This rock star built a ‘Tinder for musicians’ and is bringing it to Asia

A photo of Josh Simons. Photo credit: Adam Baidawi.

Australian singer-songwriter Josh Simons is a member of an alternative rock band Buchanan. He also co-wrote “The Voice Australia” winner Alfie Arcuri’s single “Careless Game.” Simons has deep musical roots, as his grandfather signed Tom Jones and his father set up Paul McCartney’s publishing consortium for his solo career.

But he has another project, co-founding Vampr, a social networking app for musicians worldwide. Vampr launched as an iOS-only app in June 2016 and has gained traction with 350,000 professional connections formed in-app. In March 2017, it launched for Android devices.

In a few swipes, the app helps musicians discover, connect, and collaborate with other musicians and people in the music industry. Creating connections is one of the biggest challenges in the business, especially for unsigned musicians. According to Simons, the app is now being used in 140 countries, including China, where the platform was recently launched.

I spoke with him to learn more about him and his venture.

Where did you get the inspiration to set up Vampr?

I lived in a house surrounded by the business of music. It was no surprise then that I ended up as a singer-songwriter. I headed to London from Australia in 2013, with some heavy-duty contacts to get the ball rolling, and wham bam I’m a superstar—I wish! As it turned out, my contacts were too busy, uninterested, or simply wanted me to pay my dues.

If you’ve done the hustle, you’d know how tough it can be, with dead ends and bum steers. It’s a whole different ball game if you’re a happening artist with a buzz. Otherwise, you’re starting from scratch, and we don’t have an easy way to connect with other musicians and get to see and hear the stuff that matters —how they sound, what’s their vibe, what’s their ambition. Answering those questions led to Vampr.

I moved back to Australia to create Vampr, jumping headfirst into the world of tech startups after seven years of playing rock star! But I’ve always had an entrepreneurial streak in me, and I have known Baz Palmer, my co-founder, from being signed to his label. He’s an esteemed musician and producer, best known as the guitarist of Aussie band Hunters and Collectors, and a tech entrepreneur. Vampr is his third startup, following SoundHalo, a live concert streaming service, and Kombie, a social video app.

We’ve raised just shy of US$800,000 (or AUD 1 million). I think all my experiences have prepared me well to play with the big boys, and having Baz as a business partner complements my skill sets.

How does Vampr work?

The music ecosystem isn’t limited to just fellow musicians. Your tribe will inevitably include songwriters, DJs, rappers, industry peeps, music bloggers, instrument technicians, etc.

If you want to collaborate with a songwriter within 30 miles (or nearly 50 km), for example, pick a music genre, gender, and age bracket then, tap the Discover button and Vampr immediately brings up results. You can sample their music, read about their history, and get a feel of their vibe, and if you like what you see and hear, you can make a connection.

For folks in the music community trying to break down walls, it’s tremendously helpful. We also got A&R (artists and repertoire) reps from major indies and big labels onto our network, so you can connect with them too.

Why did you bring the business to China? Were there challenges?

Music is a universal language. It doesn’t matter whether you’re looking at China or Ireland. I think China is oftentimes overlooked by Western startups who have a limited budget and must choose to direct those funds toward a Western market.

But given Vampr is a social network, where the content is largely the conversations you have with likeminded peers, we didn’t feel the need to restrict our marketing efforts and felt we had a golden opportunity to reach a far bigger audience than our competitors. Vampr is useful to any creative, irrespective of where they live or who they know. Music is in our DNA, so moving into Asia and China was a no brainer.

What are your expansion plans?

We’re hoping to have localized versions of the platform in Chinese and Japanese ready by Q4 2017. This will accelerate adoption in those markets and improve the experience for those who are already on the network. We also understand that particular features which users in the US might value won’t necessarily be attractive to users in Asia, and vice versa. So, we’re working to differentiate our offerings to the various markets where we’ve managed to build a user base.

Is it worth it building a startup in today’s music industry?

Music has never been more interesting and, in some ways, exciting. New distribution channels continue to spring up, and artists continue to break in new and creative ways. Startups who try and make money off these ever-changing goalposts don’t seem to last, and that’s perhaps why music tech is sometimes seen as a risky investment.

But no matter how fragmented distribution channels are, people will always rely on collaborating with other people—from marketing, cover art, sound mixing, to production. Great things happen when people connect. That’s the challenge we are trying to resolve, so we feel like our investment will pay off if we can keep the network growing.

Converted from Australian dollars. US$1 = AUD 1.27.