Redefining how the music industry approaches collaboration, licensing, and monetization by embedding legal, financial, and creative systems into a single platform.
Project Overview
The music industry is notoriously complex. Contracts take weeks, legal costs are prohibitive, trust between collaborators is fragile, and rights holders lack scalable ways to monetize their catalogs. For decades, these bottlenecks limited creative freedom and left artists vulnerable.
SKIO Music set out to change that. The vision was bold: build the first creator-first platform where artists could collaborate, license, and monetize their work — with contracts, royalties, and legal protections built directly into the process.
My Role
Product Lead
Aug 2015 – Dec 2019
I helped lay the foundation for this transformation. I began as a product designer and grew into the strategic driver of innovation, defining the platform’s vision, building scalable systems, and leading cross-functional teams. The work positioned SKIO not just as another app, but as a long-term reimagining of how the music industry could operate.
THE PROBLEM
The industry’s creative and legal workflows were slow, fragmented, and inaccessible to most creators
THE TEAM
Musicians, creators, developers, producers, entertainment attorneys, and entrepreneurs
MY METHODS
Ethnographic research, MVP prototyping, usability testing, iterative service design, hustling
THE RESULT
Multi-user collaboration and licensing platform that allows the freedom to create
Final Design Direction
The SKIO platform was never meant to be a collection of features — it was an ecosystem designed to solve all the problems of music collaboration at once. During my tenure, I laid the groundwork for core systems that are still central to the platform today.
Design System
I built a component-based system unifying dozens of entities
(profiles, wallets, projects, contracts) into one consistent framework
Talent Marketplace
Creators could find collaborators, negotiate terms, and instantly generate industry-standard contracts in a shared workplace that integrated messaging, file sharing, metadata management, royalty split sheets, and version tracking.
Content Marketplace
Creators could find collaborators, negotiate terms, and instantly generate industry-standard contracts in a shared workplace that integrated messaging, file sharing, metadata management, royalty split sheets, and version tracking.
Contests
Remix and original-song competitions rapidly expanded the user base, validated the platform’s value, and attracted industry attention
Exploration & Discovery
The first step was understanding the depth of the problem. I didn’t stay behind a desk — I embedded myself directly into the creator community.
Conducted hundreds of ethnographic interviews with artists, often during Friday-night studio sessions, to observe workflows in real environments
Documented systemic pain points: legal delays, lack of trust, costly processes, and fragmented tools
Mapped 12+ user roles (producers, DJs, songwriters, engineers, managers, label reps), each with distinct goals but common frustrations
Key insight: Artists didn’t just need better tools. They needed freedom from systemic exploitation. This became the guiding principle of the platform.
UX Design Process
Once I understood the scope, the challenge became building credibility and adoption without over-engineering. My approach focused on fast validation and scalable design.
The Challenge
Balancing creative freedom with strict legal accuracy required constant iteration and tight alignment with lawyers and stakeholders
Prototypes & Demos
Created clickable flows and video demos for every major feature — tested directly with artists, pitched to labels, and used to secure investor buy-in
MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
Released lightweight versions of contracts and contests to prove demand and refine flows before scaling
User Testing
Usability sessions and surveys revealed pain points in legal and payment flows, leading to simplified, more intuitive designs
Design System
Built a modular library that supported rapid iteration across SKIO’s many interconnected entities
Accessibility
Prioritized clarity so that legal and financial steps felt approachable, even for creators with no technical or legal background
Impact & Results
Leading SKIO was unlike any project I’ve worked on before. It was a test of endurance, vision, and adaptability. While SKIO was still growing when I transitioned out, the impact of the foundation we built was undeniable.
Most importantly, SKIO proved that with the right foundation, it’s possible to give creators something the industry has always resisted: the freedom to create, share, and thrive on their own terms.
Kirill was a very hard working, and team focussed part of our Product and Marketing teams. He has a strong attention to detail, and he is always trying to bring in and use new technologies. His thoughtful brand styling and broad perspective of branding importance always informed his decisions on marketing and product builds, even down to the smallest details. He was someone who brought energy and focus to his work and to his presence in the office. He lead by example with his work ethic and his determination to always finish projects on time!
Zohar Amouyal
Founder / CEO at SKIO Music
Registered users across 175+ countries
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Distributed in prizes globally
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Global reach through campaigns
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Efficiency Gains
Automated split sheets reduced contract turnaround from weeks to under 10 minutes
Adoption
Most of collaborations used SKIO’s built-in legal tools within the first year
Validation
Grammy-winning producers and major artists endorsed and participated, giving SKIO credibility in a skeptical industry