Karim Dahou Face
Karim Dahou

LANDR Mobile App

Bringing AI audio mastering on the road.

Project Type

Mobile App

My role

Product Designer

Team

  • 1 Project Manager
  • 2 Engineers
  • 1 Product Designer

Timeframe

2022 — 2026

LANDR is an AI-powered music platform for audio mastering, distribution, and collaboration, used by millions of artists worldwide.

Mobile audio player interface displaying a purple soundwave visualization on the left and a playback screen on the right, showing track info ('秋風ストリート • Balanced-Medium'), time stamps (1:28/1:37), and controls (rewind, play/pause, fast-forward).

Audio player

Extended view of the audio file player.

Top part of a mobile chat interface showing a conversation with Britania, including a reply with a thumbs-up emoji and message 'for sure!', followed by a message with an audio file 'asteroids-draft.wav' and 17 comments, and a 'Join Session' button.

AI Mastering

Master preview screen.

Bottom part of a mobile chat interface showing a conversation with Britania, including a reply with a thumbs-up emoji and message 'for sure!', followed by a message with an audio file 'asteroids-draft.wav' and 17 comments, and a 'Join Session' button.

AI Mastering

Master preview screen.

The situation

LANDR has been a trailblazer in the AI audio space, bringing AI mastering to more than 7 million users across the globe. The first mobile app, launched in 2016, lacked focus and fell short of user experience standards, so it didn’t quite hit the right notes. ;)

Fast forward to late 2022, the product team saw a golden opportunity to relaucnh LANDR’s industry-leading AI audio mastering to mobile. It was time to give the mobile app another shot this time, with a laser focus on delivering AI audio mastering anywhere, anytime.

The mission

I led the design of LANDR’s AI audio mastering user experience, making sure it worked seamlessly for both existing users and the new mobile app audience.

Collage of LANDR mobile app screens, including user profiles, audio player with soundwave visualizations, chat conversations, file library, and streaming stats (2.1K streams, 22 downloads).

Miscellaneous screens

Features and screens added over time.

The process

To prioritize a seamless mobile experience, I started with first-principles thinking to strip the problem down to its core and rebuild the app around those fundamentals. This gave me a solid base on which to create tools that felt natural, simple, and actually fulfilled what users needed.

I had to make tough calls like cutting the reference mastering option and lock screen activity widget from the initial launch. Desktop usage data showed that reference mastering (which allows users to upload any audio track as a mastering reference) was a niche feature, so I knew that focusing on core mastering workflows would deliver the most value. It was all about streamlining for impact while keeping the door open for future iterations.

The team moved at a fast iteration pace, allowing me to test designs quickly and catch issues early. This agility was key to refining the user experience. Once the stakeholders were confident, we put the app to the test with a closed Beta release to collect real user feedback.

Collage of LANDR mobile app playlist screens, including user profiles, audio player with soundwave visualizations, chat conversations, file library, and streaming stats (2.1K streams, 22 downloads).

Playlist

Track list with audio playback controls.

Activity

Dynamic island activity widget.

Reflections

Reimagining the desktop workflows with first-principles thinking and using common AI and mobile-specific patterns was a little more work at first but proved to be the best way to deliver the best AI mastering experience on mobile.

The numbers spoke for themselves. Since launching, we’ve seen;