TLDR Jonathan Mann has been writing one song, every day, since 2008. He wanted to find a way to monetize his music so that he could focus on writing these songs for the rest of his life. I worked with a team of web3 experts to refine the product strategy for his project, Song A Day, and then design the website needed to launch it. The first phase of the project sold over 4,000 NFTs with a combined revenue topping $2.5 million.
Tools: Figma/Figjam
Skills: Facilitation, Product Strategy, UX Design, Copy Editing
Keywords: DAO, NFT, web3
Jonathan wanted to monetize his music using a fairer model: The Song That Owns Itself. The Song A Day library becomes its own company, SongADAO. Anyone who owns a song is eligible to become a co-owner, and all revenue from the songs goes back to the company. So the more the songs get licensed or played, the more each co-owner's stake is worth. We had to find the best way to explain and promote this model.
As part of our design sprint, we discussed a wide variety of business and governance models, and we settled on NFTs as a big piece. But not the usual collectible or pre-sale NFT.
What NFTs are best used for is facilitating membership. NFTs are easy to trace, and to verify. Selling Song A Day songs as NFTs makes it simple to check if someone is eligible to become a co-owner of SongADAO. Unlike many NFT collections, what makes these songs valuable is the organization they grant access to.
This design had three pieces: a marketing page, a minting app to clear Song A Day's backlog of songs, and a daily auction to sell songs going forward. Our goal with all three pieces was to be welcoming, transparent, and informative. The Song That Owns Itself is complicated, but our hypothesis was that if users understood it, they would value SongADAO and its NFTs.
Web3 UX patterns still have room to mature, so there was no industry standard or best practice to follow. Rather than reinvent the wheel, we referenced NounsDAO for a lot of the auction layout, as it functions similarly and has a large user base.
The visuals built on Song A Day's brand colors, and I was able to use an extensive library of Song A Day album art to accent the otherwise minimalist design.
I helped a lot with the tone and content of the writing as well. We spent a lot of time drafting and rewriting copy to make the user feel welcomed and informed, while maintaining Jonathan's upbeat voice.
Song A Day sold out in an hour and a half. 4,000 songs for 0.2E each—over $2.5 million at the time. Daily sales are now running, and SongADAO is a formal legal entity.
"Working with Bingo is a dream! He’s more than just a designer; he can really help you cut to the heart of what it is you’re trying to build. He’s thoughtful and has a way with words. He’s the best!"
—Jonathan Mann
