Aucadia.com is a community website aimed at musicians and fans where the fans can get involved with the bands they love.
It’s such a cool project, we had to find out more from Robin and Owen Spottiswoode, the two co-founders.
Alain: Tell us about your product and maybe where the idea came from, or why you think this is important
Robin: The idea came from research I was doing for a presentation on Digital Rights Management whilst I was at university. I was simultaneously fascinated and appalled at the way the music industry operated. I was fascinated at the audacity of an industry for whom it was common practice to keep its most important commodity – artists – in a legal stranglehold and appalled that this was the way artists continue to be treated. I came to realise that it was the industry itself that was the root of the problem, and became determined to change it for the better.
Owen: Aucadia.com is all about bringing music fans and artists closer together, and finding a fairer way to distribute music and share its profits. We’re trying to build a community where artists are given the freedom to record their best music, and fans are able to get involved in the bands they love, and share in their success.
Robin: We wanted to get away from the idea that record labels dictate everything – from the price of the music to which songs are recorded and released. We want to give this power back to the artist and fans, the people that matter.
Owen: The idea behind Aucadia.com is that fans buy and sell ‘shares’ in the bands they like, at prices determined by them. Shareholders can download an artist’s entire back-catalogue and get access to exclusive gigs/shows and opportunities. The price of a ‘share’ will rise and fall depending on how popular and successful an artist is, so by supporting a band early in their career you can have a stake in their future success.
Robin: The emphasis is definitely on collaboration – we encourage fans to get involved by putting on gigs/shows and helping out the artist in any way possible. We want to break down barriers between artists and their fans in a way that will benefit both sides.
Alain: This is great. It’s also so close to our own values here at FairSoftware. What stage are you at (do you have code, specs, etc.)?
Robin: I’m coding the site as we speak. The specs are all there, it’s just a matter of getting all the functionality working the way we want. It sounds like a boring task, but it’s actually a lot of fun! I’m setting up a complete trading market, where artists’ share prices are dictated by trading between fans and will soon be able to pull all sorts of graphs from the data. It’s not like anything I’ve done before, which is what makes it so interesting (if a bit daunting). I’ll need to tie up a few loose ends before some more testing and debugging, and then there will be a closed alpha release before Christmas.
Owen: Once we’re happy the system is working we’ll jump straight into a public beta with ‘play money’. Each user who signs up will get some funds to build a portfolio with, so that they can start trading straight away. This will be a great way for people to get their feet wet without having to take the plunge and invest their own money straight away. This will also give artists the opportunity to test the service and see how it works.
Alain: What help do you need now?
Robin: We need able-bodied PHP programmers to help with general coding/debugging along with testers, lots of testers. Any PHP programmers that have experience in CakePHP would be a huge bonus, but it’s not a necessity, as Cake is similar to many other frameworks. If you want to get involved, please please please check out our page on FairSoftware or email me. It goes without saying, if you help out you’ll get shares through FairSoftware and be able to share in Aucadia’s success.
Owen: We’ll also be looking to raise our profile in the music world as we get closer to launch, so anyone who would be able offer insights into the industry would prove a valuable team member.
Robin: But the site is all about collaboration, so anyone with an interest in music and new media should definitely get in touch.
Alain: Tell us about yourselves, your backgrounds
Owen: We’re both really into music – we’ve played in a band together for several years – which is what got us both interested in this project. Robin has been doing web development for a while, whilst I work in the media, so there is a natural division of labour: he gets his hands dirty with the nuts and bolts of coding the site, whilst I’m tasked with planning our business development.
Robin: I divide my time between coding websites and bowing/plucking/hammering a musical instrument. This project encompasses the things we are both interested in, which is what makes it so exciting for us.
Alain: What else will you need to succeed, or is there anything else that would make a difference for you?
Owen: Our business model should start generating money from launch, but it gets more successful the more people use the site, so we would consider outside investment if it allowed us to fast-track our marketing strategy and get the word out more quickly.
Robin: We need good people who are passionate about the future of music to get involved. The bigger the pool of ideas, the better the outcome will be. Currently we are trying to encourage interest in the project, to give like-minded people the chance to get involved at this early stage and share in any success. Aucadia.com is going to be a marriage of the social and music web in a way that will be self-sufficient, allowing complete freedom The community will be a key aspect to this, so we are looking for people to help manage and promote the community from the outset.
Owen: And we will have someone else to blame if it all goes horribly wrong.
Robin: *laughs* Yes, that too.
You can follow the progress of the project on twitter: @aucadia.
If you are interested in helping with development, click here.
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