I've had an interest in music for a long time. I began piano lessons when I was five years old and continued my formal studies into my late teens. To me, music is as fundamental as breathing: it's a "language" that transcends all boundaries.
In spite of my passion for music, I chose to study science at University and earned a degree in Hydrogeology, with additional qualifications in Business Management and Accounting. But even while I was busy studying science, I couldn't be without my first love - music - and I spent three years singing in and touring with the university chamber choir.
Several years ago a friend and I were relaxing in my living room and talking about how even though composing music was just a hobby for me, I wouldn't mind being able to share my music with others. Sure there were organizations that would host my music for me... for a small fortune! But there wasn't an easy, free way for me to share my music.
After this initial conversation, I started to think about all the other people out there, people just like me. This is how I imagined the music industry to be:
Imagine there's a funnel, and that funnel has maybe a billion people in its top. Let's say that those billion people are all the people in the world who enjoy music. Now let's say that half of those people seriously enjoy music - not just enjoy listening to music, but they really love their music. They play music, they perform music, they compose music. Those people probably want to make careers in music, or at least would like to have some serious aspect to their music.
So half a billion people in the top part of that funnel will try to take their music to the next level. How? They do what musicians have done for decades: work hard to get a deal with a record label. But the record labels are very selective and they choose only musicians who meet their very strict criteria and who fit a particular mould. The record labels will look at the aspiring half a billion musicians and say, "We'll pick you...you...you..." and then at great expense to themselves they take those chosen few and train them and put them out to market.
Only a tiny, minuscule fraction of those half a billion aspiring musicians ever come out of the bottom of that funnel. What about the them?
What about their musical dreams?
Over the next few years that discussion in my living room evolved into a much bigger discussion, until we finally decided that the best way we could help aspiring musicians was to invest our own money in the development of a purpose designed website.
Our passion with MelodyFusion is about giving a valuable service to musicians, completely for free. We will eventually need to make some money to keep the site running, but we are not in this for profit. We're in it because we see so many musicians out there trying so hard to make something out of their love of music, but things just aren't working; or they don't know where to start; or they try, but give up too soon because it seems too hard. We'd like to fix that.
We're looking out for the rest of the musicians out there, the people who have a passion for music, and especially the people who write their own music - the Music Creators. I'm not saying we don't need performers. Of course we do, but to me, the soul of music is more with the composer than the performer. Think about this: how many of the artists topping the charts today even write their own music? Who is it who wrote their music, put their heart and soul into creating it in the first place? You hardly ever hear about them - you probably don't even know who they are! Those people deserve to get kudos - financially and in terms fame - for their successful music creations.
And MelodyFusion isn't just about music creators, performers and listeners; it's a music community that's about anyone who has a passionate love of music - which could include, for example, educators, sound engineers, music software developers, instrument manufacturers, music mentors, researchers, managers and many more.
So that's what MelodyFusion is all about, and it's what gave me the passion to want to start it in the first place. We're building a music community - and we can't do it without you. Please do create a free account. And send us your feedback as well - we're listening carefully to the feedback we're given by our users because we want to make this website as great as it can possibly be - for you!
Blog by Martin Robinson