- 12-Jun-2012
- Social Entrepreneurship
- Funding / Finance
- Partners
inConcert, LLC
Abstract
inConcert, LLC has created Amp'd, a mobile platform that strengthens the bond between artist and fan at the peak of emotional connectedness: during a live event. As artists grow and strengthen a loyal fan base, Amp'd helps them generates business opportunities based on those deeper relationships.
At the show or festival, fans use the app to discover, share, participate, and purchase.
Fans can discover the and album name of the music the artist is playing live at that moment. From there, the fan can purchase the song immediately. This feature will provide the most benefits at festivals, where the fan is likely to find an artist whose music they enjoy but don’t yet own.
With a single click, fans can efficiently share their experience at the show. The app will pre-populate Tweets and Facebook posts with tour information, current song playing, and consistent hashtags, helping artists with social media visibility and trending. This allows fans to keep their eyes on the stage instead of on their phones.
Amp'd allows fans to participate in the concert in three distinct ways. First, the fan can vote among three artist-selected songs to determine what song the artist will play during the encore. Second, the fan can request a song he/she would like to see the artist play. Finally, the app shows a custom animation, tied to an individual song that appears on every fan’s phone in the venue. It uses the phone’s accelerometer to change the color of the animation as the fan waves the phone back and forth in the air. This unique feature is the core of the company’s intellectual property claims (full patent applied for in March, 2012).
Amp'd allows fans to purchase exclusive merchandise, including shirts and posters specific to that evening’s performance. Additionally, the app will offer experience upgrades such as unsold VIP seating during the show, after show meet-and-greets, and more. Amp'd will fulfill apparel and other merchandise via the band’s existing apparel fulfillment partners, or our own proprietary relationships.
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Additional Questions
Who is your customer?
Our ultimate customers are music fans who see at least one concert per year. Research from LiveNation shows that this is approximately 30% of the U.S. population. Our secondary customers are brands who sponsor content and music. Our method of reaching the primary customer is through artists who tour.
What problem does this idea/product solve or what market need does it serve?
Current technology has helped some musicians, but harmed most. Rampant file sharing, high overhead from selling online through markets like iTunes, restrictive contracts with labels, and minimal income from unlimited streaming technologies like Spotify, have all severely hobbled artists’ capability to earn any significant money from their music. Instead, today’s artists, with few exceptions, must make their living exclusively from touring live.
And even when touring, technology undermines the artist’s success. At live events, mobile technology has become an unwelcome guest. Fans bury their noses in their phones at shows. They take pictures, record video, and update their social networks, distracting them from the performance on the stage.
Finally, technology has done nothing to advance the industry of merchandise sales. This increasingly important income source relies on a 50-year-old model of distribution: the guy following the band in a van full of t-shirts. This antiquated set up creates unnecessary conflicts between artist and the management of the venues, who routinely seize 30% of all merchandise sales.
Artists deserve a new, comprehensive mobile technology platform that benefits their bottom line and engages fans in their performances.
What attributes will make this idea/product successful? Why do you believe that those features will create success?
Amp’d is a mobile platform that strengthens the bond between artists and fans at the peak of emotional connectedness: during a live performance. Amp’d enables a two-way interaction between artist and fan throughout a live show, letting fans discover what the artists is playing (real-time setlist with lyrics and purchase links); purchase merchandise and experiences at the show (exclusive merchandise like shirts with the setlist printed on the back, signed posters and other merchandise that’s inconvenient to carry around); participate in the show with live polls, trivia, and lighter mode; and share the experience with prepopulated tweets and facebook posts.
Explain how you (your team) will execute to make this idea/product successful? What gives you (your team) an advantage over others already in the market or new to this market?
inConcert has positioned itself to uniquely succeed in this space for four reasons. First, we concentrate our efforts on the live event. This is the time when the emotional connection is highest, when the fan is most likely to make a purchase. By removing friction in the process, it encourages the impulse buy. Second, our business model aligns us squarely with the artist’s goals. When the artist succeeds, we succeed. The artist, by encouraging fans to download the app, encourages participation in his or her own show, as opposed to schilling for a third party’s app that may or may not even provide a benefit to the artist. This close alignment also means the artists will partner with us to come up with new features and content for fans. Tour competitors and near-term potential competitors do not possess these first two qualities. Third, we have a management team who knows apps, knows the industry, has successfully built strong businesses in the past, and who are all passionate about music.
