On November 23, it was that time again: At the Music WorX Pitch, four startups from the music industry presented their business models. Since 2011, the Ministry of Culture and Media in Hamburg has been supporting young companies from the industry, since 2014 together with Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft in the form of an incubator. This year, Aestival, InTempo, connaczt and Cosonify went through the three-month program.
Music WorX has international significance
More than 40 startups from more than 10 countries had applied for the 2022 Music WorX incubator. This was reported by Egbert Rühl, managing director of Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft, in his welcoming speech at the Häkken music club on the Reeperbahn. Since the start of the funding program, more than one million euros have been invested by the city. On this evening, the four startups supported with 15,000 euros and intensive coaching presented themselves to the audience and a jury, which gave helpful feedback. Unlike previous years, there was no competition in the pitches; all teams were considered winners.
A platform for job placement and an app against stress
Aestival from Berlin made the start. This startup has set itself the goal of simplifying the recruitment process for live events. Until now, it has taken a lot of effort to find professionals, especially for technical areas such as lighting and sound. One festival even had to be canceled at short notice this year because of this. Aestival now offers a platform through which concert organizers can book the necessary manpower.
With InTempo it was the first time a startup from Ukraine participated in the Music WorX incubator, with team members not only based in Kiev but spread across several locations. InTempo develops an app that helps users cope with acute stress and anxiety. It is well known that music can have a healing effect on the psyche, and in this case the replaying of bars from pieces of music is intended to provide help and distraction. In addition to the software for the app, a special cell phone case is also part of the offer.
Two ideas that make work easier for musicians
Musicians want to be on stage, and all the organizational work that is also part of their job tends to be a nuisance for them. Nevertheless, it takes up a large part of their time. connaczt from Plattling in Bavaria wants to take this work off their hands and hand it over to a digital manager. A web-based app that works with artificial intelligence helps with such essential activities as planning tours and negotiating contracts.
Tools like miro exist for visualizing ideas and working on them collaboratively. For the music world, something like this has been missing until now. Cosonify from Karlsruhe wants to close this gap. Via a website, users can visualize song ideas, chat with each other, or store sound, video, and text files. There is also an app that serves as a mobile interface.
