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UX UI CASE STUDY| Web | B2B + B2C
BMG
Introducing Sync+
music-for-media solution
Client
Industry
Agency
Big Group
Year
2026
Context
BMG launched in 2008 as a disruptor in music, growing into a global player by 2025. With fresh leadership and tech, the new identity blends maturity with its pioneering spirit, centered on “grow boldly together.”
challenge
As BMG’s music catalogue continued to grow, finding and managing the right songs became increasingly complex. Users needed faster search, more reliable metadata, and better tools for narrowing down results to create ongoing curated playlists.
The challenge was to design the Songs platform around real-world licensing workflows, making music discovery more efficient, scalable, and intuitive. As well as create a Design System that BMG can use to build their other web-apps and websites moving forward.
Discovery
As part of the discovery phase for the BMG Songs platform, we carried out structured research activities to define a clear, strategic path forward.
Led by our UX team we conducted user research through interviews and surveys to uncover user needs and pain points, developed personas and user stories to inform design decisions. Mapped user flows for key features such as playlist creation, search, and login.
SURVEYS
Between 28th and 31st October, a BMG Songs platform user survey was conducted to better understand how the system is used across teams, what goals users aim to achieve, and where current workflows face challenges. The survey received 71 responses from a diverse group of users spanning multiple departments, seniority levels, and global regions.
Participants included professionals from key areas such as Sync & Licensing, Rights & Metadata, Royalties & Finance, and Catalogue & Repertoire Management, as well as team leads and senior directors overseeing creative, operational, and data-related functions.
The purpose of this survey was to capture first-hand insights into daily platform usage, identify pain points and opportunities for improving user experience, and inform the strategic direction for BMG Songs v2.
Personas
Primary Audience:
Sync Creative specialists curate playlists and pitch songs. Uses BMG Songs to search for songs, build playlists, tag tracks and respond to client briefs. Handles client relationships.
Secondary Audience:
Deal Steward looks after copyright, metadata, registration and admin. Tagging, verification, ingestion, data QA, and catalogue hygiene. Compliance tracker responsibilities cover royalties, income tracking, and finance. Reconciliation, statement preparation, issue resolution, and client service queries.
Tertiary Audience:
Leadership focuses on oversight, strategy, and business operations. Marketing provides support, focus on partnerships, admin support, analytics.
Ideation & WireFrames
Starting with loose box wireframes focusing on content flow firstly before moving on to defining what content was needed within later.
our NEW digital DEsign System
Wolff Olins had updated the BMG's visual language creating a identity that was fit for the future.
A new symbol evokes play, momentum, and BMG’s connected ecosystem, paired with the unchanged wordmark for stability.
It inspires energetic patterns, icons, and graphics that add joy and music-inspired movement. Hero colors like vibrant Limelight, deep Midnight, and metallic neutrals balance heritage with innovation, supported by a dynamic secondary palette celebrating artists’ creativity.
As this only existed in mockups and brand guidelines I needed to create a new Digital Design System from scratch that not only could be flexible for Sync+ but also be used on all other BMG sites moving forward.
CORE BRAND ASSETS
Colour Families
Secondary Pallet cnsists of six ''colour families'. These can be used t build a rich and vibrant world that elevates and complements artist imagery.
ICons
A new global set of icons was used to bring the UI inline with the new brand, custom icons where also created in the same style so they all had the same soft rounded corners for consistency.
Component Library
Based on a solid set of design rules variables, I created a fully bespoke component library including everything from Buttons, Inputs, Tool Tips, Navigation, etc all created in multiple themes and surface colours.
Solution
conclusions
This project is currently under development, with a new test build due soon, watch this space for updates.
