Behind the Music, with Marc Brown. Ever wondered what it's like to own your own business? Marshall speak with CEO and founder of Byta, about how he ended up in his position.
“Go for it, and never give up. It sounds cliché but it’s true - anybody can do it, anybody can work in music! It’s a hard business and it’s not easy but if you’re into music then it’s brilliant and it’s worth it. You just need perseverance. It’s good to do something that’s perhaps a little out of your comfort zone. I think that taking that risk is a good thing.”
Read the article on the Marshall Blog
After five years of bootstrapping, music sharing company Byta secured $1.9M in funding. Co-founder Jen Pomphrey, shared her thoughts on the transition and maintaining a strong culture.
“It is our job to get across to the development team (and the rest of the team) the motivations behind what we are doing, where we have come from, and ensure that we are all on the same page for our pathway to success. We aim to ensure that our developers feel well supported, have a strong sense of ownership around their work, and ultimately feel proud of the product they are making.”
Read the article on Product Hunt
Pre-release music sharing platform Byta has launched a major redesign, following a CAD$1.9 million (£1.09 million) investment led by the Canada Media Fund.
“Byta’s selling point is that it is a secure system, which provides tracks with correct metadata and in a variety of formats. It was launched in 2017 by former radio plugger Marc Brown, who says that all of these things had been lacking as marketeers in the record industry moved to digital files when providing pre-release music to media contacts and other key people.”
Read the article on the CMU blog
Byta have released a special research report, the first of its kind, which examines the current challenges faced daily when it comes to sharing digital audio files and streams within the music ecosystem.
“If you get a few music professionals together in a room and ask them about file sharing, they’ll quickly start rattling off complaints about everything from poorly designed interfaces and wobbly security measures to inconvenient file formats and missing metadata.
The industry needs something better, and that’s why Byta elected to take action. ”
In a Music Ally guest blog, Byta's Marc Brown gives his personal thoughts on some of the findings on a section of music industry infrastructure that may have wider-reaching consequences than it initially appears.
“Having worked in music for so many years, some have been quick to say that what I see is only a niche problem. A problem only felt by a select few in the music industry, and not by the broader music ecosystem. However, we know this is a problem affecting the whole music ecosystem. This is why we decided to research the first ever report on music sharing.”
Read the guest blog on Music Ally
THE HOW MUSIC CHARTS PODCAST: The Power of Music Metadata With Byta Founder Marc Brown
“What's behind the scenes, all of that information, is the metadata. Artists know now that they need to send the right information to whoever their aggregator is to get that music onto Spotify, to make sure that information is correct. If somebody listens to your track and the information is good enough, but they [Spotify] don't know who to pay, Spotify can't get you your money back. So it's this idea of tying your piece of music to information about you. Most people talk from release forward, but we like to think that this process starts very early, from the day you start moving tracks around, so learning to tag your files properly so people know the artist name, the album name — super important.”
Read the article on the Chartmetric Blog
Byta’s Focus On How We Listen Continues Invaluable Conversation About The Barriers To Music Promotion And The Need For Change
“This simple task of sending, receiving, and listening to music files efficiently and securely on desktop is a massive pain point within the music industry. At best, shortcuts and insecure transfer of audio files can result in lost time in getting a release to market and promoted. At worst, the breach of secure audio file transference can cause music to be leaked prior to its release date, with significant financial implications. The impact of this inefficiency is felt at all levels of the industry.”
Read the article on Forbes
Byta, the private music sharing service for pre‑releases and more, raises seed round
“Byta, the music sharing service for pre‑releases and other use cases where there is a need to share sound files privately, has picked up around $1.4 million in seed funding.
The round was led by the Canada Media Fund, with participation from private investors. They include musician Scott Kannberg, one of the original members of 90s indie rock band Pavement…”
Read the article on TechCrunch
MusicTechFest Pod - 96. Marc Brown – Byta
“What I realised is, when I was a radio plugger and when I talked to loads of other people, they’re basically sending all these different kinds of links around all the time because no one had ever built one platform to send a receive digital audio the way they want to. So instead of sending just a file via Dropbox and a stream via SoundCloud and a watermark via another service, with Byta, you can do all of those within one platform.”
Listen to the episode on MTF
pre‑release promo tool Byta raises $1.9m seed funding round
“Byta says it will also be investing in its non-profit arm, HowWeListen Education, which is based around interviews with musicians and industry professionals on how they consume music. It arose out of its own #HowWeListen blog which has also evolved into a series of conference and panel talks.”
Read the article on Music Ally
Marc Brown Founder Of Byta - Enables You To Control Your Music Like Never Before!
“The key is to give people a reason to engage and build a context around what you are doing to help people understand why they should trust you with whatever it is they need to get done by using your product.”
Read the article on AsiaTechDaily
Spot Lyte On...Marc Brown - Co-founder of Byta
“What Byta does, we're not here to replace human experience. We are here to make it easy to get the music from A to B. So many products try to sell themselves on solving the whole problem, and I think our goal is that you need to focus on building the relationships.”
Listen to the Episode
Minister Guilbeault Announces Final Recipient of the Creative Export Canada Program
“This project entails a platform that enables users to send and receive digital audio in a clean, simple and secure way. Byta will create several new business and networking opportunities and will introduce, develop, and expand its brand into three new international target markets: the USA, Australia and Brazil.”
Read more here
アーティスト向け音楽データの共有ツール、Bytaが資金調達。ストリーミングに必要な機能が充実
ミュージシャンやレーベル、音楽業界向けのデータ共有ツールを開発する、カナダの音楽スタートアップ「Byta」（ビータ）は、シード投資ラウンドで1900万カナダ・ドル（約1.5億円）の資金を調達しました。
Read the article