If there is one industry in which it is difficult to make your way in it is the music industry. The world we live in is full of very talented musicians, but only a small percentage of these people manage to make a successful career out of their passion. The barriers to entry are very high, since it is all about getting noticed by the right people (e.g. industry executives), signing a label and hopefully getting a large amount of (online) exposure. Surely the internet has lowered these barriers but still most musicians fail to achieve a sustainable career in the industry. There is, however, a start-up which aims to truly disrupt the music industry with their innovative mobile platform: Vampr.
The platform based app has a concept very similar to the dating-app tinder. Musicians create a profile in which they describe their musical biography, preferred genres and other information that might be relevant to executives in the industry. When two parties swipe right you are a ‘match’ and have the ability to talk about ideas that both parties might have. With such a concept the founders aim to lower the entry barriers to the music industry, or even creating a whole new market for those who never thought a career in the music industry was even possible.
One of the co founders states: “I want to lower the barrier to entry into the music industry for folks who previously mightn’t have thought a career in this field was possible. If that leads to a sustainable career for even one person using our app, then I will have done my job. There is no signup fee nor any strings attached – this is a free app that was designed by a musician with the sole intent of helping and connecting people within the community.”(Clobes, 2016, p1.)
Therefore Vampr has the potential of becoming a true disruptive innovation aiming to transform the entire industry. By providing a online platform which connects talented musicians and industry executives it is truly revolutionary. The concept has already proven to be very successful. The professional platform launched in may 2016 and as of today it already facilitated more than 2 million connections worldwide. Only time will tell if Vampr has the potential of actually disrupting this billion-dollar industry with their unique digital business model.
Sources:
http://latfusa.com/article/2016/8/startup-app-vampr-sets-out-to-revolutionize-the/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-most-musicians-fail-grow-expand-sustain-career-music-narayan
Christensen, C., Raynor, M. and McDonals, R. (2015). What Is Disruptive Innovation?. Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2015/12/what-is-disruptive-innovation [Accessed 12 Sep. 2018].
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/for-former-busker-ed-sheeran-and-for-other-undiscovered_us_5908e078e4b05279d4edc07b
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/sydney-confidential/hunters-and-connectors/news-story/d93aa0df090be0fd1e7720d51b849870
