Spare Music
We designed the core of Spare Music — artist and label dashboards for releasing music, managing royalty splits and payouts, and understanding performance across every major platform — and scaled it over two years.
- Client
- Spare Music
- Role
- Lead product design
- Timeline
- Built & scaled over 2 years
- Platform
- Web + mobile web
Overview
Services: Product strategy, Artist & label dashboards, Release flows, Royalties & payouts, Analytics, Co-design with artists.
Releasing music was messy: limited access, poor royalty visibility and scattered tools. Spare Music set out to give independent artists and labels one place to distribute, get paid and grow — without relying on major-label partnerships.
We designed flows and core experiences across the platform — releasing new music, tracking analytics, managing payments and royalty splits, editing profiles and more — streamlining distribution to dozens of streaming platforms and social apps through one intuitive interface.
How do we simplify music distribution and turn scattered tools into one powerful platform?
The problem
Fragmented and confusing
The problem: Artists juggled multiple platforms to release a single track. Distribution, royalties and performance data lived in different places.
What we did: One dashboard to upload tracks, manage splits, schedule releases and track performance — no switching tools or chasing missing data.
For users: Artists release in one place instead of five, and spend that time on the music.
No visibility into royalties
The problem: Artists couldn’t see what they earned, when they’d be paid or how splits were calculated. Labels managed payouts in spreadsheets.
What we did: A transparent royalties system: earnings by track, artist and platform, real-time balances and payout timelines, and automatic split payments.
For users: Every artist can see what they’ve earned, who gets what, and when they’ll be paid.
No performance insights
The problem: Once a release went live, streams and engagement were scattered across platforms, making impact impossible to measure.
What we did: A real-time analytics hub showing how each release performs across platforms and over time, so artists make smarter, faster decisions.
For users: Artists know which songs are landing and where their fans actually are.
Labels lacked a unified view
The problem: Labels managed dozens of artists with outdated, disconnected tools and no central place for releases, royalties and performance.
What we did: A command center for labels: every artist in one place, upcoming releases, automated royalty payments and catalog-level analytics.
For users: Label teams run their whole roster without spreadsheets or chasing artists.
Outcomes: A platform artists actually live in
- 10k+ monthly active users — tens of thousands
- Millions of streams delivered
- 2 yrs of continuous design & iteration
We co-created the platform with artists and labels, testing features early and folding their feedback into every release. Today artists earn a living from their royalties and labels are actively growing their rosters.