Joe Maggiore wants to pair the best of live orchestral music entertainment with the spontaneity of DJs and his startup is taking over a former Scandinavian church in Munhall for one night to sell that pitch to anyone who will listen.
Maggiore, who grew up learning how to play the piano and then the tuba as a child, is the CEO and founder of Conduction, a Pittsburgh-based startup that makes software for DJs and instrumentalists so they can work in harmony during a live performance. The software is designed to be user-friendly to those who have limited or even no experience in music production, almost akin to Apple Inc.'s GarageBand platform.
On the DJ side, artists are able to select beats and rhythms from nearly any song and assign it to one of the instruments they have that's being played live by someone in their set. A computer positioned in front of a person or group of people playing that instrument is then automatically sent the sheet music for the composition that's been selected, allowing these artists to then play the part of a song that the DJ desired.
Maggiore said Conduction allows for music to be played in a way that's unlike anything that's ever been done before given that DJs are almost always playing portions of prerecorded music during their sets and that orchestras will spend months learning how to perform an entire show before playing it in front of an audience.
Neither of that has to be true for those who use Conduction, Maggiore said, and he's already proven it at a smaller scale via a demonstration a few weeks ago with a few DJs and about a dozen instrumentalists at a private event hosted at InnovatePGH's Avenu: Oakland co-working space, which is where Maggiore runs Conduction alongside a little over a half dozen paid contractors.
But now the focus turns to Conduction's first major public debut where it'll be used as part of an inaugural event for The Moment, a separate startup that Maggiore launched to serve as an event entertainment provider that will, at least initially, rely on Conduction's software for its series of signature events to come. Come Aug. 19, The Moment will host over 40 DJs and musicians inside the This Is Red entertainment venue on East 9th Ave. in Munhall for upwards of 300 people to attend and experience.
Maggiore has landed sponsorships for the event from alcohol manufacturers Bacardi, Grey Goose and Patrón as well as local supporters like the Pittsburgh Innovation District and the University of Pittsburgh.
He views the upcoming event as pivotal for Conduction and The Moment.
"If everything goes well, this will serve as the basis of evidence that we are ready to go," Maggiore said before noting that The Moment could go on to produce six additional shows within the next year and that several local music groups have already reached out to him to inquire about using Conduction's software at events of their own. "We are starting here in Pittsburgh in a place that has so many young people who are craving incredible nightlife."
While he didn't disclose specific ticket sales figures, Maggiore said the event is on track to sell out a few days before it begins.
He said he also figures demand will be strong for Conduction's software following this debut, which he built based on countless interviews with other DJs and music artists.
"There's this very mutual benefit with both of these customers, the orchestras and the DJs or producers, and so there is a reality in which the DJs and producers are performing out at Coachella and massive festivals like that, and the sane equal opportunity for a DJ or a producer to perform with the Pittsburgh Symphony [Orchestra] in Heinz Hall," Maggiore said. "So us doing this show serves as the pinnacle use cases for both of those settings."
The startup has been self-funded so far with money it won at various startup competitions from Pitt and others. Maggiore said he is actively raising a $500,000 preseed round for the company to help it scale operations further.
