#STARTUPLAB #THE_MUSIC_BET
OUR JOURNEY : Note your Song by The Challengers
Another semester at AD&PR Lab, and therefore another journey in the start-up world, comes to an end. As in every journey there were ups & downs, difficulties, and burdens, but the final result was worth every minute of it. Note Your Song is the final destination of this journey and it is more than just a start-up application, it is a lesson through which we acquired valuable information and experience about the music platform market as well as business planning and many more. Are you ready to board and follow us on our trip to start-up creation? Let’s begin!
EMPATHISE
First things first, the first step of building a start-up is to find an innovative idea that solves a problem. We knew our idea was going to revolve around the music industry, yet we didn’t have a clue about its market, functions or problems. As we put more thought into it we decided to focus on musical instruments, as all our team members had played one at one point of our lifes, and therefore it would be something all of us would be interested in, and eager to put our heart into. But what exactly could be offered to music players that is lacking in the market?
DEFINE THE PROBLEM
In order to find out, we contacted people from our friends or family circle that are either amateur or experienced or even professional music players. In their interviews we discussed about their interests, their needs and mostly their problems that concerned their passion. Immediately, we figured that all of our interviewers had the same problem, no one could find a place that contains accurate sheet music for every song and every instrument. Especially for instruments that are not that popular such as accordion or music-playing styles such as tablatures in guitars, finding sheet music that is accurate, fits your music level and exists for all the songs you would like to play is almost impossible, as we were told.
VALUE PROPOSITION
In order to better understand our customers and define our key value proposition, we created a value proposition canvas through Strategyzer.
CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAPPING
Also for the same purpose, we constructed a customer journey map.
IDEATE
So, at this point, we finally had a problem to solve and it was time to start generating ideas. After hours of constant brainstorming we figured that an ideal solution for our problem would be an application that contains sheet music for every song, every musical instrument, and every musical level. Also, there would be additional filters when needed, for example sheet music both in tablatures and in notes when it comes to guitars.
BUSINESS MODEL
In order to make sure our business will be viable, we planned our business model.
PROTOTYPE & TESTING
After this basic step, we were ready to create our prototype, test it and receive feedback for possible changes or additions. We created a few screenshots through proto.io that depicted the application’s basic form and features, so that the potential users could get a taste of how their navigation would be. Then we went out and tested it to as many potential users we could find and we were happy to hear that our product would be incredible, useful, and it was almost exactly as they would wish it to be. We took their feedback into consideration and decided to change and add a few things that were suggested.
Firstly, we altered the search page by adding 3 search boxes for every filter/category in order to simplify and ease the user’s navigation. Also, we added helpful tips in accord with the musical instrument or song on certain occassions where we thought it would be useful, as well as a seperate “Educational Section” specialized for the use of sheet music in schools and other educational programs and actions. And finally there it was; our final product and our solution to an important problem.
A few days prior to finishing our app, we were informed that a platform incredibly similar to ours that had slipped from our competitor research, existed in the market. MuseScore turns out to be our main competitor, as we share the same main idea; shit music for every song and every musical instrument. Its stable release was 11 days ago, in 28 May 2019, and that is probably the reason we did not notice its existance during our first research. We were quite discouraged at that moment but after thought and discussion we figured that there was a differentation from our competitor, such as the educational section, the extra tips and advice, as well as the fact that we will receive our income from our monthly subscriptions in order to constantly develop our software and our platform.
THE APPLICATION/ FINAL PRODUCT
What can someone find in our application? Endless sheet music, no matter the genre of the song they want to play. All they need to do is simply sign up and subscribe to our platform, after the 30-day trial is over. The subscription fee is 5.99 euros per month (which gives unlimited access to sheet music for the subscriber), and also there will be another feature which can convert audio files to sheet music for 0.99 euros per use. Of course, we want to give people the chance to try our application before they invest their money in it, wanting to give them a full taste of our product’s offerings.
More specifically, our application includes sheet music for multiple genres of music, which are divided in levels of knowledge (beginner- intermediate- professional), and also divided in instruments. Also, there will be some tips given to the users in accord with the song they choose to play, for example if the song is very advanced there will be given some specific tips. Finally, the extra option that our application includes, as we said before, is the conversion of audio files (mp3, mp4, avi) to sheet music, no matter what song it is or if it actually exists somewhere.
SITE & SOCIAL MEDIA
We also made a website and three social media accounts (facebook, instagram, twitter), in order to promote our application and attract potential users.
Eventually, our journey come to an end.Our start-up is finally ready to find a fit in the market, and we are acquired with previous tools, hopefully more prepared for our next start-up mission.
THINGS WE LEARNED
Always be a step ahead
Before you do anything, you always have to be a step ahead. And this is another thing we were taught through this project. One of the most promising ways to be a step ahead, and therefore to avoid big mistakes, is to test your ideas before you put them in action. And how you can test your ideas? By taking interviews from the people you aim to reach, and by thinking every possible aspect of the product you want to put out there while you make your prototype before the final product. A business canvas and a customer journey map are essential in order to know whether your idea stands a chance to go big or not. Also, an aspect of testing your ideas requires to accept the bad reviews as well. It doesn’t mean that they are always right or true, but in any case, you have to take them in and think whether you can do something to make them disappear.
Know your customers
When tying to create a startup up idea, it is important to identify your customers. Once you take that step you should be ready to invest time in understanding their needs and their concerns. This will help you not only approach them easily but also build a strong relationship with them. Customers need to understand that you care about them as individuals and that you are doing your best to help them solve a problem. In this project,
we tried to empathize with our potential customers through interviews which allowed us to focus on their personal preferences and needs.
Know your competitors and always keep up with market
This is the most obvious and crucial step before planning any business; know the market and the competition in order to be aware whether someone has already created the same idea as yours and if so, you have to find ways to differentiate your startup.
Of course we followed this step and after our secondary research on the music market, we searched for our competitors and we reassured that our idea was unique. However, the tricky part at this point was that we forgot to double-check and therefore, a few days prior the completion of our final product we came across a competitor almost identical to us. As we mentioned above, MuseScore shared the same value proposition with us and its stable version was released just a few days before our project’s completion. Fortunately we were lucky enough to already have certain important differences thanks to our additional features, but we will definitely keep this experience in mind and always remember to keep up with the market during the whole process of our next startup plans.
General Experience
After hours of brainstorming, searching and checking the market we concluded into what became our main project. Apart from all the experience we gathered, the feedback and the interaction with potential customers we realised that the music industry is one of high standards, expectations and margins. If you can control and manage them right you can obtain extraordinary results. Listening, keeping your eyes always open, and differentiating yourself/your business is key to startup success. You have to face competitors and obstacles but, in the end, it is worth it.
https://www.facebook.com/Note-Your-Song-2417447738350999/
You can find our final product here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ui557cu69doaqg5/NOTE%20YOUR%20SONG%20%28APP%29.pdf?dl=0&fbclid=IwAR3ZyT2HqtlPxmuR-ZnVMBnVvquAw_1JFkb-CJlkucSelRK7xA5e_t7D0Xg
Our Team: “The Challengers” (Angelika Bega, Evelina Karatziou, Kyriaki Kyriakoggona, Violetta Ioanna Makri, Eugenia Skouteri)
Big thanks to AD&PR Lab and our professor Betty Tsakarestou for guiding us towards the right way throughout the whole process.
Eugenia Skouteri Kyriaki Kyriakoggona Evelina Karatziou Angelika Bega
