Hi, I’m Gavin Moulton from ConcertFlow.com the website you mention as your tipping point for the article :)

All the comparisons you make are for ‘Music Streaming Startups’, we are not in this market!!. Our primary business model is selling tickets through concert discovery, we’re different because we focus on matching listings of shows with videos of the artist, all in one central place.

You’re right the music streaming business model is flawed, the cost of music royalities is larger than the revenue generated by subscriptions or advertising. I previously ran intomusic.co.uk which focused on music downloads, when streaming music was on the horizon, I looked at it and had the opportunity to change the site into a music streaming service. When I looked at the figures, I could see it didn’t add up, so sensibly didn’t go down that path. We were one of the few uk websites I know of to make a profit as a music download website, and it was through cross selling and multiple revenue streams.

So I investigated the market for music listings and tickets sales. In the uk there are a number of successful sites, with very healthy accounts and cash in the bank, and that is with little new innovation. We’re doing something different ‘Finding and discovering live music by watching videos’. I’d been keen to discuss this research, further, to convince potential co-founder or investor.

What you failed to mention was there are two web apps ‘Timbre’ and ‘giglocator’ live music discovery, which were both sold to larger ticketing companies. Also that live music revenues are increasing year on year.

You wrote “Basically, they’re asking people to work for free and go into debt in order to do it”

Not so, we are offering a share in the company, which is quite normal for a startup cofounder. The startuploan option is quite common in the uk and was a suggestion, an option for someone to fund themselves, or you may have other sources to support yourself, or suggestions (I actually added this later, after I spoke to an entrepeneur who had sold an event business and he said he’d done the same thing, with a group of friends). Our main ad on the website doesn’t mention this though, just equity share. See the ad ConcertFlow.com/work-with-us.

So if anyone’s not put off by the “black melted skulls of doom”, I’d been keen to catch up for a chat, if you’re in London, UK