MUSIC TECH STARTUPS: The technology from Flat for students and general users
Pierre Rannou is CEO and founder of Flat, an online tool for music composition which, in a few words, could be compared to a Google Docs in the music sector. Users need to sign up on the website before they can create their first music sheets, compose and, if they want, invite friends to be able to compose in real time together.
«Of course you can create on your own, otherwise if you want to collaborate in real time with your friend you can just send a direct link to your composition and they’ll be able to share it with you.
It’s not about sound recording, it’s more about putting notes one by one, using the keyboard with the shortcuts. If users want, they can plug in an instrument and the tool will take care of putting down the notes for them. If you don’t know the notes you can still play your guitar, or your drum: just plug your electronic instrument and we write the music sheet for you. It’s basically an algorhythm. It contains all information about pitch, notes, duration. It’s not about songs, we’d love to be able to hear a song and being able to write music, but it’s much harder.
You need at least to know some good skills in music theory, even though you don’t need to be the next Mozart».
Do users have to pay for this?
«We didn’t want to restrict creation, the editor will never be restricted. If you want to be able to do more than 15 creations or have premium features like guitar tuning or swing you’ll have to subscribe».
Who is Flat aimed to?
«Basically we wanted to start with enthusiasts or beginners, the more we improve the product, adding professional tools, the more we gain professionals».
Have there been any uses you didn’t expect?
«The biggest surprise was about teachers on the platform. Today we have two different products, one for educational purposes and one for other users. When we started this project we weren’t targeting the music education sector. After we launched it in the US, and we saw many young pupils compose some great stuff and some teachers being excited, it was mindblowing and then we decided to create a dedicated product for educational purposes».
What is the difference in creating a system for education and one for general users?
«The educational version is more about being able to share it with an entire classroom, being able to grade students, as a teacher to manage all different versions coming from different students. It’s more about being able to improve the class time».
What was the feedback from more experienced musicians?
«Most of them told us, a few months ago, that we’re game changers and they were excited to see some change in the music business».
Who is part of your team?
«Our team is made of musicians, we went to conservatories, we met and we came up with this crazy idea about a Google Docs for music composition. I’m a drummer and an engineer, there’s a piano player. We didn’t have a solution to compose easily all together without having to send emails, with different versions and painful processes.
We put the first version online to see if someone else in the world would be excited about it and the thing was, we met tons of musicians and teachers who were really excited about Flat. So we decided to keep on working on it.
This was a school project about something innovative. We started to think about something a bit challenging. We were excited about it, the more we worked on it, the more we figured all the work we’d have to do after the first version. For two years we pushed the first version online, everyone was excited, schools etc. We then decided to create a company based on that».
What is the next step for your platform?
«We’re working on a mobile app right now, it’s really exciting. The second part is about our educational product, dedicated to students, we’re working about specific exercises and resources for teachers to improve the quality of classes. Teachers are excited about it, and students too».
Is it also a kind of social network?
«It’s not a truly social platform right now because we decided to focus on the tool. The platform was born around the tool. You can follow people, there is a sort of trend for compositions. That’s a next step, we’ll work on the next social interaction and lots of users ask for that. We don’t allow people to chat but they can drop a comment, and support people they like».
How does copyright work?
«We’re just a platform, when people start creating it’s up to them to decide who can access, if it’s public or private. Everyone can find it but no one can edit it. If someone wants to transcribe that he can but if the right owners are not fine with it they just turn it private. You could steal anything, but if someone claims he created a certain composition first, we can prove that it has been started on the platform. It depends on who started first. It’s easier to collaborate and create nicer music together».
What is the most difficult thing in being a startup?
«I think the hardest thing is funds. We have opportunities coming from everywhere, so networking is not a problem, we basically meet too many people. The drawback is that to take part in every opportunity we would need more funds. It’s a strategic decision to know the priorities. We have a lot of people asking for features that are not the basic point about the product, but there is still a lot to do on the product itself and we can’t start working on that or it will become a mess. We don’t have enough funding to hire someone new, so we have to make choices and it’s really frustrating. We have to be patient because we are growing, but when you’re growing fast in terms of users you have to make a ton of choices to stay consistent».
How important are incubators, labs, accelerators?
«I’m not a big fan of these, basically people are telling you what to do and pretend that, since you’re following their secret recipe, you’ll be successful. Not true. That’s why we joined The Family in Paris, where they are not telling you what to do but helping you figure out what is the best next thing to do. It’s not about getting an office, just being supported in your journey, when you have an issue they’ll help you solve it or move on. Sometimes you’re tired or you get bored, they basically slap you so you need to wake up on that point».
What is the role of technology in today’s music?
«I think music is a lot about maths, it can benefit from technology. If you look at music history it evolved three times, the first was just about people being able to remember the music, then it was about writing down, you’re now able to compose with a computer. I think we have all the rules, all the maths, I think we can drastically improve the number of people composing and the average quality of projects».
Where do your users come from?
«Not from France, we have very few users there. Around 60 per cent are based in the US. We have lots of users in South America, too, because that’s part of their culture. In Europe most of our users come from Spain, some from Italy, others from the Northern countries. It’s growing faster now in the UK.
The main point is that people love music but sometimes they stop composing because they are bored. They are just waiting for some opportunity to get back. I think that’s why we reached 600,000 users on the platform now. We’re proud of it, no one was trusting us to build such a big thing in two years.
When the platform started to grow day by day, we were looking at the different countries, such as those from South America or Asia, even from North America where every young person has a chance to learn some music theory. Around 12 or 14 they love to put notes on paper».