On Creating A Tool That Helps Artists Promote Music Online [Over 2M Tracks Submitted]
Hey, I’m Matt, the founder of Soundplate. We are a record label and music technology company.
We build tools and technology to help artists promote their music online.
Our flagship product is Soundplate Clicks, a tool used by artists and labels to market their music more efficiently. We also run a playlist submission system and several smaller tools designed to help artists succeed.
Thousands of artists use our tools every day, over 2 million tracks have been submitted using our playlist submission tool!
What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
While I was in university I started organizing parties and music events, eventually, these went from small-scale events to large club nights. This led to me creating a music blog.
Over the years that followed, the blog evolved into our record label which is still operational today. As with any business, the label ran into various challenges so we started to build tools and technology to help us overcome these challenges.
Some of this technology was the basis for our products which we now make available to all artists and labels.
It’s great to be able to solve our problems as inspiration for products that others can make use of.
Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.
All of our tools and resources for artists were born out of the needs we had for our record label. As our business grows we encounter more issues and create products to help overcome these challenges. When it makes sense to do so, we spin these out into their products that anyone can use.
Perhaps the best example of this process was the way we built our main product, Soundplate Clicks. The very first version of the product was an internal tool we used because we could not find a music smart links product on the market that worked exactly the way we wanted it to. We built a very simple version of the product and started to use it to market our music.
As we started to promote music with the new tool, a few other labels and artists contacted us about using it and so we spent a year turning it into a fully functioning SAAS web application.
The very first versions were not quite as slick as the product is now but had all the main functionality down, over time we have refined it and worked with our users to ship new features to help them promote their music.
Describe the process of launching the business.
Soundplate has pivoted several times, you could say we have had many ‘launches’ but actually, it’s more like a constant evolution.
We started life as a blog and actually, we are still blogging now. Ultimately the value of our business is in the community of artists, labels, and music fans that we serve. We are not a ‘media company’ or a ‘tech company’, we are almost a hybrid of the two. We have spent a huge amount of time building our audience and obsessively trying to learn from them and solve their problems.
I guess the lesson here is sometimes you don’t need to know where you are going to get started, in fact getting started is the most important thing and everything else can be worked out and can change as you grow.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
We attract customers by providing as much value as we can to our audience. Our most popular service to date is our playlist submission system which is free and acts as a huge lead generator for everything else we do.
We also do some content marketing, email marketing and of course try our best to keep our social media updated!
I think one of the things that attract people to us is that we are not a faceless tech company, we are a music company and we use our products to grow that side of the business. We are our case study and we spend a huge amount of time talking to artists and users of our products.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
We are profitable, totally independent (bootstrapped), and growing quickly.
We have a small, remote team of super talented people working on various areas of the business.
We have a new product launching in the next few weeks which will help artists find the funding they need to accelerate their careers and we are also planning to launch a new magazine-style newsletter for artists about music technology, marketing, and the industry.
We are trying to empower artists to build their futures in the music industry. We are not anti-major labels or pro staying unsigned. We believe artists should have the power and knowledge to choose what the best option is for their career and make it in their way.
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
I’m constantly learning, each day is a new set of challenges. Running a small business means you have to wear a lot of hats and have to be able to pick up new skills quickly.
Just start, you don’t need to wait for anyone's permission.
As our team is growing, I’m currently trying to improve as a leader and shift my mindset from doing everything myself to trusting our team to take care of important tasks. Hiring great people is such an important part of building a company.
What platform/tools do you use for your business?
We use many different tools in different areas of the business.
Recently we have been focusing on building our web content and so I’ve been testing some different freelance platforms like PeoplePerHour and WriterAccess.
We are a remote team so project management software like Trello and communication platforms like Zoom are very important to us.
And as I mentioned earlier, we build a lot of internal tools and automation to help us work on music-specific projects as efficiently as we can.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
I listen to a lot of podcasts! I find podcasts great for having on in the background while I’m working, they don’t distract me as much as music I love does, and sometimes I pick up some gems which help with the business.
Recently I have been enjoying The Nathan Barry Show (Nathan is the founder of Convertkit) which is great for learning a lot about running newsletters.
I also regularly listen to My First Million, a podcast where the hosts brainstorm different business ideas and I listen to several music industry podcasts including Bob Leftez and The Music Ally Podcast.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
Just start, you don’t need to wait for anyone's permission.
Businesses change over time. It's likely your business won’t look anything like the way you imagined it a few years down the road so the best thing to do is get started and enjoy the process.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
We are not advertising for any roles right now but we are planning to bring in a few more people later in the year!
All roles will be advertised alongside hundreds of other music industry jobs here.
Where can we go to learn more?
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
