muse.studio | Mobile content creation tool
Generating AI music for videos to help content creators find the right audio-fit
Master’s thesis project at Northwestern University
Role
Research
Conceptualization
Design
Timeline
6 months
Sep’23 - Mar’24
Tools
Figma and Figjam
Adobe Creator Studio
AI music generator APIs
Team
Individual project
Inspiration
Why does music creation have to be so difficult?
Have you ever tried to learn how to make music? It’s really hard! Unless of course, you are a musical prodigy, which I am certainly not...
As a creative individual who has dabbled in many forms of art like sketching, painting, dancing and even theatre, I always wanted to learn how to make music, but I failed miserably at it - and that’s because in order to create music, you need three important things.
1. Have knowledge of Music Theory
2. Learn to use DAW (Digital Audio Workshop) Software
3. A lot of time!
Goal
I wanted to make music creation
Enjoyable, Easy and Efficient
Enjoyable, Easy and Efficient
Why not? Why does music creation have to be limited to professionals? A lot of people might want to make music but be constrained in terms of knowledge, skill, and time!
As a designer, I strongly believe in breaking constraints and helping people achieve their goals by empowering them with meaningful tools.
Finding the right problem space
Q. But, who might even need help with music production everyday?
A. Content Creators.
Opportunity
There are about 207 million content creators worldwide right now.
Exploding topics
$$
The creator economy market size is currently estimated to be $250 Billion.
Business Insider
Which makes this space really hot at the moment! Moreover, almost 75% of the market is owned by giants like Youtube, Instagram and Tiktok (so it can do with a little competition).
Research methods
32 content creators responded to my survey
I interviewed 9 content creators one-on-one
Also did secondary research through social listening on
What my research said about Content Creators
Even though there are millions of content creators, not all become successful overnight. My research informed me that the path to success for a content creator starts with a lot of limitations.
Most identify as aspiring creators who have little to no income
They often work alone and on a low-budget as a side hustle
They frequently shoot content on their phone due to the lack of adequate gear
The role of music in Content Creation
“Music defines the pulse of a scene”
Simone, 22, Amateur Filmmaker
Music plays an indispensable role in enhancing video content by creating emotional impact and depth of meaning. Most content creators really value making good content. They believed that good music helped create good content.
Process of finding music for content
Content creators who are passionate about making good content, spend a lot of time and effort to find the right music for their videos.
The Problem
“Finding an audio-fit for content is honestly a pain in the a** ”
Laurie, 26, Journalist & Video Editor
Finding the music or sound effect that fits your content perfectly is really difficult. It requires patience, music editing, and hours of searching!
Audio-fit, therefore, means finding the right sound/music, customized for you video specifically.
Audio-fit, therefore, means finding the right sound/music, customized for you video specifically.
“It takes me anywhere between a few hours to multiples days to find the right music for a 10 min video”
Bridget, 22, podcaster
Finding the root of the problem
So why is it so hard to find the right audio-fit?
#1
People have limited musical vocabulary
They don’t really know how to search for the right keywords that would describe their content appropriately in musical terms. They need more human-language to describe their scenes.
“... like I need intro music
for a climate change podcast...”
Bridget, 22, podcaster
#2
Music search engines don’t understand human needs
#3
Royalty free sounds are generic
and not customized
Free sounds that are downloaded from the internet need further editing to customize it for your content. This problem becomes worse when you’re short on resources and cannot pay a music producer.
“when you're doing something as low budget as I am, you have to let it go and settle for whatever you find”
Bishshayon, 23, aspiring film-maker
#4
Music editing software have a very steep learning curve
Because this how a music editing software looks like and that would deter any new entrant from getting started
Design decisions
To solve this problem for content creators, it was necessary to carefully construct my design choices:
