Hot Seat: Matt Gudinski – Executive Director, Mushroom Group
From wi-fi to ultrasound and the Fruit Ninja game, Australian tech developers have exported some smart ideas into the global mainstream. Matt Gudinski reckons he might have another. The Melbourne-based Executive Director of Mushroom Group has launched Purifier, a social music destination that pulls music content from tens of thousands of destinations into a single place. The free-to-user service opens with the strapline, “let music find you.” Purifier, which has both web-and-mobile platforms, is another string to the younger Gudinski’s bow. A joint partner in the Artist Voice agency, Gudinski has played a hand in the irrepressible rise of Bliss N Eso through his company Illusive. Purifier represents Gudinski’s first foray into tech development. Some years in the making, Gudinski introduced the product to journalists, investors and music industry people and digital tech companies at the recent San Francisco MusicTech Summit.
What got you started on Purifier?
It’s been a bit of a hobby project for the last three or four years. Doing what I do and being such a music fan, I struggle to keep up-to-date with all the bands & music publications. We’re all time-poor. So I wanted to create a one-stop media location, a content dashboard for music fans. Somewhere to connect all their music content together, bring all their music services to one location and really simplify the process. It was initially called Trendsetter; it started as a project about identifying who were the trendsetters out there. It’s been a long road. I’ve been working on it with one other person, my CTO, on what has been an after-hours project.
This sounds like an RSS reader.
It’s a more advanced version of an RSS. I really felt there was nothing in the dedicated music space and in the music community and to allow like-minded music fans to interact and share similar content. I love to see what my friends are reading online. What artists they’re following. I feel through some of the digital providers out there like Facebook, they haven’t put a major focus on music, which has kept a smile on my face. There’s a need for that. We’re aggregating content from over 20,000 different sources at the moment, including the biggest industry sites and media outlets and all sorts of blogs. There’s a personalised music player which generates a playlist from the artists you follow. It’s a convenience tool, which helps fans keep-up with artists and discover new ones. The way most people are discovering artists these days is through peer-to-peer influence. There’s still not a service to share that. You could say it’s a bit like an RSS reader on steroids.
What’s the business model? Do you take any cut of ads that people click through to?
Not at the moment. We do have numerous planned revenue streams which we’ll seamlessly implement over time. Obviously we’re hoping to do some different revenue-share deals with our content partners and our artists. The plan between launch and the first 12 months is to build that music community and build Purifier as a trusted resource with music fans out there. In a revenue model, the first revenue drivers will come through referrals, whether it’s through iTunes sales or ticketing referrals. Down the track we’ll offer a paid recommendation in the vein of “promoted” tweets on Twitter. The way they’ll be generated will be very non-obtrusive. If you’re a fan of Bliss N Eso, you won’t be receiving a Justin Bieber recommendation. Every user is very strongly categorised on what they do, the product is all about personalisation and the user being able to personalise and customise the site to their needs and wants. Like other services, you’ll be able to turn it off to not receive recommendations. So the initial revenue model will be very much about referral and recommendation combined with standard advertising through some of our newsletters. Longer term, we feel we’ll be a driver of more traffic to a lot of these websites, so we should see an increased advertising revenue. We’re hoping to come up with a revenue share model with different sources.
Are there any lessons to be learned from Google shutting down its RSS “Reader,” leaving its millions of users stranded?
I was a user too, so I was quite disappointed. I know a lot of people in my building would use it daily, and they were frustrated as well. From my understanding, their reason to shut down the reader was to shift their focus. Sure, there are a couple of similar services out there that can help you keep up-to-date with content, but they’re very much not music-focused. Purifier is a content-rich, social-focused music community site.
What were the big challenges to get this thing up and running?
Resources. My CTO and partner in the site has been fantastic. I’ve personally invested quite a lot of my own money in this project. We’ve had resource limitations, but it’s also been about getting this right. I’ve also been trying to move a lot of things across the Mushroom Group over the last couple of years, so I’ve probably been slightly distracted. Over the past 12 months we’ve been developing an app to roll out hand-in-hand with this. It’s been a two-year project in development.
How do you plan to market this?
Again, I have some advantages through my connections with the music industry. While we’re undertaking substantial digital marketing and online advertising, we’re looking to set up various different activations at music festivals worldwide. We’ll be looking to do something at Future Music. We’re in talks with some major international festivals to have some presence in the first half of next year. One of the primary ways to market will be through my artist contacts. While I’ve been working on this for a few years, I’ve been introducing this to a number of artists. It’s a mix of your standard marketing and promotion campaign, tied with artists tweeting about it and pushing their fans to follow them on Purifier. And bring core music fans through events like SXSW and music festivals.
Where does Purifier sit within the Mushroom Group? Is this a signal of tech development?
I’m trying to keep it a distance from the Group. Obviously our core business in the group is our artist development across labels, touring, publishing and the agencies. We’re got a clear path that we’re heading towards. It can help a lot of people within the group, but it’ll definitely be a distance.
Is this a shift for you personally to get active on tech ventures?
Probably not. I’m obviously quite an entrepreneurial guy, coming up with ideas and opportunities and trying to find gaps out there in the market. We’ve got involved with the Intellitix software across Australia, with the RFID system which is controlling the access and social interaction in a lot of festivals around the world. If you look at that, we’re taking more of an interest and an active roll in different tech products out there. I’m definitely not shifting my core focus. I hope to continue to grow the Mushroom Group and develop our labels and be the No. 1 independent promoter in Australia and with publishing and the agencies, and to keep them flourishing and growing as strong as ever, while on the left hand Purifier is evolving and becoming a success in its own right.
You recently got your Dad busy with the iPad. What does he make of Purifier?
Well, he loves what I’m doing. Until we had a working product I don’t think he understood a need for a product like this. He’s not a person who’s out there looking at 50 artist Websites a day. He’s been testing the app for me on the iPad for me. He definitely can now see the benefits and convenience of a service like this. He’s one of our testers, which has been a funny one.
Purifier is a free app, available here.