Case Study
Red Bull Music Academy Radio
Defining the next generation radio experience
Red Bull Music Academy Radio is all about selection. It features today’s essential music makers and DJs, the best new tunes, and all the festival moments that really matter. With the new rbmaradio.com and native apps, users can easily browse thousands of interviews, mixes, and live recordings that they won’t find anywhere else on the web.
Established in 2005, Red Bull Music Academy Radio was already a fully functional model, but to attract and excite new audiences and retain existing users it had to take a big step forward. While other services provide a great user experience, they can’t compete with Red Bull Music Academy’s musical expertise and credibility. To bring music discovery and consumption to another level, we combined a cutting edge platform with careful curation, editing, and guidance.
We evolved Red Bull Music Academy Radio from a digital product to a service. By applying responsive design techniques we ensured the website works on most devices, and we built the new embed player to work in any environment, providing high quality audio in one sleek, adaptable interface. A connection to music tracking service last.fm allows users to get personalized recommendations, and, on top of that, we developed new native apps for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Symbian.
The new radio emphasizes each individual show’s presentation, and organizes shows around lists. These lists are the gateways to a universe of sound, from selections curated by your favorite artists to highlights from the very best clubs and festivals.
Through the relaunch process, we also changed the way Red Bull Music Academy thinks about its service and how it’s developed. Using agile methodologies like Scrum allowed for rapid product development, frequent changes, and early adoption of upcoming trends and standards.
