3 weeks ago
4
Well, right now I'm actually having those conversations and it's going to be a really interesting mix of people that know me, know what I stand for, have seen my integrity hard at work for the past 15 years. I'm starting there with those artists. I'm not going to name names. I want to be respectful to them.
Fair.
I feel very protective over artists. That's how this whole app started, so soon we'll be letting people know about that.
Gotcha. Do you think at all about how it competes? I'm thinking of platforms like Bandcamp, or Soundcloud, or musician centered services like that. Does this feel competitive?
I think the biggest difference is I really want this to feel like artists can come to artists. People can ask about what they're signing and who they're signing with. Ask, I love the guitar player on that song of yours, I want to hire him. If you want to jam, my fantasy is there's a place you can jam. I'm trying to figure out really how it's made for the artist by the artist. As artists, we don't have a hub, don't have a spot, we don't have that LinkedIn-style place. The more people supporting artists, the better.
Do I find it competitive? No. I kind of look at making pop songs in a similar way. If someone makes an incredible pop song, I just listen to it and it inspires me to make the best pop song I can make. But mine is going to be uniquely mine, fueled by my history and my stories. So I think the more the merrier, people supporting artists. Let's fucking go.
Are you going to be able to listen to music on the platform or just find the people that you're wanting to talk to?
We're in discovery on the logistics of the backend of all of that. My main goal is to help people find community, collaborate, create, retain the rights to those creations, not need to sign a deal to get those contacts and be able to hire and be hired. The backend of it is not necessarily what Smash is focusing on.
Yeah, OK. So getting your songs on Spotify or whatever is not part of the goal here, right?
We're not trying to be the player. We can help. Once the creation is done and the artist is done with it, we can provide some help on how to get to the next steps. But we're not trying to compete with Spotify or Apple.
We're just trying to give a safe space for people to create community, connect, create music, be hired, and hire all under the understanding that it's a safe place where you retain the rights to whatever you create.
How did the name Smash come about?
To be honest with you, I was doing a plant medicine journey and this all came to me in my brain and it felt like God made me understand why I have gone through what I've gone through. And since then it's been affirmed over and over that this is really necessary.
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