Danny Fiorentini was fed up. Fed up with a never ending stream of emails, fed up with the amount of time and money lost from booking gigs, and fed up with artists getting screwed over. So he assembled what he calls a "Dream Team" and established Muzeek, a booking service set to change the music industry and make things much easier for all involved. Larry Heath asked Danny some questions to try and find out what exactly Muzeek is.
What are the origins of Muzeek?
It's been an ever-glowing light bulb in my head for years, as booking bands for my indie-label (Outbox Records) was super painful. I dreaded my email inbox every morning and just the whole process in general. After moving to Sydney I met Dave, who was equally pulling his hair out and losing sleep over bringing artists into the venues he ran. One night over beers we hashed it all out on a piece of paper and decided to end the madness with essentially Dave's life savings; as I had already poured my own into my label and was quite literally sleeping on his couch.
That same week I met Todd, who by a complete stroke of fate was not only an incredible digital designer but also in 3 bands himself, having played in every-sized venue internationally. So he was in, right away. Knowing we needed some coding done, my good mate Mike introduced us to Roel - who's just an absolute machine of a developer. And as fate would have it once again, Roel's a massive live music fan who's probably attended more shows than Dave, Todd and I have put on combined. So we jokingly refer to ourselves as the "Dream Team," as Muzeek was founded by the 4 vital corners of the live music industry: an indie-label owner, a venue booker, an artist and a fan. So we knew exactly what needed to be built. Our "About Us" section lays out the story pretty accurately, in more detail.
What does Muzeek offer that you can't find anywhere else?
Our overall approach is pretty unique, but primarily we introduce the first and only digital "Book Button" to the industry that Artists can embed anywhere online (similarly, venues & promoters can embed a "Contact Button"). Instead of herding users to having to come to Muzeek, we actually bring the booking process to them, within their existing digital mediums; be it their websites, Facebook, Tumblrs, etc. This creates an open marketplace for the functionality to exist where users would normally just display their email addresses. So this was our first step - making the communication process far simpler and saving time/money by focusing less on the emails and lengthy request forms. Performance offers can now be sent, received and negotiated from anywhere online with just one click, and users get all the information they need simultaneously, rather than faceless, burdensome emails.
Internally, we're not another catalog or yellow pages of users, but a data intelligence platform that connects the right users based on activity. Scheduling shows for artists and venues is traditionally super time-consuming, and relies a lot on redundant emails and organic research through Google. Our "Discover" platform surfaces artists/venues that are relavent to you based on algorithmic data, while simultaneously providing real-time, automatically updating EPKs as user profiles. We also track and display social, usage and performance statistics so everyone is getting the exact information they need visually, without going back and forth through emails for weeks and filling out doctor's forms. As interaction takes place, we combine calendars, provide a messaging platform, allow automatic payments and other super useful stuff. So we've really streamlined the entire process into one mechanism, which mends this often fragmented, traditionally messy process. No one else really streamlines everything to the extent that we do, while also allowing that process to take place "externally" from our platform via the "Book" and "Contact" buttons.
We're also 100% free for Artists/Agencies/Labels, which is a plus.
Why do you think no one has set up something like this before?
Honestly, I think too many people/platforms are focused on the wrong things. There's a lot of goofy services out there, man. As I often put it: everyone is trying to put earrings on the monster, instead of removing the monster. I was recently in a conversation with someone who said companies should focus on being "the painkiller" and not "the vitamin;" and I couldn't disagree more. Painkiller platforms mask the real problems with glittery solutions; i.e. there's a problem, but instead of fixing the source, yet another process is introduced on top of the problem. And that cycle just created this fragmented, messy process over time. So I think it has more to do with the approach of a platform like Muzeek that sets us apart - our ability to recognize the real problems in the live music industry and introduce an entirely fresh solution from within it, instead of applying a generic business model from outside of it. It wouldn't be possible without our team's experience and progressive mind-state. And 50 or so packets of instant noodles. And beer.
What have been the greatest challenges in setting up this project?
Introducing our platform is definitely a chess game. The greatest challenge is reassuring people that everything's going to be alright, haha. What I mean is, we're very much dealing with an industry where people are traveling at 1,000KMH already, in their current routines. There's an extensive amount of existing processes, habits, invoice departments, long-form paperwork, calendars, internal systems, traditional "ways" of doing things, etc. etc. - and we're essentially telling them to trust us in jumping out of a moving car onto our padded landing. The good news is, no one really likes the car they're traveling in; it's just what they're used to doing for decades in this industry. Pulling their hair out and booking has just become this obligatory, intertwined process of daily life. So we're literally changing more of a culture in this industry, as well as a process. Similar to what Napster did when they threw a wrench into the music industry's distribution machine, we're equally introducing a platform that makes the live performance side of the industry say "wait...are we even allowed to do this?" (Without all the illegal-ness, and such.)
There is a beautiful design to this application - how important was getting the design right for your brand?
Thank you. There is absolutely nothing more important (especially in the music industry) than design and UX. We're super lucky to have Todd and his digital wizardry on board. There's so many "push-market" products and services and platforms and apps and industry-friendly "solutions" out there, but very few focus on the UX and detailed design. Apple is obviously the king of this, and why apps like iTunes still work in this industry (although the new release is questionable). Bandcamp is also a great example, Spotify's new web design, along with SoundCloud's "new look." All great. We very much have a "if you build it, they will come" approach, based completely on ensuring we have the best product altogether. In this digital age, a brand should focus less on convincing you to use something based on marketing and focus more on providing something so beautifully designed and built, that people can't not use it. User retention, then, is just not screwing it all up. (See: Old Myspace vs. New Myspace)
And can you tell us a little bit about that design process?
We all have a general say in what needs to be accomplished from a UX standpoint, but Todd and I have more of an extensive personal passion for the design of a website/app. We're constantly talking about the latest digital design trends going around already; flat aspects, detailed stylings and rounded corners. Real nerdy shit. So it's been embedded in our thinking even before Muzeek. Todd is one of the best app/web designers around, so to have him creating these amazing designs is truly on another level. We call him the "1 pixel chimp," as you can't shortcut his designs by even 1 pixel because he'll notice right away. My personal OCD also reinforces that. Since we actually need to use Muzeek daily ourselves as users, we simply want it to be as cool as possible; hopefully other people appreciate our vision when they use it as well.
What change do you hope Muzeek will bring to the music industry?
Our main goal is to simplify the live performance industry down to its core roots and completely optimize the process of booking altogether. There's so much unnecessary clutter in the way of live performances, from all angles, and we're here to diminish it. There's so many talented artists, amazing venue spaces, strategically intelligent promoters and genuinely hard-working agencies/labels out there - we make their lives easier. We sort of turn on a "light" in a typically dim space, so the existing industry can move about with far more clarity in executing their daily jobs. And as always, the more transparency and openness there is (in anything), the more optimal and positive the relationships become for people in the future. That's what we aim for.
How was the response been so far? Any particular success stories?
Overwhelmingly positive! It's a really good feeling to have, especially because when building this, we constantly thought "We can't be the only ones who think this should exist!" And sure enough, we weren't. We've been met with nothing but great feedback and have tons of features that aren't even live yet. We're seriously about 10% complete. So we're excited to roll out what we have up our sleeves. I think our greatest success story is really a culmination of the feedback we've been getting, from all ends of the spectrum. It's realizing that we've built a real solution for everyone from the basement DJ to a major booking agency. From a spatial knoll of grass to a prominent night club. We're able to benefit a busking band, but we're still able to knock on Sony's door as well. When you realize that everyone's quite literally in the same boat, and each person is just holding a different sized paddle, it's a good feeling to know we've built the engine everyone benefits from - so we can all stop treading water.
What do you think the future will bring for Muzeek? How do you think it might evolve?
Muzeek is here to parallel the existing transition of digital music "sales" with the neglected live performance half of the industry, as the distribution battle has really turned the attention away from where artists make the most money - booking shows. We want to build a benchmark, and continue to improve it as the industry evolves. It's new territory, which is interesting, as we're really the first to focus all of our attention on evolving the live performance side of the industry to match the "digital era." Digital sales and distribution has evolved 10fold over the past decade, but live performance booking has literally remained stagnent. So we certainly believe we will participate greatly in its transition. The great thing is, we genuinely want Muzeek to exist beyond our own personal benefit; we simply need it ourselves anyways. Our team is super passionate about improving this industry and Muzeek is just the tip of the iceberg. We're excited to see how it evolves ourselves.
And finally, the plug: what do people need to do to get involved with Muzeek and what sorts of costs are involved?
Muzeek is 100% free to sign up. We have no setup costs or subscriptions. Even better, Artists, Agencies and Labels will never pa
y a fee. A small "gratuity" is added on to each booking transaction, paid on top of the offer amount - so Artists get exactly what they're offered with no hidden fees (bout time, right?). And if that sounds too good to be true, consider that we also have a top-secret "Invite" referral feature available as well - which means we pay you to book. Shhhhhhhh!
So jump in, have a play around and feel free to send us any feedback. We'd love to make your life easier.
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For more information:
www.muzeek.com | @iheartmuzeek | facebook.com/iheartmuzeek