Finding new music can be a chore, unless you know exactly what you’re looking for. (Or if you’re fine with sitting back and taking whatever the radio is shoving down your ears, of course). But for people who genuinely want to discover all of the tunes that this world has to offer, as well as the musicians who are fighting to have their music heard, traditional channels just don’t cut it.
If you haven’t heard of BattleTunes - a platform that facilitates music sharing and listening for people around the globe - I’m waging to bet you soon will. And not just from me.
I spoke with Olmo Parenti, a student at Northeastern currently abroad in Singapore and co-founder of BattleTunes, and he brought me up to speed on the traction the site has had in the past year or so. And let’s just say that 2016 looks pretty dang promising for this music platform, too.
The makings of a music platform
Parenti came up with the idea for BattleTunes about three years ago. He watched as his musician friends struggled to figure out how to get their music heard. They'd share their work on social media, but see little recognition.
“They did great work, and what I noticed was that a lot of them would put their music on Facebook, YouTube or SoundCloud, but only their friends would end up listening to it,” Parenti told me.
“The music that we hear is all chosen by labels, or we hear it on the radio,” he added. “We’re not exposed to all of the music that’s out there.”
So he created BattleTunes, whose original premise was to replicate Battle of the Bands. However, the site isn’t just for pinning different pieces of music together for the audience to vote on a winner. It just generally allows people to share and explore music and it’s had a beta version out for about a year-and-a-half now.
“We started reaching out to musicians around the world, asking them to upload their music, start listening to each other’s music and tell their friends to join.”
In the first year, BattleTunes had gained 1,000 musicians. Now, that figure is around 10,000 musicians with more than 25,000 tracks featured on the website. With the help of two investors, who hail from the tech and music industries, Parenti said the venture has set a goal to reach 200,000 musicians by this summer.
“We’re ready to get out of beta now that we've started partnering with these other two larger entities,” he shared.
And over the next year, new features will be added to BattleTunes. The startup is looking to form partnerships so it can run sponsored contests for musicians, offering prizes like pieces of equipment, software or airtime. This way, the site could drive musician participation while helping contest winners improve their music careers in some capacity.
The site has also kicked off an editorial component that covers the untold stories of famous international musicians before they made it big. BattleTunes is aiming to pass on tips and share how other artists fought their way to stardom, so aspiring musicians can take a page from their book and try similar strategies.
“We’re turning BattleTunes into the ultimate musician platform,” Parenti explained. “People can post music, find new music, learn about the music industry and win things that will help them improve. That’s our competitive advantage compared to other platforms out there. We’re taking a 360-degree approach.”
Founded - despite a sketchy experience in Romania
The venture does seem to be starting the year strong, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t some minor bumps in the road getting to where it is now. Parenti and his co-founder Damiano Bauce - the technical part of the duo - found themselves in a questionable situation as they tried to get BattleTunes off the ground. that they
“We bought custom equipment for the original prototype from a development studio in Romania,” Parenti said. “We traveled to Romania and we found ourselves in an industrial area of Bucharest. We were staying at this hostel and it was one of the scariest things in my life.”
He continued, “There was bulletproof shields at the reception, the floors were so dirty, the halls were the creepiest thing I had ever seen and, when we got to the room, there was no lock on the door...I have no idea how we ended up finding a development studio in such an area, and thank God we didn't get kidnapped. It’s funny. It turned into something bigger than I had anticipated.”
At least the founders can laugh about it in hindsight. And they’re all the wiser for it.
“Romania is a beautiful place, but I would suggest staying out of the industrial area of Bucharest,” Parenti said. “If you have to go, don’t do it at night or you might get a heart attack getting out of the cab.”
Image via Olmo Parenti.
