In Founder Focus we introduce entrepreneurs and change-makers working on innovative startups, social enterprises and SME’s around Aotearoa New Zealand.
At a glance
Founder: Grenville Watson
Business: Music Buddy App
Founded: 2021
HQ: Hawke’s Bay
Can you tell us a bit about your business?
Music Buddy is an App for Musicians to live stream gigs to paying customers/hirers. Musicians build a profile of themselves on the app which includes a short video profile, selected Occasions or Genres that they play for and selected dates and times they are available. Musicians can promote the app on their social media for their followers to download it (free) and book a gig to be live streamed through the app. The followers/Hirers or fans pay the Musician via stripe for their gig. To have a Musicians profile it is subscription based.
It’s an App that helps Musicians make more money for their work and as there are many Musicians online these days this seemed like a good solution to help as many Streaming platforms pay almost nothing and while if you can’t get gigs in venues or its raining outside for busking, or you want to play a gig to a different time zone in the world this app covers you for this to make a bit of extra cash anytime you wanted. The Hirers watch the gig on their phone or iPad or coming soon Chrome-cast it to a smart TV or through a digital projector for a larger viewing with a personal sound system to enjoy it to the fullest. So for example: Imagine booking a pianist for a fancy dinner party with guests who is playing a set on your TV live, but the Pianist is in Berlin playing right to your lounge in Auckland. I believe it brings value back to live music in another online format and opens up an incentive for Musicians everywhere to earn some money.
What’s the backstory for your business idea?
It was around mid 2020 when the idea came to me for the App after noticing how many and how constantly I would see amazing Musicians playing so well in videos on Instagram and TikTok promoting themselves which is great but I thought there must be a way for Musicians to have another way to make money online through an app. It was in 2021 when I contacted Elegant Media (and App design company) and they were able to help me with this idea which they did. It took just over 24 months to build and it has been on the New Zealand App store for just a short time, there is some good feedback so far.
What programmes, learning or mentoring, or resources have been of assistance so far?
I used an App building company to build my app as I have no knowledge in Coding or App designing so it really helped having that support right through the process so it almost felt like I was building it.The company is called Elegant Media based in Australia but also NZ and USA. They really helped and made my idea really come to life how I wanted and adding any ideas to help too.
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