Shares

From the Co-Founder & CEO of AudioCommon, Phil Cohen

A little about AudioCommon:

After coming home from Afghanistan with the military, I went back into the studio to create my latest album. I saw how short life really is, and I wanted to focus on what I cared most about–creating music; creating art. After recording my music, I was caught in what felt like a never-ending loop that wasted a lot of my time and money. I wasted so much of my money that I had to put down the project until I could scrounge up enough cash to finish it. Indie artists live in this world–it can take a lot of money to create music; and even though some barriers-to-entry into the Music Industry have been knocked down, it’s harder than ever to break through the noise and make a sustainable living as an artist.

I developed AudioCommon to fix some of the key problems indie artists face in today’s Industry, and–most importantly–to put new power into artists’ hands. If there were no artists, there’d be no Music Industry. We need to change things in favor of artists for this Industry to survive. AudioCommon was born in the studio, but has grown into a movement. A movement to empower indie artists throughout the world.

AudioCommon gives artists simple collaboration tools to use during the music creation process (for example, an artist in New York can work with a producer in Atlanta through our cloud platform); but we’re also giving artists simple tools to engage their fans in unique ways both during and after the music production pipeline. Ultimately, this translates to new revenue streams for artists and the larger Music Industry.

Through our platform, AudioCommon artists share their multi-track stems (for example, the individual vocal, instrumental, and beat components that go into the making of a song). Until now, the general public (music fans) have never known about this type of content. I like to talk about these multi-track stems in the context of what I call the “flat music” problem (a key contributor to some of the Industry’s largest issues). Thousands of years ago, we thought the world was flat; and today (yes–today!), the majority of the public still thinks that music is flat. AudioCommon is changing the game by giving artists the ability to share this enriched music content (in the form of multi-track stems) and, in doing so, build new emotional connections with their fans. Additionally, when artists share music via AudioCommon, they’re able to assign a micro-subscription fee (per-fan/per-month) of their choice for access to this enriched content. Thus, if an artist shares his/her stems via AudioCommon, assigns a $1 per-month subscription fee and garners 5,000 subscribers, that artist would be making $5,000 each month in recurring revenue. AudioCommon takes a small cut of this revenue; and, as such, our interests as a company are directly in-line with those of the artist (we make money when the artist makes money).

Like all young and growing companies, we took a lot of flack at the start; but–as they say–the proof is in the pudding. Today, we have thousands of artists creating, sharing, and making money from their music via AudioCommon; and we are working with some of the biggest artists and brands in the Industry. We’ve hosted official showcases at SXSW and A3C Hip Hop Festival; and, for these events, we fill our line-ups by pulling talent from AudioCommon’s active user-base. Everything we do comes back to the Artist.

I dream of a world where people can create music free from hindrance–where barriers fall away; a world where music regains its value, and where artists can forge lasting careers. When you trim away all the fat, it’s about rolling up your sleeves, shaking things up, and doing good things with great people. And with the help of our artists, we’ll continue to push the Industry in important directions and change the music landscape forever.

*Visit AudioCommon.com to find out more; and download AudioCommon’s artist-to-fan engagement iPhone app, “AudioCommon Engage”, from the App Store at AudioCommon.com/campaign/engageapp