MyFavTunes

My project is called MyFavTunes and it involves music. It is designed to be an "ecosystem" of music you experience in your real-world life.

You can remain in the moment without worrying about missing the music. MyFavTunes will ensure you will know what was playing.

What is MyFavTunes?

In the simplest terms, MyFavTunes is a music history database. When Creators use their playlists in a class, at a club or at a party. MyFavTunes stores the information about the music that was played, where it was played, by whom, when, for what reason, the list of music and the song order along with other information that might be applicable like what activity was performed for each song.

For example, if you take spinning classes there may be songs you have not heard and maybe the spinning instructor had to leave right after class so you couldn't ask them what the song was. If the instructor was using the MyFavTunes "Creator" account they would have created a playlist for the class and published it to MyFavTunes on his/her account.. All you would have to do is go to your own MyFavTunes Consumer account and click on the playlist for the class you just took and use your favorite streaming music service to hear it. One of the features is the ability to "follow" Creators you like or see in your routine activities such as a gym spinning class or a weekly party at a club.

The same would apply to parties you attend, clubs or bars you go to and other activities you may attend that use music in some fashion.

MyFavTunes is not a streaming service and does not sell music or music files. MyFavTunes integrates and connects streaming services, the places you experience music and you.

Where did the Idea for MyFavTunes come from?

I have been going to spinning classes at my local gym for a long time and have heard new songs I liked and asked the instructor the name of the song after class so I could find it myself later when I got home. I wasn't the only one asking about the music and started to think about how this could be made easier for the student and then the instructor.

Once streaming services became more common instructors started just using their cellphones to play the music for spin class, though some would use their iPod or even bring in a laptop. Along with the rise of app popularity improved development tools the more fleshed out idea of what MyFavTunes could become was realized.

The choice of using spinning at the gym as the MVP (Minimal Viable Product) was made because this is where I came up with the idea, I have been spinning at least twice a week for over 12 years now. Spinning encompasses all the fundamental concepts and functions required for a usable MyFavTunes application and addresses functionality from the Creator and Consumer perspective. Additionally, the spinning MVP could be easily expanded and replicated to similar activities such as Dance, Yoga and Cardio exercise classes.

Spinning was also chosen because it allowed for an almost viral rollout once out of beta. Most spin instructors are "independent contractors" that get hired by the gym to teach a class. The instructor usually is at the mercy of the gym for any marketing or exposure of the class to gym members and possible external students. MyFavTunes functionality gives instructors more control of advertising and marketing of their classes  so they do not need the support of the gyms they teach at. People can find them on MyFavTunes and the instructors can tell people about how they teach, what type of music they play and other important aspects of their classes.

These same benefits can be realized by Bars and Clubs, party planners and other businesses that use music in their work and want to increase their visibility and profitability.

Below are some rough examples of how a Creator and Consumer might use MyFavTunes.

MyFavTunes from a Creator's perspective:

Joe teaches spinning at Gold's gym Hollywood on Saturday afternoons at 3pm.

He creates a playlist of songs he will use for the class and stores it on MyFavTunes. Each song has notes as to what activity will be done like Jumps, Sprints or Hill Climbs.

When Joe teaches the class the MyFavTunes player allows him to see what songs are coming up and what the next activities are.

When the class is finished he clicks on "Publish" and the playlist will be released to the database and become searchable and visible on MyFavTunes for the people Joe has defined to be able to see it. People can find it using Joe's name, spinning, Hollywood, Gold's, etc.. like you search on Google.

Joe gets feedback on the playlist, songs and his class in general and gets song requests for his next class. He uses the Creator webpage provided by MyFavTunes to tell people about his next themed class with songs for Halloween and allows new and regular students to see all his playlists.

MyFavTunes from a Consumer perspective:

Julie has just started college at UCLA and decided to check out some local gyms that some of her friends have mentioned are pretty nice.

She got MyFavTunes from her parents as one of her graduation presents.

She checks out MyFavTunes and looks for Hollywood, CA and spinning and is presented with a Google-type map with several locations marked that have spinning classes. She picks Gold's Hollywood and see several instructors listed on MyFavTunes and she picks Tammy's Tuesday night class to try.

Tammy's Creator page says she plays current rock and roll music and works her students pretty hard but welcomes new students. Julie can see Tammy's previous playlists because Tammy has set her Creator account up to provide unrestricted viewing, you don't have to be in Tammy's "Viewable" list.

Julie attends the class, her first spinning class. Tammy helps Julie get set up and makes sure Julie knows how to adjust the tension and what the different positions are.

Julie has a great time and has even met a couple people who are also going to UCLA. Julie talks to Tammy about some of the music Tammy played and asked if she could request something for next week. Tammy says "Sure!, just use  my MyFavTunes page and send me a request! Glad you could come tonight!"

When Julie got home she looked on MyFavTunes and "followed" Tammy's Tuesday class so she would get automatic notifications of new playlists in her account and reviewed the songs she heard at the class tonight. She liked the 4th song on the list which was new to her so she had her Spotify account add it to her favorites and could her it whenever she wanted.

MyFavTunes out on the town

An example of how MyFavTunes would allow you to find a great experience is when you go out for some fun on the weekends.

You may be in the mood to find a club or bar that has some interesting music playing and are meeting up with some of your friends before deciding where to go.

Once the gang is together you can call up the MyFavTunes app on one of your cell phones and decide how far you want to go to find an interesting place.

Within the range you selected you'll be presented with a bunch of locations where MyFavTunes is used. Reduce the locations to ones you are interested in by selecting the types of "Venues" you are interested in, in this case "Clubs and Bars".

Selecting one of the remaining locations will show a pop-up of what music is playing at that location. If there is a DJ and they have the MyFavTunes interface plugin you will see a short list of the most recent music played and the DJ performing. If it is a venue with an internet jukebox like TouchTunes there will be a short list of the most recent music played and which songs are queued up to play next.

If you are going to a Karaoke bar and have this intense urge to sing "Don't go Breaking My Heart" with your significant other you can find a bar where people haven't heard it within the last couple of hours so they won't throw you out!

The MyFavTunes Creator webpage would be used by Clubs and Bars to advertise upcoming and past events and artists and well as provide links to the music these artists have or will be performing. You can "Follow" upcoming events and be reminded when to buy tickets and whatever else you might need to do to attend the event.

If restaurants use MyFavTunes you will be able to find places to eat that have music to match the mood you are in that evening. Out having fun, on a romantic date or on a serious business dinner with all the company executives.

MyFavTunes at home with your friends

With MyFavTunes you can set up a party with your friends by using a Creator account.

Set up the location so it is only viewable by the people you add to your followers. This way the location is not made public but people you invite can get directions through Google Maps or other location services.

MyFavTunes can also be set up with restricted setting by parents who allow their kids to use MyFavTunes. Some restrictions would be only non-public publishing of lists and locations, only "clean" music can be used to create playlist, etc..

Set the location, date and time and create the invitee list and set a theme for the party or get-together if you want one. This could be a Halloween party or a bunch of friends getting together to play some online video games with some great background music.

The people you invite can send you requests and vote on the music you are going to play. You will have a graphic display of what songs and votes were received so a playlist can be created with everyone being happy with what they will be hearing. Party On!

MyFavTunes as a Marketing platform

The MyFavTunes database can be mined to reveal information about music tastes, new music adoption and geographic location, what venues are best to introduce to for music types/genres and much more that would be of interest to music artists, record labels, advertisers and anyone looking to spot the latest and newest trends in the world of music

MyFavTunes would provide a much broader scope and more detailed information about music consumption than what is currently provided by radio playlists, music streaming services and internet music video viewing.

Most of these activities are individual to device interactions where MyFavTunes provides a dynamic map of how music is consumed among people in the real world.

For example a Spinning instructor plays a song in Los Angeles, a student there hears it, downloads it from Spotify, sends recommendations to their friends back home in Tulsa, OK and those friends send it out....etc...

Other aspects of MyFavTunes

The Creator and Consumer examples above show that this model is very applicable in many different environments.

If you attend a party, wedding or any kind of celebration someone could put together a playlist everyone attending will like by using the request functions before the event.

If you about to go out on the town with friends you can find a club that is playing the music you like by finding it on MyFavTunes and looking at the recent songs list.

If you are going on vacation in Germany during Oktoberfest you can find an authentic Oompa band by searching MyFavTunes.

If you proposed marriage and in the nervousness and excitement you forgot the song that was playing when you popped the question, you can find it on MyFavTunes.

MyFavTunes can organize an individual's music activities so they are always aware of new music and events they want to attend whether it is classes at the gym, a club they frequent, a concert they want to see or a party they got invited to.

You can remain in the moment without worrying about missing the music. MyFavTunes will ensure you will know what was playing.

Link to PowerPoint on MyFavTunes

Below is a link to a PowerPoint presentation that will give you a more detailed idea of what MyFavTunes is all about. This is located on my Google Drive account.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3-M02DrW1MjTl92alZUQTBIT1k/edit?usp=sharing

How will I make MyFavTunes happen?

If I get funded I will use the money to create a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) using spinning Instructors and Students at the gym as the MVP. I will be hiring a company that builds apps/websites to perform this fundamental work. I want to make sure the proper software technology is being used for the core programming, database structure and user interface creation. I have already researched companies in my area who would be able to create the MVP. One of them is run by a person I worked with at a StartupWeekend in Woodland Hills, CA last year and have talked with him about the possibility of doing something like this for me.

Once the MVP is completed I will be looking to hire people with the mix of skills to be able to support the MVP code and expand on the functionality. My hope is to have the MVP run beyond beta and be released to the public with user growth before bringing permanent people on board. If funding is over the amount I am looking for I would use the app development service to lay the groundwork on the proper software, database and user interface applications to use and bring people on board sooner to do more of the basic coding and building. I would hope to bring on initially 3 people with expertise in backend coding, database building/structure and user interface programming. I would be looking for people who have primary expertise in one area and some exposure and experience in one or more of the other areas. In a startup you need to wear a few hats for a while until the company grows and the job responsibilities are more defined and can be made a bit narrower in scope.

How will I contribute?

I will also be contributing, not just as a business developer but also as an applications developer and programmer once we get the tools and software to create MyFavTunes defined and start using them. My background is in technology where I have been a programmer and developer of applications.

I did quite a bit of programming at IBM where I programmed and developed enhancements for an enterprise wide Statistical Process Control (SPC) used in a semiconductor wafer fab as well as working with process and measurement tool interfaces.

I developed a wafer defect data distribution system that allowed data to be transported to the SPC charts of uniquely identified process tools, quickly stopping the spread of defects and keeping process yields high. I spearheaded this effort with the edict of "do something with this data" by the program manager and statistician I worked for.

You can see the other software work I was involved in at my LinkedIn account:

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mark-harrison/3/638/636/

I have programmed in C, REXX, Perl, HTML and HTML5 and to date myself, SAS, Pascal, APL, Basic and even OS/2.

I expect that once the software and applications for MyFavTunes have been defined I will roll up my sleeves and learn how to code in these languages and use the applications. I'll be helping the experts by doing the routine, repetitive work they shoulder's be doing and I can't screw up too easily so they can concentrate on the more complex programming issues. I'll also be heavily involved in the development process, working with the end users to define the functions and layouts and testing the app/website in the field at spinning classes at the gym during beta..

Market/Customer validation and needs

I have been working with multiple spinning instructors over the last several years of developing MyFavTunes asking for their feedback on functions, usability, cost and having them provide feedback on the presentations I have developed to showcase MyFavTunes. I have received a lot of positive feedback from Instructors and Students and have validated a need in this and other user communities. One of the Instructors I have been working with has even started posting his spinning playlists on Facebook because of the requests of people in his class.

This validation has been ongoing since I came up with the idea for MyFavTunes. There is a high turnover of spinning instructors, at least at the gym I go to so there has been opportunities to discuss my idea with a lot instructors and students to get feedback on whether it would be useful or not, how it would work, price, features, etc.. I have yet to have an instructor or student tell me they don't see the benefit for the creation of MyFavTunes.

How will MyFavTunes grow and evolve?

Once the MVP is released to the public new customers will be acquired by a combination of word of mouth, email, Facebook, LinkedIn and targeted communications to the Gyms, Bars, etc.. We would initially concentrate on large metropolitan areas and nationwide chains to get user numbers up to sustainable cash-flow positive levels quickly. When MyFavTunes is installed in one location in an area, like a street with a lot of clubs and bars there will be a noticeable increase in customers at the places using MyFavTunes which should increase adoption very quickly due to competitive pressures. For Instructors, clubs, bars, etc.. MyFavTunes provides a powerful marketing tool that will bring in more and repeat clients.

Ongoing user support and expansion will be facilitated by LinkedIn and Facebook user groups and also by designated "Curators" who would work within a city/state/country and possibly concentrate on a music genre and/or activity (such as spinning) providing local users with music information they can use and advice on improving how they use their music or perform their activities. This localization would be done when the reach of MyFavTunes formally goes beyond the United States.

If you have any unanswered questions after reading this section please submit your question to me through the Kickstarter mechanism and I'll respond within a day or two, most likely I'll post your answer in the FAQs section so other people can view it.

Thank you for helping make something great happen!

Sincerely,

Mark Harrison