Onboarding in 7 Days: Boosting Amazon Music’s Retention
This is an Amazon Music Design Challenge collaboration with Pratt Institute. Amazon Music is seeking a Customer Experience (CX) strategy to improve retention across its tiered offerings, to keep the users active from month to month.
Info
- Timeline: Feb 2025 - Mar 2025
- Team Echo: Jessica Z, Iris S(me), Roshni G, Merlyn K
- My Role: User interview, Hi-fi prototyping (Switching Platform, Onboarding)
Amazon Music has Some Problems with Its Retention Rate
Let’s take a look at their retention data first.
Amazon Music is third in the music streaming market. However, looking into the subscription data, most of the users are free tier users, and lots of the users drop the app after the first month.
Define the Research Question
“How might our design persuade more free users to convert to prime or unlimited users, and keep the retention rate at the same time?”
Conducting User Research on Music Enthusiasts
We conducted the survey (104 responses) and interviews (10 people), with a focus on Amazon Music users.
What did we ask?:
- Listening Behaviors
- Music Subscription
- Amazon Music
- Features - Like & Dislike
Key Insights We Found
Many Prime users don’t know they have free access to Amazon Music - "I had no idea I even had these Prime Music benefits—it's not really something I ever noticed."
It’s difficult for users to switch from one music streaming platform to the other
- “I love trying out new apps in general, but the only thing stopping me from migrating to other music apps is the inability to migrate my playlists that have been curated over the years!”
Users appreciate good and smart music recommendations
- “A new tool enables recommendations on specific vibes, maybe like a ChatGPT for music?”
What the users value most for a music app is “abundant music resources, good music quality, no ads.”
Picked the Feasible Idea Instead of the Creative Idea
We brainstormed 4 design ideas based on the insights, and combined ideas 1 & 4 for our design:
- Encourage users to upgrade their subscription and convert Amazon Prime members to Amazon Music Prime.
- Introduce creative social features(e.g., AI chatbot, listening synchronously with friends, making friends with people who have similar music tastes) to engage the users.
- Leverage Amazon’s ecosystem, including Alexa, Echo, and Amazon.com.
- Enhance AI-powered personalized playlists and recommendations.
Inspired by our Amazon PM mentor, we merged our ideas into a 7-day onboarding strategy. The retention data, declining from 100% to 89.94% in the first month, provides solid proof.
Hi-Fi Prototypes of the 7-day Onboarding Strategy
🎉 DAY 1 Onboarding Flow & Welcome Email :
Ensure users recognize the benefits, actively explore unique features, and remain engaged throughout their experience.
🔄DAY 2/3 Import Playlist Guidance Pop-Up:
Import Playlist Banner Reminder & Email Marketing on Amazon Music Membership
⏰ DAY 4/5 Import Playlist Banner Reminder & Email Marketing on Amazon Music Membership:
Ensure users understand the value of Amazon Music Prime
📊 DAY 7 Personalized Music Report Banner & Introducing Maestro AI Bot
Reflection
- Developed the design based on the user research
- Value the feasibility and business impact of the feature
- A more detailed visual mockup
- More time to conduct user research on Amazon Music users