Tag Archives: Startup

Alexander Parij (SingAndStudy) – Interview (Part 2)

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Here you have the final part of my interview with Alexander Parij from SingAndStudy. You can read the first part here, of course.

PART II

MUSIC & YOU

Q:When did you become interested in music? What was the first album or single you ever purchased?

A: I did not have a lot of pocket money to buy CDs, so I mainly listened to the radio.
The first album I purchased was the soundtrack of Spawn when I was teenager.

Q:Are you in a band yourself, or have you been in a band in the past? Is there a clip on YouTube or elsewhere we could watch?

A:Not really.

Q:Musical likes and dislikes? Favorite artists?

A: My music tastes change a lot. I think it progressed from heavy metal to psy-trance and then to something more mellow. Right now I listen a lot to Eduard Artemyev (one of the founders of Soviet electronic music), Pink Floyd and Jimmy Hendrix. Continue reading →

Ryan Fyfe (Eyeball.fm) – Interview (Part 2)

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This is the second (and final) part of the interview with Ryan Fyfe from Eyeball.fm. If you haven’t done so already, read Part 1 by clicking on this link.

PART II

MUSIC & YOU

When did you become interested in music? What was the first album or single you ever purchased?

Music has been in my family since as long as I can remember. My dad has one of the biggest collections of music that I know of. Most of it is digitized now, and all of it’s on Eyeball.fm 😉

If I can remember well enough the first music CD I ever had was one of the very early Dance Mix compilations.

Are you in a band yourself, or have you been in a band in the past? Is there a clip on YouTube or elsewhere we could watch?

Unfortunately not, would be hilarious if there was!

Musical likes and dislikes? Favorite artists?

I can do you one better – http://www.eyeball.fm/ryan/library/ Continue reading →

Ryan Fyfe (Eyeball.fm) – Interview (Part 1)

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Ryan Fyfe from Eyeball.fm (reviewed here) was kind (and patient!) enough to sit through the MusicKO interview in full. Thanks, Ryan! This is the first part of the interview, the second section (“Music & You”) is here.

Ryan Fyfe

Ryan Fyfe

Full Name: Ryan Fyfe
Age: 24
Startup: Eyeball.fm
Position: CEO

PART I

THE STARTUP

Tell us a little about your startup. How was it conceived? What are its most distinctive features in your opinion?

The idea for Eyeball.fm came to me when I was working on my personal homepage. I wanted a way to quickly share the music I was listening; both in real-time, as well as show people what was in my library. As I researched more and more and started tying this into my homepage – I realized the wealth of music information/content that is readily available; At that point I scratched my personal project, and drew up a plan of an all-inclusive model that would wrap this information together in a way that hadn’t been done before. Eyeball.fm was born.

What was the original launch date?

November 2009

What has been the response so far? In which countries has it been more successful?

I’ve received an overwhelming response from people who have uploaded their iTunes, for example into the site. These people are addicted to browsing through their old favorites and re-discovering their music along with the videos and all the other content.

The majority of our users come from North America, although there is also a big spread around the world in places like Europe and Latin America. Eyeball.fm isn’t bound by any of the regional copyright restrictions that affect most of our competitors; which is a big advantage for attracting international users who are shut-out of other services like Pandora,etc.

Tell me a little about the tagline, “Music you can watch”. How does it apply to your startup? Because (as much as I liked it) I failed to see a direct connection when reviewing it.

Eyeball.fm is for people that want to truly discover & re-discover music, as it’s build on the principle that ‘music is more than music’. It’s more than what we listen to, which is where the name and tagline come into play. All music on Eyeball.fm is in a video which is where the tagline comes from, but it’s also about images, bio’s, lyrics and more! Continue reading →

Songbright – Choose Your Best Songs, Upload Them And Make Some Money If You Chose Right

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Songbright

Name: Songbright
URL: http://www.songbright.com

Songbright is a new service that will let any musician stream his own pieces online, and generate an income for doing so. The premise is to pay artists for the actual times their songs are played, and I think the system will specially cater for those who are beginning. I say so for two main reasons.

First, the pricing is very reasonable – there are four plans to go for, and signup actually starts for as little as $1 a month. That plan (“Basic”) will let you upload one song. There are three other plans available, too, and they will let you upload 3, 5 and 10 tunes and their respective names are “Plus”, “Pro” and “Rockstar”.

That brings me to the second reason why I think this will suit budding musicians best. Now, let’s get honest. How many good songs one really has? I mean, good songs. Not the ones we wrote for that girl we fancied in order to make her go weak at the knees, not the ones we love because they have a true sentimental value attached to them. Good ones. The ones that could let us crack it. Many of us don’t even think about it. Continue reading →

Ian Cox (DigiClef) – Interview (Part 2)

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This is the second part of my interview with Ian Cox from DigiClef. Remember to check part 1, as he introduced the company and its products there.

PART II

MUSIC & YOU


When did you become interested in music? What was the first album or single you ever purchased?

I have been interested in music since I started learning the classical guitar at the age of 10. I think my first popular music purchase was Kings of the Wild Frontier when I was 12 (the album had been out for a few years, but I liked it).
I mainly borrowed my brother’s music during my early teens which lead to an interest in goth and punk music. I think my first purchases of that genre were The Mission and The Cult.

Are you in a band yourself, or have you been in a band in the past? Is there a file on YouTube or elsewhere we could watch?

I am not currently in a band. I have been in a few bands but nothing more than just having fun with mates.
I did run an acid trance and techno night in Bristol called Lunacy in the early noughties for a while with some friends. The website for that is not available any more but you can find it on the internet archive. Continue reading →

GoMix – Remix & Share Songs By Your Favorite Artists

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GoMix

Name: GoMix
URL: http://www.gomix.com

It happens to all of us, no matter how musically proficient we are – when we listen to a song we complain about the voice coming in too low, the guitar coming in too soft, the drums sounding like tin biscuits… It is basic nature, in the same way we claim that we could give the current coach of this or the other team a good run for his money, or that we could be in charge of any given company and do more good than the actual person who stands as its chairman.

But can we? As far as music is concerned, now it looks like we can indeed. GoMix is a brand new site that will let you take songs and remix them yourself, without the need to download anything in order to get going. A browser-based editor is used, and you can cut and paste everything and then start readjusting it. Continue reading →

Dan Dabner (Songstall) – Interview (Part 1)

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Dan Dabner from Songstall (the startup I introduced you to last week) was kind enough to be interviewed on MusicKO. This is the first part of the interview I conducted with him– proceed here for part 2.

Songstall

Full Name: Dan Dabner
Age: 24
Startup: Songstall
Position: Director

PART I

THE STARTUP

Tell us a little about your startup. How was it conceived? What are the features that (in your opinion) give it an edge over the competition?

The idea for Songstall came from a discussion between my brother and me while we were jamming one evening.  As musicians ourselves we know what it’s like to be an unsigned artist and all the options out there are based around the ideal of getting signed by a big record label.  All the services that offer to help in that long-term goal (promotion, recording, etc) always seem to charge high up-front fees that we know most artists simply can’t afford and prices them out of the market.  That’s where Songstall comes in – you don’t need a record label to sell your music online, and we don’t charge anything to sign up.  We just take a cut on any sale artists make to cover costs so we only make money if they do, which means our interests are aligned with theirs.  In addition, artists get their own customizable shop page so they can set their own prices, choose their own colours and get their own URL they can promote at their gigs.  We’ve not seen another service that offers all of this.

What was the original launch date?

We launched the website on Halloween 2009.  How rock ‘n’ roll is that?

What has been the response so far? In which countries has it been more successful?

We’ve had some very positive feedback about the website and the sign-ups are really picking up.  We’ve been most popular in the UK, USA and Canada, though we do offer our service world-wide. Continue reading →

William Rodríguez (Tweet My Song) – Interview (Part 2)

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Here you have the final part of the interview with William Rodriguez from Tweet My Song. You can read Part 1 right here.

PART II

MUSIC & YOU

When did you become interested in music? What was the first album or single you ever purchased?

I have always like music, the first album I might of bought was probably  something from El General ( a spanish Rap Artist)

Are you in a band yourself, or have you been in a band in the past? Is there a file on YouTube or elsewhere we could watch?

I am not in a band

Musical likes and dislikes? Favorite artists?

I like so many genres of music I can not pick a favorite it all depends on the mood that I am at a particular moment.
Continue reading →

Henry Bueno (myMusicCircle) – Interview (Part 1)

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I have had the pleasure of interviewing Henry Bueno from the social marketplace for musicians named myMusicCircle that I reviewed last week. He provided some very elaborate answers, and I am very thankful for the time he devoted to this interview.

The interview will be split in two parts. This is part 1, and part 2 (“Music & You”) is right here.

Full Name: Henry M. Bueno

Age: 32

Startup: MyMusicCircle.com

Position: CEO / CIO

PART I

THE STARTUP

Tell us a little about your startup. How was it conceived? What are its most distinctive features in your opinion?

myMusicCircle.com is a Service Marketplace for the Music Industry Professional; whereas music industry professionals register/create their profile and they are empowered with useful online portfolio and interactive tools, a professional image, leads and additional sources of revenue.

Currently, we are inviting all Music Industry Professionals and any creative, support, financial or managerial professionals that provide valuable services to the Music Industry to register/create their profile, upload their portfolio and set their work terms. Continue reading →

Marco (Filtersage) – Interview (Part 1)

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I have the pleasure to share with you the insight of Marco from Filtersage, the startup I reviewed recently. As you probably remember, Filtersage is a system that lets you explore the connections between movies and music releases from all through history.

This is part 1 of the interview, about the startup itself.

And click here for Part 2 (“Music & You”).

PART I

THE STARTUP

Tell us a little about your startup. How was it conceived? What are its most distinctive features in your opinion?

The basic idea comes from a very simple observation. When we listen to a new album or watch a movie, we usually connect it to something that we have listened to or watched before. A new album reminds us of an old favorite because of the tune or the sound; or we connect a dvd to something we watched last year because of the story, a particular scene or even the atmosphere. This is what Filtersage is about: connecting new stuff to something we have loved in the past. And it is also about exploring the connections that other users are making, so it’s possible to discover more stuff that might interest us. Filtersage is about memory and knowledge, and this is why we think that the connections you can find here are very strong and highly interesting: because these connections are memory based and knowledge based. We like to say that this happens because there is no is algorithm working, Filtersage is totally ‘human based’. Continue reading →