Read on for the final part of the interview with Barry Starlin from SoundzAbout.
Here you will learn all there is to know about his background in music. Of course, you can learn more about the company itself in the first part of the interview.

PART II

MUSIC & YOU

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

I am the last of five music kids so I was born into it.  My earliest memories of being alive were of me and my family gathered around the piano playing and singing songs.  My older brother and three sisters were teenagers in the 70’s.  They were a part of the whole scene.  Even better is the fact that they exposed me to everything from country to rock to pop, and growing up in Georgia – home of James Brown, Otis Redding, Allman Brothers and so many legends was also an influence in such a multi-cultural environment.  But, it was when I was six years old and saw Johnny Cash on television that I decided what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.  When I was ten, my brother and my oldest sisters husband hooked me up with guitars and I was hooked.

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?

Yes I am.  Currently I’m performing, writing and producing with a lot of different bands, artists and vocalists.  You can check out some of them at www.reverbnation.com/starlin.  I’m also currently recording a catalog of songs I have written.  Some will be published through ASCAP with the intention of major artists recording them and some will wind up on my upcoming solo release.  I’m all over YouTube, but one of my favorite things recently posted was a live show in Shanghai in 2006.  I’m the one playing the white Les Paul.  Viewers should watch the video till the end so they can see the size of crowds we played to in Asia!  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5H0CE-iVts)

Musical likes and dislikes? Favorite artists?

I like artists who are original, creative, and innovative and are an inspiration in some way to their audience.
Dislikes – Bands and artists who are unoriginal and whose music makes no difference.

Favorite Artists:  Tom Petty, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, The Black Crowes, The Who, Aretha Franklin, Sade, Prince, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, KISS, The Smithereens and believe it or not – Lady Gaga.  (Yes, eclectic I know)

If you had to name the song that moves you the most, what would it be? Can you pinpoint the reason why?

“Let it Be” by the Beatles.  Why it moves me pretty much speaks for itself – it’s a song of hope, and we all need hope.

Is there a song that – to you – captures the spirit of your startup and what you have set out to do? What would it be?

“Rock and Roll All Night” by Kiss, because it’s fun, and we want the students, teachers and administrators to have access not only to good background music but also to that which is the most cutting-edge.  And, we at Soundzabound want to have fun making it happen.

SoundzAbound is one of the most interesting startups that I have reviewed so far. And I have had the privilege of catching up with its president and co-founder, Barry Starlin. Now you can read the whole story.
This is Part 1; it deals with the genesis of the startup and its repercussion so far. Part 2 is about Barry and his musical past, present and future. Make sure to check it here.

Barry Starlin Britt from SoundzAbound

Full Name: Barry Starlin Britt
Startup: Soundzabound.com
Position:  President and Co-founder

PART I

THE STARTUP

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

Back in 1996 a district educator in the Atlanta area was working in the media department and getting many requests for royalty free music that could be used in PowerPoint and news shows primarily.  Most of the audio was too expensive and mostly “elevator music” in those days.  He contacted me about producing some demos.  Once the demos were done and I could see the results of use, I was on board.

The most distinctive features were the technological needs, the need for copyright compliance in the school systems and mostly, our intellectual property was unmatched having been a marriage between district educators and music industry professionals that soon join us.

What was the original launch date?

Our first Volume was released in August 1998 and Soundzabound was officially incorporated just shortly after that same month.  We did not decide to take the company full time until 2005.

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

The response has been amazing.  I never knew what a necessity our product would be.  In the early days I personally thought it would be nothing more than a novelty, but technology and compliance really drove the need.

Being a U.S. based company with strategic focus on the district, regional and state levels of K-12 education, the United States has been our most successful country, but the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, China and India are of course quickly emerging.

What features can we expect to see implemented in future revisions?

You can expect lots of enhancements to our technology and search features, more licensing from the major and indie music markets plus online training resources.  We are also getting ready to start production on a Latino collection that will be recorded in Peru.  This will employ many local area artists.  Our productions will also employ other artists, graphic designers and technicians here in the states.  We recently hired a new developer of online training materials who is based in Queens, NY.  A part of our mission has always been to create jobs.

There is a certain tendency to demonize the Internet in the music industry. I think it is all a matter of perspective – it all depends on the uses it is put to. What is your opinion? In which areas has the Internet left an unquestionably positive mark?

As a person who helped start the indie music scene back in the late 90’s, my perspective is very positive in the sense that an artist doesn’t need a major record deal to do their thing. I had always felt that the public suffered because there was so much great music out there never being heard.  But, the Internet changed all that.  The only downfall I see is now is the music industry is oversaturated.  We went from one extreme to the other.  I think it would be nice to have some balance.

What advice could you give to anybody who is launching a music-related startup in the future? What are the obvious mistakes that should be avoided?

Be creative and innovative; it never does anyone any good when things get overdone with the same old same old.  It is the age of new thinking.  Avoid being a copycat.

Read Part 2 of this interview.

This is the final part of the interview with Kilian Valkhof (from Lystener). As I always say… share and enjoy! (The first part is here)

PART II

MUSIC & YOU

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

I always liked music, and I believe the first single I bought was, shamefully, ‘candle in the wind’ by Elton John. I was 9 or so, then, and was very moved by it all. I redeemed myself with my first CD: Discovery by Daft Punk. Getting really into music only happened later a couple of years after that, when I started discovering bands via the internet that I really liked that you didn’t see on television.

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?

Nope. I tried it with a couple of friends, but I’m just not musical enough. I own a guitar and dabble on it every now and then, but it’s nothing to write home about.

Musical likes and dislikes? Favorite artists?

Very diverse. Anything from folk to hip-hop, really, with some exceptions: R&B doesn’t do it for me, and the only time I tolerate dance music is in a club. I listen most to rock music, with my favorite artists consisting of Jack’s mannequin, Say anything, Third Eye Blind, Snow Patrol, Brand New.

To you, what is the role that lyrics actually play in contemporary music? Is that wrong or is that right?

It really depends on the artist. Some artists have lyrics to accompany the music, and some the other way around. I myself am drawn to more lyric-centric musicians, but it differs per person and per band.

If you had to name the song that moves you the most, what would it be? Can you pinpoint the reason why?

Pfew, thats a hard question. The one song that comes to mind is Hurt, but the version by Johnny Cash. There is so much emotion in the song, it sounds like he can break down at any moment, it’s very moving.

Is there a song that – to you – captures the spirit of your web app and what you have set out to do? What would it be?

I honestly couldn’t answer that. Lystener is like a little diddy, and I don’t know any diddy’s.

Thanks for the interview Emilio!

Thank you, Kilian!

Last week I caught up with Kilian Valkhof from Lystener, a startup offering an innovative way to find and share lyrics that I had reviewed the previous week.

We talked about his project, and also about his relationship with music. A special emphasis was placed on the way he perceives lyrics, of course.

This is Part 1 of the interview. Part 2 (where we talk about music) can be read here.

Kilian Valkhof, The Creator Of Lystener

Full Name: Kilian Valkhof
Age: 22
Web App: Lystener
Position: Founder

PART I

THE  WEB APP

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

I’ve always had a problem with the way lyrics work. Some music players can display lyrics and that’s great, but there’s always one that doesn’t work as well as it should.

You can also google lyrics. This means you have to type in the artist and song title (because somehow they’re never copyable from music players) and find a working site that doesn’t have a bunch of ads and spam. Then, if you want to actually do something with the lyrics, like, copy them, most sites block that too! If you want to share lyrics on facebook, for example, you end up typing them yourself.

Lystener fixes both these problems. No typing needed to find the lyrics to the song you’re listening to now, because I just ask last.fm what you’re playing, and it updates automatically. When you select the lyrics you like, you can post the part you selected to facebook or twitter with a single button.

What was the original launch date?

I launched it on monday the 28th of june, after a week of private beta.

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

Twofold actually. People love the application but the lyrics database isn’t really big, so if you’re like me and listen to lots of unknown stuff, you’ll have to do without lyrics every now and then. There are ways to easily add them though, and I’m going to expand on those to make adding lyrics yourself even easier. When you have lyrics though, people are delighted because everything works very smoothly, reading lyrics, selecting lyrics, sending lyrics, it all happens in one flow.

As far as countries go, English speaking countries lead by a large margin.

What features can we expect to see implemented in future revisions?

On the list are adding lyrics on the site, simple user accounts so you can get a list of all your favorite songlyrics, and some general leaderboards. I’m open to any and all suggestions though, so let me know if you have ideas (shoot me an e-mail via kilian@lystener.com)

There is a certain tendency to demonize the Internet in the music industry. I think it is all a matter of perspective – it all depends on the uses it is put to. What is your opinion? In which areas has the Internet left an unquestionably positive mark?

I see more problems for labels than for musicians. Musicians will manage fine, and I think even better, because of the internet. The cost of distribution goes down, reaching fans is dead easy. The labels are the ones that historically did both these things, so they need to find something new to justify their existence.

The internet is absolutely amazing for small bands. Through sites like thesixtyone or hypemachine it’s become too easy to find cool small bands and support them.

What advice could you give to anybody who is launching a music-related web app in the future? What are the obvious mistakes that should be avoided?

Just build something you want to use, and get it in front of people as soon as possible. Lystener got private beta users before it even displayed the entire lyrics to songs. Beta users will know the difference between “broken because it doesn’t work” and “broken because you’re still working on it” and come with great solutions and suggestions. Just get it out there!

Continue to the second part of the interview: “Music & You”.

Below you will find the second part of my interview with Tony Bouchereau, the creator of the Tony-B Machine. Make sure to check all the links he provided as part of the answers! And you can read Part 1 here.

PART II

MUSIC & YOU

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

I play music (traverse flute) since the age of 8.
I think the first album I bought was “No One Is Innocent”, a French metal band.

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?

I play the flute in the Quatuor Megamix.
We play 90’s Dance hits arranged in a classical way.
Sound and videos at http://www.myspace.com/quatuormegamix

Musical likes and dislikes? Favorite artists?

I especially like Techno artists like Laurent Wolf, Joachim Garraud or David Guetta.
But I am open to a few other musical styles.

If you had to name the song that moves you the most, what would it be? Can you pinpoint the reason why?

Actually I think it’s “Walk The Line” by Laurent Wolf. It always wakes me up at anytime of the day.

Is there a song that – to you – captures the spirit of your startup and what you have set out to do? What would it be?

For the last version of the Tony-b Machine, I was quite inspired by “Don’t Stop” from Scooter.

Today’s interviewee is Tony Bouchereau, creator of the Tony-B Machine (reviewed last week on MusicKO). You can learn how this novel tool for the interactive creation of music came to be and what has been its reception below. And after that, please read the bit named “Music & You” to learn more about Tony and the bands he is involved with.

Anthony "Tony-b" Bouchereau

Full Name: Anthony “Tony-b” Bouchereau
Age: 29
Startup: The Tony-b Machine
Position: Founder

PART I

THE STARTUP

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

My first idea was to make a kind of interactive song where the listener can choose which drum part or which bass part he wants to hear next.
Progressively, I saw that it could be fun to interact with each part of the drums (kick, hi-hat, snare) and to play chords or notes.
I tried to develop the funny side of the application by adding some special “combos” and hidden sounds.

What was the original launch date?

The Tony-b Machine is online since the beginning of 2007 (Version 2).

What has been the response so far?

The beginning was quite calm and after a few months, there have been a few articles in some magazines.
The number of visitors became important at the end of 2007. Since then, the site welcomes more than 1000 visitors every day.
There is a small community of regular visitors who follows the evolution of the site assiduously.

What do you think is the best song that has been created using the Tony-b Machine until now?

It’s difficult to choose only one song ^^’. mmm… I would say “Abba Gimme gimme” from DJ Alex (http://www.tony-b.org/?song=1838). It’s very realistic and lively!

What features can we expect to see implemented in future revisions?

First I am going to reshape the website (without changing the Machine).
After that I don’t really know…
Maybe I will study the possibility to adapt it and bring mobile support, which will probably imply some major revisions.

In your opinion, what does the future hold for musical instruments? What is your take on this?

This kind of experimentation looks fun, but the link between the drawing and the sound seems hazardous…
I prefer to have control on my instrument when I play music.

There is a certain tendency to demonize the Internet in the music industry. I think it is all a matter of perspective – it all depends on the uses it is put to. What is your opinion? In which areas has the Internet left an unquestionably positive mark?

I listen to a lot of music on Internet, because it’s easier than looking for a disc and put it out of its box etc…
But I don’t think it’s really a good economic alternative for the artists.
Most of the people are satisfied with what they can hear on the Internet and don’t buy a single disc.
And on the Internet, the quality of the sound is too variable.
When I feel courageous, I prefer to listen to a disc.

What advice could you give to anybody who is launching a music-related startup in the future? What are the obvious mistakes that should be avoided?

The biggest mistake would be to try to make another Tony-b Machine! It’s impossible to do better ^^

Continue to Part 2: “Music & You”.

This is the final part of the interview I conducted with Caroline Bottomley from Radar Music Videos. The first one is right here – give it a good look if you haven’t already done so.

PART II

MUSIC & YOU

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

I think I was about 14. I started reading NME, then I started memorizing it. I think Tubular Bells was my first album, or How Dare You by 10CC.

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?

Wish I had been in a band, I didn’t play an instrument and for some reason thought I couldn’t learn. I should have been a manager obviously but I wasn’t. And sadly no, no old clips of me with my proper Mohican pvc trousers and Chelsea boots with chains on them. Hey ho.

Musical likes and dislikes? Favorite artists?

Oh dear. I like so many different things. I’m enjoying a bit of 70s folk and rock type stuff at the moment, Brinsley Schwarz, Colin Blunstone.

If you had to name the song that moves you the most, what would it be? Can you pinpoint the reason why?

Loving you Minnie ripperton, it just came into my head. I feel like that about life in general sometimes plus it is rather bonkers.

Is there a song that – to you – captures the spirit of your startup and what you have set out to do? What would it be?

Not a song, but the motto of northern soul; keep the faith. I hope Radar is rather more popular than Northern Soul though.

Caroline Bottomley from Radar Music Videos (a startup I reviewed recently) was kind enough to answer my questions about her company, the Internet and also about her favorite music. You can find the first part of the interview below. The second (and final) part is here.

http://www.radarmusicvideos.com

Full Name: Caroline Bottomley
Startup: RadarMusicVideos

PART I

THE STARTUP

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

I had been thinking about setting up a business nearly all my life. I had been thinking about doing something around short film and the internet but a lot of people seemed to be in that space already (2006). I’ve always loved music videos but had never worked in music video. I wanted to get back into working with music, plus I got that great inside buzz feeling about setting it up, so that’s what happened. It’s most distinctive features are it opens doors for directors.

What was the original launch date?

The first public launch of Radar was January 07, when it launched as a music video festival at the Apple Store in London. It’s changed a lot since then.

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

Nearly all the response I hear is positive – directors think it’s great and commissioners who use it also think it’s great. It’s been most successful in the UK, with some success already in the US.

What features can we expect to see implemented in future revisions?

For the moment development is mainly about making the site do what it does better – easier/faster/more intuitively etc. There are some plans for innovation, but we’ve innovated a lot recently and we need to tidy up what we’ve got already.

There is a certain tendency to demonize the Internet in the music industry. I think it is all a matter of perspective – it all depends on the uses it is put to. What is your opinion? In which areas has the Internet left an unquestionably positive mark?

I’m definitely one of the half-full people when it comes to the internet. It gives voice to a more diverse group of humanity. I learn a lot from it, one of the best things is that often enthusiasts are a better source of information than authority. I do have concerns about Facebook though, it’s becoming too omnipotently useful.

What advice could you give to anybody who is launching a music-related startup in the future? What are the obvious mistakes that should be avoided?

It seems to be the flavour of the day to be a practicing artist and then create a start up to fulfill a problem you’ve experienced, which is fair enough. However even though music recommendation doesn’t seem to have been solved from a marketer’s point of view I don’t know whether we need another music recommendation site.

Continue to Part 2.

This is the final part of my interview with Majid from Lyreach.
Read the first part of this interview (“The Startup”) right here.

PART II

MUSIC & YOU

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

At a very young age, when watching cartoons  .. then I started listening to pop music, the first album I ever purchased was “Bat Out of Hell” by “Meat Loaf” when I was 14, and I still love it!

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?

Nope!

Musical likes and dislikes? Favorite artists?

I don’t focus on one artist or genre, I like Madonna, Linkin Park , Leona Lewis, Beyonce, The Saturdays…and a lot more. Quite some time ago I was crazy about Enya, Enigma, and New Age in general, now they’re the bands I listen to the least.

If you had to name the song that moves you the most, what would it be? Can you pinpoint the reason why?

Definitely “I Believe In You” by IL Divo and Celine Dion, it’s the most encouraging song I ever heard, its lyrics are brimming with the deepest, noblest emotions.

Is there a song that – to you – captures the spirit of your startup and what you have set out to do? What would it be?

If I imagined Lyreach singing it would sing: “Hard” by Rihanna & Young Jeezy I was listening to that song a lot while Lyreach was in the final stages of development, Lyreach was taking my time and my effort and it was hard going!

I had a chat with Majid ALSarra from Lyreach (the innovative search engine for lyrics that I featured last month on MusicKO) where he revealed the inspiration behind the project and his plans for the future. You can find it below. And don’t forget to check out Part 2 (“Music & You”).

Majid ALSarra

Full Name: Majid ALSarra
Age: 29
Startup: Lyreach
Position: Founder

PART I

THE STARTUP

Tell us a little about your startup. How was it conceived?

Everything started two years ago, I used to be a software developer my whole life and I really loved it, but in mid-2008 I decided to be a boring man ,working in a boring field called business continuity in a startup bank started by the government.

I tried stupidly to live with such a situation, to have what I thought was a stable life, then I exploded.

I began programming everything like crazy; I was searching for a killer idea, I had been searching for such a thing even before the bank job. I have always been enthusiastic about the Web, but when I was in the bank I was too depressed to find a good idea.

And because I didn’t know “anything” about business continuity, I was searching in Google, and translating some stuff in a dictionary – in both cases using auto-completed sentences. “Google suggest” gave me some nice (but limited) recommendations. A lot of sentences that looked like what I had typed were featured, but I thought “why they’re not here in the suggestions?. Even when I click the “Search” button, it gives results that have the words of the input sentence separated randomly in a lot of results, even when I put the double quotation marks, I can see the sentence alone in the results, but I have to open the link and search for the sentence to find its context…” Then the idea popped out!

It kept brewing it in my mind for a while, and I began programming some code and testing it on some Wikipedia pages, I had more complicated (and also more useful) ideas than this one, but I didn’t have the time to implement them, so I decided to go ahead with this one.

Searching the whole Web was too huge for my tiny budget, that was why I thought about Wikipedia, but then I realized it would take ages to crawl their 6000,000 articles (English only!). So, I kept living as usual with these search ideas in my head, until I noticed how unpleasant it was when I heard a part of a song and could not find it by searching using only that specific part. It all clicked then, and the idea was finally conceived

What was the original launch date?

No exact date, it was there on the web for a long time while I was debugging it, then I told some friends to test it, and then I finally put the ads on Facebook & Google sometime in mid-May.

What has been the response so far?

It’s been good, a lot of sites & blogs talk about it all over the world, especially in Italy!

How does Lyreach work from a technical point of view? What features can we expect to see implemented in future revisions?

It has huge tables of numbers, those numbers describe the paragraphs and all possible combinations of 5 words in more than 400,000 lyrics (more than 470,000 actually). The updating process is not mature yet.

I have some stuff to add in the future, the first is to enable search engines to crawl through all the results, it will be done by a complicated way which is not clear yet (it involves putting the search query in the URL) , and I will try to find an appropriate business model so I can earn money and quit my job , when I do that and have a lot of time on my hands, I will create a different new way for searching (something like Lyreach but not limited to a set number of words) and I will try to make it for Wikipedia, I don’t know if this is a plan or just a hallucination!

There is a certain tendency to demonize the Internet in the music industry. I think it is all a matter of perspective – it all depends on the uses it is put to. What is your opinion? In which areas has the Internet left an unquestionably positive mark?

It started with the MP3 which made it easy to transfer the music & share it for free, that first encounter between the internet and the music was the source of that demonization. The music industry was losing a lot, and some companies did something nice to combine them like Apple-iTunes, Amazon, Sony, even Napster found its way, but that didn’t change the fact that users were still free to share anything. My opinion is, most people who get these free mp3s would not buy the songs otherwise, so the artist is not actually losing a lot. Moreover, MP3s work as free samples that market the song (in full quality), and it can’t spread freely in the Internet until the first group of customers have bought it, the people that will get it for free come right behind them. Besides, if they fall in love with the artist they might pay for it in the future!

This disturbance between the internet and the music industry has found its way into the hosting of the actual lyrics of song, I heard about some legal problems with the famous site MetroLyrics.com, and how did they solve them, that is why I didn’t display the full lyrics on Lyreach.

What advice could you give to anybody who is launching a music-related startup in the future? What are the obvious mistakes that should be avoided?

I’m not that much of an expert to give an advice, but generally be careful on the legal issues.

Continue to Part 2.