Happy Birthday, MusicSpoke! 🎂

Supporting Living Artists for 10 Years!

MusicSpoke turns ten years old this month! We are going to take some time this year to celebrate and reflect on the last 10 years — how it started and where it’s going. The slide show above is in no particular order, and it includes photos of our first ever booth at TCDA 2014 and our most recent booth at National ACDA 2023. Glasses, hair styles, and hair colors may change, but MusicSpoke has become a staple in the choral world.

It’s hard to remember what the world was like ten years ago because so much has changed. Kurt was frustrated as a composer because his publishers only paid him 10% royalties, after taking away his copyrights. He also had no way of knowing who was purchasing and performing his music unless someone tagged him in a post on Facebook. Jennifer was running a successful marketing company and was learning more about the sheet music publishing industry. She was setting Kurt’s self-published scores for digital print, making them look like any other octavo. The idea for MusicSpoke was born after Kurt attended the National ACDA Conference in Dallas in 2013. There were many composers interested in self-publishing but not quite sure how to do it. Jennifer initially wanted to create a database of self-published music and then realized all the composers out there like Kurt needed help with marketing, promotions, and e-commerce. Kurt and Jennifer decided to join forces once again, this time to change the face of the sheet music publishing industry.

We were accepted into NMotion, a 90 day accelerator program, to help us flesh out our ideas and learn how to build a lean start-up. We also almost closed the business on day 4 😳 (Listen to Jennifer’s interview on the Conduct(her) Podcast for that story)! We learned about customer discovery and dual-sided marketplaces. We built and launched. We got to Demo Day with a working website, customers, and sales. At the beginning, it was Kurt and fifteen other composers. It was friends and friends of friends. Kurt called and said, “We’re trying something new. Can I have some of your music to sell?” Some said, “Yes!” and more said, “Try back later.” We had about 50 scores when we launched.

Since the Summer of 2014, we have grown to nearly 300 composers and over 3000 scores. We have pieces regularly featured on Texas All-State and other festivals around the world. In ten years we have also put over half a million dollars back into the pockets of artists. That’s something we’re really proud of doing. It makes a difference in people’s lives when you purchase your music through MusicSpoke.

Stay tuned for more reflections, celebrations, and anniversary SWAG!!!