Music media and community platform for TAPAUasia
One WordPress platform for TAPAU's livestream, video archive, weekly voted charts, events and member community, so the indie scene has a single home online.
- TAPAUasia
- Independent music media and community
- Custom Web System
- Product, information architecture and design, built with our development partner
The problem
TAPAUasia films, streams and writes about the indie music scene in Malaysia and South East Asia, but its old site couldn't hold all of that together. Content was spread across nine separate post types, some holding the same stories twice. Tracks sat inside a single release post, so a song couldn't be charted, reviewed or linked to on its own. There was also no way for the people watching the stream to vote, review, post a gig or follow each other, and that participation was what TAPAU wanted to grow.
What we did
The stream comes first. We put TAPAUtv's livestream and live chat at the top of the site, with the full video archive and original series one tap away, and gave mobile a bottom tab bar so it works like an app.
Live chat sits beside the player, not below it. 
On phones, five tabs reach every part of the platform. Charts the community decides. We built two weekly Top 10s, one for demos and one for music videos, where members vote, every row shows last week's position and its chart run, and each entry leaves after four weeks so new music gets a turn.
Each row shows the vote, its movement and how long it has been in the race. 
The countdown and the rules page answer when and how before anyone asks. Writing and charts on the same page. We rebuilt the content model so articles, reviews, music, music videos, events and films each have their own type, and a review links to the music, event or film it covers, so the home page can mix fresh writing with last week's final charts.
Editorial and charts share one scroll instead of living on separate sites. 
Every review points back to the gig, film or release it is about. Anyone can post a gig. We opened Happenings to every member, so promoters, bands and fans list events themselves, and events can only be reviewed once the date has passed.
From the hub to a single event in two taps. Members, not just visitors. We gave every member a profile as a supporter, artist or collective, with approval-based connections and a Wall, and built one sharing flow for music, music videos, events, films and stories that says up front what happens after you submit.
Each submission type says whether it goes live straight away or is checked first.