What is AAMPP? How long have you been around? What is your mission?
AAMPP™ is an acronym, which stands for (Artists, Agents, Managers, Producers, and Promoters) (simply pronounced AMP), we are an all-inclusive independent music services provider. We are built around simple concepts and ideas that work in concert to help people in the music industry better address their fan base and achieve success.
AAMPP launched into Public Beta on December 28th 2012 and we are still in development on many areas of the platform while in this beta phase.
Our mission is to simplify the structure of the independent music process by providing our users with the best tools, the best services and the best network of people to improve their careers.
What inspired the development of this platform?
AAMPP has been in the making for over a decade. The platform is the vision of myself (O’Neil Anderson Co-Founder/President) and (Garth Soshahi Founder/CEO). Who goes by the name Soshahi (so-shy), both me and Soshahi have over 25 years of independent music industry experience combined, as artists as well as in management and development. We met in 2006 and realized we shared the same interest in trying to make the playing field level for independent musicians who are usually misinformed about the business aspect of the industry and were being taken advantage of by different companies within the space. After years of market research and analysis we decided to come up with a solution that would not only help the artists, but help the other professionals while providing fans of independent music with an outlet to discover new undiscovered music, and musicians from across the globe.
How have your experiences influenced the direction of AAMPP?
Because Soshahi and me have personal experience in our space it has helped us to tackle a lot of the problems we are addressing from a wide variety of angles. Our initiatives are based not only on our experiences but we take a lot of feedback directly from musicians and professionals in order to address their needs directly.
We are not guys in suits sitting at a round table trying to figure out how to monetize musicians, we are guys with a passion for music and helping people trying to help musicians monetize their fans. Although it is the goal of every business to generate revenue our philosophy is much different from some of our competitors. Our goal is to help the musicians and the industry as whole in a significant way by creating something of added value that will enhance their current efforts.
Who should be using AAMPP?
Well of course the obvious answer is EVERYONE! But AAMPP is for musicians, music professionals and music lovers. Serious musicians who are looking for an effective and efficient way of managing their music careers, music professionals who are either seeking talent or looking for a place to find other musicians and professionals to collaborate with, and fans of music who want to discover unknown talent should all be on AAMPP.
What makes you stand out from all the other services offering to connect and assist musicians and fans?
What separate’s AAMPP from a lot of the other services out there is our approach and our overall mission. We are honest guys and we genuinely do care about the success of all of our aspiring musicians and professionals. We are not tying to acquire user information to sell to third party partners or capitalize on the opportunity to take advantage of their dreams. We have spent a lot of time listening directly to the needs of our target audience and have done countless hours of research to help eliminate things that do not work for musicians or improve the things that do. Today everyone is offering musicians ways to “Connect” with fans but no one is focusing on one of the key factors of success for anyone in business; “Engagement”! And that’s where we raise the bar. We know that engagement is the key to not just connecting with fans but retaining them and turning them into supporting fans that will buy content, merchandise and attend shows of their favorite musicians. It’s one of the key components of business and unfortunately a lot of the companies out there that offer music services to musicians fail to implement this component into their platforms. Music is a business and should be treated as such to achieve any level of success.
Taking a different direction… What was the last song you listened to? What are your favorite styles of music? Do you write songs or play an instrument?
The last song I listened to and am currently listening to actually is Lorde- Royals, I think she is extremely talented and will soon have a cult following.
Soshahi and me listen to everything, and I do mean everything. We are non-genre specific when it comes to music, if it sounds good we listen to it, Pop, Rock, Alternative, Hip Hop, you name it.
Currently we are both focused on building AAMPP and have not concentrated on anything outside of that in some time, but we do both love to write, co-write and co produce in our spare time. Soshahi does not play any instruments although he loves the guitar and I’m sure he will learn to play it one day and myself, I played the trombone once upon a time in high school. I haven’t picked it up in a while but they say its like riding a bicycle, you never truly forget how.
Once a user joins AAMPP and creates their profile, what should they do next? What should they expect?
For the Record’ user’s do not create profiles on AAMPP, profiles come a dime a dozen and everybody has one. On AAMPP our users create their “Music Identity”, the medium that they use strictly for all aspects of their life musically. We believe that if fans discover musicians as musicians they usually become organic fans, because they organically found that musician based on the root of music. When you have to convert a friend, family member, or stranger from another social platform like Facebook for instance the relationship is not the same. Friends and family may only acknowledge you because you are on their time line and you posted something so they acknowledge you and give you a “Like” or send you a short comment like “ good music” or “great job” but how many people ever RSVP for and show up to their events through Facebook? I’m sure some of the musician reader’s can relate to that question.
Moving on, once a user creates a “Music Identity™” on AAMPP the first thing they should do is spread the word. Let people know where their music identity lives. They can do this seamlessly to Facebook and Twitter directly from the platform. Now as we are still in Beta there are a lot of things we are still sorting out and we cannot make everyone happy right away. We are self-funded and work with a skeleton crew but we have many features and services in development or scheduled for the very near future that will enhance the experience for everyone very soon. Musicians currently have the most feature sets on AAMPP and will see the most value for our service right now. Professionals and fans are encouraged to sign up to start discovering new music and connecting with other professionals already using the platform in beta.
What makes a Music Identity on AAMPP different and/or better than a Page on Facebook or an EPK on musicSUBMIT?
Some of the differences with a “Music Identity” on AAMPP compared to some of the other sites are the detailed level of information that we compile, the way we present that information and the direct engagement ability that is tied into it.
AAMPP’s “Music Identity” is comprised of a user’s Pulse, Music, Photos, and Bio. We also have plans in the future to add Events. It is essentially an EPK and eliminates the need for the use of an EPK site, which only provides you with the single feature. Along with providing potential fans and other users with an accurate screen shot of a who the musician or professional is, the Music Identity affords users the ability to engage with each other through Commenting and Direct Messaging should user’s choose to follow each other. In the near future for musicians their “Music Identity” will also serve as an e-commerce POS where they can sell their content directly to their fans from the platform. The “Music Identity” also doubles as a content management system for musicians converting their music into high quality files along with the applicable meta data which we store on our secure servers for public viewing should the user choose to display them and for easy distribution when the feature becomes available. The idea is that AAMPP will become a “One Stop Shop” and eventually the “Official Home of Independent Music”
Everything has its purpose in the Social-Sphere, Facebook is a place where friends connect, LinkedIn is for professionals and quite frankly I have no idea who MySpace is for anymore. But that’s the beauty of AAMPP; we are for the Independent music market place and so our focus whether for the musicians, professionals or the fans was all considered when creating the concept of A “Music Identity” in my opinion what makes a “Music Identity” better than lets say Facebook or MusicSubmit is the overall effectiveness of what a musician can accomplish with this method if utilized properly.
Where can we connect with you and AAMPP online?
You can find me on:
Facebook– /Oneil.anderson
Twitter– AAMPPPresident
And I am reachable on AAMPP if you send me a follow request.
Any last thoughts or shout outs?
I would like to say thank you to Joshua and Middle Tennessee Music for the opportunity to let me talk a little bit about AAMPP. Also I would like to ask for all the support we can get from your readers.
Sign up for a FREE account on AAMPP. Tell your musician friends and their friends etc. and lastly Shout out to all the musicians that are relentlessly chasing their dreams.
