Thanks to a very successful crowdfunding campaign last month, music e-learning platform Chordify will be able to enter a new phase of accelerated growth in the coming year and launch new products that will make its platform more social and mobile. The company plans to expand its team to quickly roll out a new Android app next to the existing iOS and web apps, add new features such as song lyrics and new ways for users to interact, as well as further developing the third-party player for musicians and other music platforms.
Accelerated growth is important, according to CEO and co-founder Bas de Haas: “Even for music platforms, it’s about the principle of winner takes all. So for Chordify it’s necessary to grow fast and become the biggest player in the market.”
In December 2016, Chordify launched a crowdfunding campaign on Symbid to help finance their plans for accelerated growth, and received €230,280 in total, well exceeding the original goal amount of €180,000.
Because of the support of more than 200 investors, Chordify is now able to enter a new growth phase and pick up the pace in 2017. The music platform released the iOS app late last year and plans to bring more of the premium features of the web app to iPhone and iPad, such as transposing chords, capo hints, slowdown, and MIDI downloads.
Besides the iOS and web app, Chordify will also develop an Android app this year. Additional new features for all three platforms will include an offline mode and automatically adding song lyrics to the music player.
“Music is something you make together, with friends or your music teacher”, Bas de Haas explains. “This is why Chordify wants to make the platform as social as possible, with an emphasis on encouraging interaction between users, like sharing your progress and taste in music with other users on the platform.”
Users will soon be able to follow friends and other people with the same taste in music, create and share their own setlists of favorite songs, and get the option to easily find and connect with other users to start their own band.
With the further development of the Chordify embedded music player, third parties will be able to use and integrate the Chordify experience into their own website. “We think fans who play your songs are really the biggest fans you could have. And with the rise of Spotify and other streaming music services, the question of how to connect with and engage your fan base in this digital age is also becoming more important.”
“We want to give musicians, teachers, festivals, and other platforms the opportunity to reach out to fans, students, and followers in a new and easy way, using the intuitive Chordify player. A great example is the band Orange Skyline, who’ve added our player to their website, so fans can immediately play along with their songs.”