Project "Album Cover AI" - The Idea

Stealing the Idea

With the hype around AI reaching its peak, I feel FOMO striking again! If I want to hop on the AI train and launch a SaaS product offering AI services, I should start now rather than never.

But what should I build? It's hard to pick a niche that won't be served by the big players in the future. AI-powered email writing, scheduling, and all these other obvious, high-potential ideas will likely be covered by Google, Microsoft, or OpenAI itself. So, an indie-hacker AI product must solve a just-big-enough problem with a just-big-enough niche.

After trying some better and some worse ideas, I learned about Pieter Levels' and Danny Postma's current projects, both well-known names in the indie-hacker scene. They are currently building realistic photo AI services - you can train an AI model with images of yourself (or any other model) and generate professional-looking headshots for your business- or dating profiles afterward.

An interesting idea! Can I steal it somehow and build something for my niche, the music scene? Hmm..

Artists Need Album Covers

To make it in today's music scene, you must continuously release new records and build traction for your artist profile. I recently learned that one of the most significant numbers in the music industry is Spotify's "monthly listeners". That number decides, for example, whether larger bands will take you on their tour as a support act or whether a concert promoter will book you for a festival.

The best way to crank up that number is to be listed on popular playlists. The second best way is to often release new music. The more, the better! Fans will listen to your new songs. If new music comes out twice a month, fans will pay attention at least twice a month - ensuring a consistent number of monthly listeners.

Now guess what an artist needs for every release - an album or single cover!

Currently, artists have two options: Paying a photographer to take photos, edit them and turn them into a cover. Hiring an artist to create an artwork.

If they hire a professional, that will cost $150 or more - which is a lot for a starving artist. If they instead ask a friend, it's free. But in either case, the results will take time; it is difficult to schedule a photo shoot, and it takes many revisions before an artwork matches what the artist wants.

Here's my market hypothesis: Small artists and newcomers want to save money and time but frequently need album covers or single covers for their music releases. The more they release, the more money and time they need to spend. If I can provide an easy, quick, and cheap solution, they would love to spend a few bucks (less than the professional artist/photographer) for it.

Feature List

Let's set a couple of essential criteria for a good solution: The artwork should be done within an hour. The active involvement of the artist should be held to a minimum. The artwork should be reasonably good. There should be a way to add text to the image. Only some artists will require this, but I assume they often want to add the record name and artist name to the cover.

There's one additional requirement: To build a sense of recognition, newcomer artists need to show their faces to their audiences. It would be great if they could put their face on the single cover. The face should look real enough - no weird hands or teeth (although strange looks might even be interesting to some artists). It doesn't have to be photo-realistic, though; artsy is fine.

Regarding no-face artwork quality, there are many options. Artworks range from simple backgrounds to colorful oil paintings. Everything is allowed.

Alright, alright, there's the MVP feature list. We're getting somewhere.

Is There a Market?

Let's check if there's already some interest in the topic. I'll review some search engine keywords associated with the subject. Are there already Google searches related to this solution?

Worldwide, there are roughly 10.000 to 100.000 searches per month for "CD Cover", 100.000 to 1.000.000 searches for "album cover", and 100 to 1000 searches per month, but +900% growth in comparison to last year, for the term "album cover ai". The competition for "album cover" is fierce - prominent candidates, such as Adobe or Canva, serve the same need with stock images. No chance to compete with that.

I'm not a market research specialist, but it seems like a good opportunity. The niche is neither too big nor too small. Especially the growth of the "album cover ai" keyword is a good sign. I don't have to compete with the big players for search engine positions for the other keywords. I can use different marketing channels, such as social media ads, to reach artists. It is sufficient to know that there's a demand in the first place. Additionally, If I convert artists who like the product, I assume they will recommend the site to their peers. Word of mouth spreads quickly in the music scene.

Even though there are big players like Canva and Adobe, they only offer stock images (yet). Plus, their target audience is much larger than just musicians. They target anybody that needs some graphic design - professionals, married couples, local businesses, and more. The fact that they provide a solution for album covers means there is a market to serve; people have looked for a solution before. Cutting that tiny slice out of their market share won't hurt them too badly, so they won't use their extensive resources to knock me out.

Next Up

All in all, this sounds like a good opportunity. It's not a billion-dollar idea but it might provide a good side income. Assuming that I convert 2% of the CD cover searches per month and charge $30 for a cover, that would be $30.000 per month. Sounds good to me!

Alright, next step: Try whether I can provide a practical solution. This doesn't have to be a full-fledged service. I only want proof of whether it can be done. See you in the following article.