Company Context

Splice is a leading music creation platform used by producers, artists, and creators to discover sounds, build tracks, and access creative tools. Its core surfaces include the Splice Sounds marketplace, desktop app, mobile companion experiences, and subscription plans built around sound discovery and download credits. You are a Product Growth Analyst supporting the GM of Growth. Splice has strong brand awareness among serious music creators, but leadership believes growth has become uneven across the funnel: acquisition is healthy in some channels, while activation, retention, and monetization vary sharply by user segment.

Strategic Situation

The executive team wants a 12-month growth plan across the full AARRR funnel: acquisition, activation, retention, referral, and revenue. The question is not whether to grow, but which growth opportunities Splice should prioritize first, given limited engineering and marketing capacity. Leadership is especially concerned that paid acquisition is becoming more expensive, while a meaningful share of new signups never reach the “aha” moment of downloading and using sounds in an active project.

You are asked to recommend where Splice should focus and how to sequence the opportunities.

Data Points

Additional operating facts:

• Splice has 4.8M MAUs, including 1.35M paying subscribers across plans.
• Average monthly subscription revenue per paying user is $14.20; add-on revenue from extra credits and packs adds $1.80 per paying user per month.
• Paid acquisition CAC has risen from $18 to $27 over the last 12 months.
• Users who connect a DAW or install the desktop app in their first week show 18 percentage points higher 90-day retention than users who do not.
• Growth team capacity for the next two quarters is limited to one major initiative and two smaller experiments per quarter.

Deliverables

1. Size the growth opportunity across acquisition, activation, retention, referral, and revenue for Splice.
2. Identify the most attractive user segments and surfaces to target first (e.g., new producers, returning hobbyists, power users, teams/collaborators).
3. Recommend the top 3 initiatives Splice should prioritize over the next 12 months, with quantitative rationale.
4. Explain the trade-offs: what should Splice deliberately not prioritize right now?
5. Propose a high-level go-to-market and measurement plan for the recommended initiatives.

Constraints

• Budget increase is capped at $4M incremental spend over 12 months.
• Engineering support is limited; major pricing or packaging overhauls would take 2+ quarters.
• Leadership wants visible impact within two quarters, not just long-term bets.
• Recommendations should focus on Splice’s existing ecosystem rather than a brand-new product line.