Music is such an integral part of the human experience that it permeates nearly every aspect of our lives, and in the few discrete areas in which it doesn’t, we actively seek to add it that we might not feel so disconsolate. It pumps us up or calms us down, makes us happy or sad, and in associating the customer experience with a concurrent musical experience, brands can elevate their products beyond what would otherwise be a muted exchange.
I spoke with Lauren Pufpaf, the COO and Co-founder of Feed.fm, a San Francisco-based company that allows apps and devices to integrate music into the user experience to motivate, engage, or evoke emotion in customers, about how boosting that experience through music has helped companies grow, and how it might even be used to help in the healing process.
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Mary Juetten: What problem are you solving?
Lauren Pufpaf: Feed.fm is a technology platform that makes it easy for brands to legally and seamlessly harness the power of music to engage and retain their customers.
Feed.fm takes on the three major challenges when it comes to integrating popular music in apps, on websites, or in physical spaces:
- Music: The Feed.fm team handles the complex and costly business of licensing music, making it easy for customers to legally play popular music of any genre while properly compensating the artists, labels and writers. Feed.fm’s team of curators leverage a science-backed approach using proprietary metadata to design musical experiences that are created to help engage your customers and keep them coming back.
- Technology: Feed.fm’s APIs and SDKs make it easy to integrate music into any platform, so digital customers don’t have to go outside their customer’s apps to augment their experience with music.
- Analytics: The company provides real-time analytics and insights, directly impacting user retention and giving companies the information they need to action on user behavior, before they churn.
Juetten: Who are your customers and how do you find them?
Pufpaf: We are a music solution for fitness technology, digital health, and IOT companies. We rely largely on word of mouth and direct outreach to connect with prospects.
Juetten: How did past projects or experience help with this new project?
Pufpaf: The Co-founders all have experience in media and music tech and saw a real need for simplifying licensing and streaming of music for other businesses.
Juetten: Who is on your team?
Pufpaf: We have a team of musicologists, engineers, and licensing experts that are building the business. The Co-founders are Jeff Yasuda (CEO, Eric Lambrecht (CTO) and Lauren Pufpaf (COO) and we’ve raised money from KEC Ventures, Fyrfly, and Nautilus.
Juetten: Startups are an adventure — what’s your favorite startup story?
Pufpaf: Such an adventure! I can’t count the number of times we’ve been pitching a prospect and they’ve said “Great, I get it, but I’m going to go figure out a legal music solution on my own.” Then we give it 6 months and 90% of them come back and say “Well, that was challenging, let’s get a deal done.”
Juetten: How do you measure success and what is your favorite success story?
Pufpaf: We measure our success based on our customer successes. Despite the insane business challenges of 2020, many of our at-home fitness customers have grown incredibly. The average increase in usage this year is 300%. So, we’re happy to power music for all those figuring out how to make it work while gyms are closed. And, happy to see our customers growing, of course.
Juetten: Any tips to add for early-stage founders?
Pufpaf: Always have a bias for action. Rather than contemplating a big move for months, just try it out in small increments. Find ways to test out theories that don’t require massive amounts of time or money, because those are the two most precious commodities.
Juetten: What’s the long-term vision for your company?
Pufpaf: Our mission is to amplify customer engagement through music by serving the right music to the right customer at the right time. While we’ve seen a lot of growth in the fitness and wellness markets by virtue of their growth and popularity, we’re also seeing growth in more clinical settings like hospitals. Music has healing power and when used in concert with digital therapeutics for applications like physical therapy or stroke recovery, there is an opportunity for us to tap into that market more deeply. We’re constantly exploring new avenues, and we’re excited by the response so far and what lies ahead.
Thank you to Lauren for taking the time to answer my questions. It’s not entirely surprising to hear about their success despite the pandemic; whatever else is going on, people will always seek out musical accompaniment to life’s tasks, challenging as they may be. #onwards.
Source by www.forbes.com