Kylie Dale, Elise Campbell and Callan Miller pose with their award after coming in third place at the CU New Venture Challenge finals.
Every really good idea had to have its genesis somewhere.
For Elise Campbell and Callan Miller, it was in a dorm room.
鈥淚t鈥檚 fun to look back on all the progress that we鈥檝e made since then. We鈥檙e so much more confident in our purpose as musicians,鈥� says Campbell.
The recent College of Music graduates will be spending their first summer post-undergrad building on their really good idea. And they won鈥檛 be doing it alone.
After taking the top prize in the performing arts track of the , the two flutists came in third at the campus-wide competition with a pitch for their online platform Gigsicians. That means they have $7,000 in their pockets to turn that idea into reality.
鈥淏ut we also got some help from a venture capitalist in the area,鈥� says Miller. 鈥淥ne of the judges, [former musician and cofounder of the Foundry Group] Jason Mendelson, approached us afterward and offered us an additional $5,000 to get started.鈥�
Gigsicians began as an online gigging platform鈥攚hat the founders describe as Airbnb for musicians. The problem it attempts to address is daunting: Only one percent of college music students go on to have a career in music.
The perception is that there just aren鈥檛 jobs for them. But Miller and Campbell suspected there was something more to it than that.
鈥淥ur mentor inspired us to find the root of the problem,鈥� Campbell explains. 鈥淭he private musical performance business is an $11 billion industry. It鈥檚 not that there isn鈥檛 a market for gigging musicians. There is a market鈥攜oung musicians just aren鈥檛 tapping into it because they鈥檙e being told it鈥檚 not there.鈥�
From that epiphany grew the current Gigsicians platform: an interface that educates music students on how to be professional musicians and connects them with event planners hiring for gigs. Users create profiles with biography information and audio and video clips, which event planners can then browse when they鈥檙e hiring.
The profiles are verified by the students鈥� primary professor. By partnering with music institutions, the Gigsicians team hopes to overcome a barrier to entry that has long plagued young musicians.
鈥淓vent planners tell us it鈥檚 too risky to hire young performers without prior experience. They are often unprofessional and unverified听and don鈥檛 know the expectations of playing for an event like a wedding. It鈥檚 just easier to hire from the set vendor list that planners have always worked off of,鈥� Miller says.
鈥淏ut this way, these well-known music programs can vouch for the musicians.鈥�
The platform offers different modules of content that students can use and customize, such as contract generation and information on arranging music for timing at events, doing your taxes as a freelance musician and distinguishing yourself from other performers. Campbell and Miller are working with computer science graduate Kylie Dale鈥攚ho played flute in middle school鈥攖o build the site.
Miller says she and Campbell came to CU four years ago to be orchestral musicians, but they became interested in entrepreneurship early on with the urging of their professors.
鈥淲e couldn鈥檛 have done this without help from Jeff Nytch, Daniel Zacek, Christina Jennings, Yoriko Morita, Joan Braun and others who have mentored us along the way.鈥�
Now, the College of Music and the Entrepreneurship Center for Music will be among Gigsicians鈥� first clients: After spending the summer developing content, the team hopes to launch a beta test with the ECM in the coming months.
鈥淲e also have letters of intent from Lawrence University in Wisconsin and the University of Indiana,鈥� Miller adds, 鈥渟o we鈥檒l be able to get feedback from those schools on how the platform is working.鈥�
Campbell says now is the time for a service like this to enter the music world.
鈥淢usicians want to share their passion and their talents that they worked so hard to perfect. Music schools and their students are hungry for this.鈥�
