sgusers3的部落格

Online platform Windphony helps music composers to distribute or sell their sheet music.儲存倉 JASLENE PANG reportsTAN Siow Wee was an applications engineer for eight years before he made the leap to set up his own firm, an online platform that distributes sheet music for original compositions.He got the idea for Windphony when he saw that people were slowly but surely accepting eBooks. If people could ditch hard-copy books for their electronic versions, wouldn't they do the same for sheet music, he asked himself.His then-employer, when told about his idea, was supportive and wanted him to continue his work while setting up Windphony.But as it turned out, he was applying for a grant under Spring Singapore's Action Community for Entrepreneurship programme - which helps entrepreneurs by providing funding, mentorship and networking opportunities - and one of the contract requirements was that he had to make it a full-time venture.He quit his job.Making this mid-career change was not easy, especially since there was a possibility that Windphony would not take off."But then I thought, since I have the opportunity to do it now, why don't I just try and see what happens? At least I can tell myself, 'Been there, done that'."His sister, also a trained engineer, also quit her job to become Windphony's co-founder.Mr Tan says: "Unless you are in the sheet music industry, it is very hard for people to understand what it is about... In fact, not many people see this as a potential market." According to him, the market is worth US$9 billion globally.The siblings had to put up their own money before getting the grant, but they believe in the potential of Windphony because there are so many composers in the market and only so many publishers, he says.The composers here, however, took some convincing to get on board this new concept.Mr Tan says that already, composers take a long time to move from pen to computer; moving from computer to the act of distributing their music online is yet another jump they have to make.Composers are also finding it tedious to upload their works onto multiple sites online, for example, their own websites or video sites such as YouTube."So we told them they could just give us the link from their YouTube channel and we would manage it for them. After that, they were more receptive towards us," he says.Windphony now has more than 20 composers on board, and at least 40 works.Windphony lets composers decide whether to sell their sheet music for money or to distribute it free. In the last six months, it has sold about two dozen scores.But Mr Tan says he wants Windphony to be more than a purely transactional website."Windphony is also a talent-sourcing platform where new composers raise their visibility and exposure in the music industry, at the same time showcasing their works and making some revenue."We like to think about Windphony as a mix between eBooks and Britain's Got Talent," he says, referring to the British talent competition broadcast on television."We also want it to be a place where composers can mingle. The idea is to link people up so that迷你倉最平composers can come together and create beautiful works."Mr Tan says buyers have to submit some personal - but non-invasive - information, such as the country they are from. This is so that they can monitor the transactions made and know more about the people who listen to or buy their works, from where they can create their own fan bases.Being a musician himself - he plays the saxophone and used to compose his own music - Mr Tan knows most of the composers who have come to use Windphony.The challenge lies in finding buyers for the music."If I have so many works and no one buys them, the composers would run away."We also want to make our idea so easy that in the middle of the night, if you have insomnia, you can just go onto our website and listen and download the music."Windphony is making some headway with getting more local compositions on board. Mr Tan discloses that he has approached some schools.He says: "Many Singapore students go for overseas competitions. And there are actually lots of nice Singapore works, just that no one bothers to do them properly. So we thought, if we can arrange them nicely, we can get it distributed to these groups of musicians, who, when they travel overseas, can showcase Singapore."He says he does not want composers to feel that he is just another businessman. "Composers don't like to put a dollar value to music. So when they understand that we just want to spread their music and let everyone share the love (of music), they are sold by our idea."Another thing we learned is that composers want to spend more time writing than managing their works online. So we offer them an agreement under which they let us handle their music.Windphony does not hold the rights to the music like a publisher would. The moment a buyer appears for the works of a composer, the composer just needs to inform Windphony, which lets them "graduate" from the website.Moving forward, Mr Tan is planning to reach out overseas, particularly to China, where he says composers and publishers are waiting to be heard, but where transactions are done only between familiar faces.He said: "We want to help them bridge the gap. And in order to find more composers outside of Singapore, we try to go for events overseas."One of these was the Apec Start-Up Accelerator Leadership Summit this year, an invitation-only, two-day forum that brought entrepreneurs and corporate decision-makers together.To those who are contemplating becoming entrepreneurs, Mr Tan has this advice: Just do it."But you must be prepared to take the risk and fail; if it fails, what happens? If it doesn't, good for you. But do something different and think creatively: many of the things we think are mundane in Singapore can be grown into big ideas overseas."HAVE an interesting story on an SME to share? Drop us a note on why you think the company should be featured in our weekly SME Inc pages, with details such as how the company has grown and its expansion plans. Send your e-mail to Felda Chay at feldac@sph.com.sg with the subject head: ''Feature this SME'', and you might read about the company in BT.儲存