Getting people on board
Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 12:18 am
So I made a post in T&D and I was told to make a post here. Really I guess the right question to ask here would be, I've got this wonderful idea.
My company, a record label at heart, wants to change the direction to a provider of solutions for musicians, music fans, engineers, and producers. Basically it's lots of tools that allow musicians to collaborate in new ways, producers to better manage projects, and engineers to better manage archives and sessions etc.
If you're not an audio dude or a musician then a lot of that is pretty meaningless. The other side of it goes to the music FANS who is really the primary market for this whole product. Like I said, we're a record label at heart, but we're plum fed-up with the label model of today whereby record labels are these faceless passive entities that thrust music at people. Instead we'd like to shift our function to being more of an intermediary force that connects musicians to their fans in new and unique ways.
To sum it up, simply, we're trying to become the first ever Web 2.0, Open-Source record label. Our entire access front will be a web-based application that will (eventually) have client-based, offline (via sync), access to our services. Our source will be "closed" to a point, but we want to create some sort of SDK which will allow the user community to develop approved projects to enhance our site's usability, including new features, skins, etc. New modules for everyone to use.
I imagine some portions of the app would be ported to small, potentially self-contained versions which we would distribute GPL style for artists who aren't in our repertoire to utilize on their sites, but the complex functionality stays integral to us.
I've been doing lots of research into new technologies and such which has spurred many of these ideas. It's amazing what can happen in 5 years. Half of these ideas would've been impossible or really f'in difficult to do back when I first "got into" programming.
Either way, with this idea we've kinda set our sights way to high and we're starting to come down and realize we're going to need help and lots of it. The problem is getting people on board. It's a very niche product in the sense that I forsee difficulty for a developer who can't relate to the audience. I would assume this would apply to most situations, but therein lies the caveat. If this were something "technically oriented" as in something geeky, something programmers are used to, then this wouldn't be an issue, but I would imagine that a lot of our ideas would make little sense to someone who has no experience in the field.
Also I have no money. I would love nothing more than to pay people to help, but the best situation I could describe would be, let's all get together and knock this thing out one step at a time, and when it's done, it'll pay us back for sure.
I'm truly, honestly, ready to undertake this whole thing by myself, but waiting around and sitting on the idea while I hone my skills, while totally feasible, isn't ideal. We need this product, but we want it to be genuine.
It sounds a bit strange, but what I'd love more than anything is to write as much structure as possible, and present some sort of non-working visual prototype to a team of guys who are all on the same page, who can really get into this project and who want to see it to completion. After that, I'd pretty much spend as much time working with the team and pretty much just asking lots of questions and "learning" that way.
Eventually I'll get my skills up to par, but until then we need some way to get going on this idea now. We're just having trouble trying to figure out ways to find the right people and convince them to get on board as part of the team, rather than just a freelancer who wants money.
I know I said that this was a "question" and lo-and-behold, not a single question-mark in this entire long-winded post, but I hope the question is implied since I'm having trouble fleshing out an actual question.
My company, a record label at heart, wants to change the direction to a provider of solutions for musicians, music fans, engineers, and producers. Basically it's lots of tools that allow musicians to collaborate in new ways, producers to better manage projects, and engineers to better manage archives and sessions etc.
If you're not an audio dude or a musician then a lot of that is pretty meaningless. The other side of it goes to the music FANS who is really the primary market for this whole product. Like I said, we're a record label at heart, but we're plum fed-up with the label model of today whereby record labels are these faceless passive entities that thrust music at people. Instead we'd like to shift our function to being more of an intermediary force that connects musicians to their fans in new and unique ways.
To sum it up, simply, we're trying to become the first ever Web 2.0, Open-Source record label. Our entire access front will be a web-based application that will (eventually) have client-based, offline (via sync), access to our services. Our source will be "closed" to a point, but we want to create some sort of SDK which will allow the user community to develop approved projects to enhance our site's usability, including new features, skins, etc. New modules for everyone to use.
I imagine some portions of the app would be ported to small, potentially self-contained versions which we would distribute GPL style for artists who aren't in our repertoire to utilize on their sites, but the complex functionality stays integral to us.
I've been doing lots of research into new technologies and such which has spurred many of these ideas. It's amazing what can happen in 5 years. Half of these ideas would've been impossible or really f'in difficult to do back when I first "got into" programming.
Either way, with this idea we've kinda set our sights way to high and we're starting to come down and realize we're going to need help and lots of it. The problem is getting people on board. It's a very niche product in the sense that I forsee difficulty for a developer who can't relate to the audience. I would assume this would apply to most situations, but therein lies the caveat. If this were something "technically oriented" as in something geeky, something programmers are used to, then this wouldn't be an issue, but I would imagine that a lot of our ideas would make little sense to someone who has no experience in the field.
Also I have no money. I would love nothing more than to pay people to help, but the best situation I could describe would be, let's all get together and knock this thing out one step at a time, and when it's done, it'll pay us back for sure.
I'm truly, honestly, ready to undertake this whole thing by myself, but waiting around and sitting on the idea while I hone my skills, while totally feasible, isn't ideal. We need this product, but we want it to be genuine.
It sounds a bit strange, but what I'd love more than anything is to write as much structure as possible, and present some sort of non-working visual prototype to a team of guys who are all on the same page, who can really get into this project and who want to see it to completion. After that, I'd pretty much spend as much time working with the team and pretty much just asking lots of questions and "learning" that way.
Eventually I'll get my skills up to par, but until then we need some way to get going on this idea now. We're just having trouble trying to figure out ways to find the right people and convince them to get on board as part of the team, rather than just a freelancer who wants money.
I know I said that this was a "question" and lo-and-behold, not a single question-mark in this entire long-winded post, but I hope the question is implied since I'm having trouble fleshing out an actual question.