and poaching new subscribers from other platforms.
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Unreasonable friction around a core function feels contradictory to Apple Music's premium positioning and can also come across as inconsiderate to users, who are then a lot more willing to cancel or switch to other platforms.
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The landscape of music has changed dramatically with the emergence of streaming platforms. Music libraries used to be all about having a place to store whatever you already enjoy. Now, users are inundated with new music on a regular basis and the discovery/sorting process has become much more of a core feature. Still, Apple Music has not adjusted to fully accommodate this shift in behavior & need.
Why this matters
Proposed Prototype
Introduce a Listen Later Queue, a synced, cross-device holding space that lives completely separate from both a user's active listening queue and their library. It creates a designated space for interest and exploration. I used Claude & Figma to help me prototype the solution:
Primary action: saving a song to the Listen Later Queue
The primary user entry point is a "Save" option on any album, song, or playlist, which users can tap without disrupting anything actively playing. A top drawer slides down briefly to confirm the item was added, shows how many items are now in the queue, then recedes on its own.
The new dual-purposed Queue gets its own spot on the Nav Bar
A new Queue button is added to the main navigation bar. Within it, the Listen Later Queue is tabbed alongside the Playing Next queue so users can toggle between them without losing their position. When the user is ready to evaluate the music they've saved to the Listen Later Queue, they hit play and it pauses (but preserves) the items in their Playing Next queue.
Going from queue to library is much easier
For every track in the Listen Later Queue, two actions are available:
- Add to library, with subsequent options to add just a single song or the full project in one single action
- Remove from List, with subsequent options to remove a single song or the full project in one single action
There are a few tradeoffs that come along with implementing this feature at scale:
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A second type of queue introduces a bit of UI complexity into what is currently a simple queue view. The tabbed design keeps it contained, but requires careful testing to ensure users understand that the two queues are fully independent. The biggest risk is confusion about what will play next.
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There could be significant back-end complexity that prevents the App from being able to host 2 queues with playing capabilities. In this case, a list that cannot play the titles directly, but still offers a parking lot for users to keep track of what they want to return to, could still be effective
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This feature has the most value for intentional listeners but brings interference for casual users who may never use it. An opt-in approach for users who actually want it could reduce noise for the users who don't feel they need it
Tradeoffs
Adoption
% of subscribers who use the feature.
Conversion
% of Listen Later items that convert to library saves.
Retention
Subscription retention for Listen Later users vs. non-adopters.
The overall adoption of the Listen Later Queue, the conversion rate for items that make it from a user's queue to their library, as well as retention numbers for users who use the feature versus those who don't are all key indicators that could help quantify success for this feature.
How I'd measure it