Last week I had the chance to participate in the Lean Startup Machine workshop in Singapore, with fellow contributor Dondi Hananto, who has written about his experiences in the workshop. In summary, the workshop was a valuable experience, which I would recommend to anyone who wants to build their own startup, wants to study a “quick” way of customer development, or wants to get a different perspective on how to build businesses. Of course, the LSM approach is only one of many ways in building a business. But I hope, for those of you who want to get into the startup scene, that you will think of how to build a business, and not just a program or application.
During those three days, all the participants were divided into groups and asked to develop a business idea with a potential audience, and home into the business concept to those potential customers. Does the proposed business solve a problem? Are there potential customers willing to pay for that solution or service? The workshop did not even touch on programming, management or finance – the core was, validating the assumption that the proposed business concept has a potential base of customers willing to use that service or solution.
From the many groups who presented at the LSM workshop, there is one group which presented an interesting concept tied with music: Bring Them In. The core concept is simple: a sort of combination between an online petition and crowdfunding, gathering those who want to bring a certain artist to Indonesia and collect money for that cause. Every “signatory” must pledge a certain amount of money, which in the event that the artist can come to Indonesia, will become a sort of downpayment on tickets (and if the campaign is unsuccessful, no money is drawn). Bring Them In was planned to be working together with promotors.
The business concept is far for complete, since it has not thought about payment, negotiation with promotors or other partners, and so on, but at the least this concept has found customers willing to participate. It started out as an idea on a Friday night, and by late Saturday night had become a landing page you see at the link above. And people have registered. In that one weekend, several “startups” were ready to launch, including Bring Them In. Some others even got money from their customers, even though the service itself had not run yet.
The point is, there are many aspects of the music industry that can be created into a business, and have a market that is willing to pay. There are many problems today around music that may be solved by a new idea. Many services can be made, regardless of whether technology is used in that solution. And sometimes the problems faced are found in daily life, which are apparently felt by many people. Rather than trying to sell new technology that will need an education process to the potential customer, why not try to find solutions to real problems afflicting potential customers, using technology? The elements are the same, yet the frame of mind is different.
The “new” music industry needs something that people feel worth paying for, not something that they may or may not want (or even pay for). And it is not difficult to start from an idea, to become something that can become an attractive service for customers. The question is – when will you start?
Ario is a co-founder of Ohd.io, an Indonesian music streaming service. He worked in the digital music industry in Indonesia from 2003 to 2010, and recently worked in the movie and TV industry in Vietnam. Keep up with him on Twitter at @barijoe or his blog at http://barijoe.wordpress.com.