The Music Marketplace Bouncing Back From Crisis With Extraordinary Gifts For Loved Ones

Innovative music marketplace Encore is turning commercial crisis on its head, by launching a radical new gift product that could keep thousands of freelance musicians in work during lock-down, and save this business too. Encore‘s new personalised music messages are an ideal gift for loved ones, for birthdays, and to reconnect with friends in isolation. You can now book a professional musician to perform a special song, recorded on video as a gift to share over email or mobile messaging. It may be one of the first examples of a product to go viral because of the global Corona Virus pandemic, by uplifting people around the world with music, while stuck in isolation. 

With millions of businesses at risk of implosion, this is an inspiring product innovation story too, showing how quickly entrepreneurs can adapt to seemingly impossible circumstances, giving themselves a renewed chance of survival. Founder James McAulay describes the seriousness of the situation for his music booking business: “Coronavirus has completely wiped out our primary business model. We’re now working on the basis that no events are going to happen for 3-6 months. For what it is worth, we are expecting to see a bounce back for events in 2021”. 

“Alongside fighting fires and fielding 500 cancellations in 2 weeks, we spent a week brainstorming and prototyping new ideas. The team landed on personalised music messages; a new service where customers can pay our musicians to record uplifting, bespoke songs for loved ones in isolation”. Encore were able to beta test their system with 100 video performances in just 8 days, with live customer orders, priced at just $18USD. There are examples video messages on their website from performers like Sam Burke, who produced this custom video for me within 2 hours.

McAulay and Co-Founder James King, both Cambridge-educated computer scientists, have a team of 10 to look after as employees, while the company’s business model has temporarily evaporated. Hundreds of thousands of events around the world have been recently cancelled, from weddings to birthdays, to conferences and re-unions, with devastating consequences for many freelance musicians who depend on these events for their living. 

Within 10 Days the Encore Technology team has launched this extraordinary new gig-economy product and market tested it; ready to trade at scale.

Encore has a curated network of 10,000 professional musicians to hand, with many able to perform and record these custom performances remotely. Musicians receive direct bookings via the Encore website, with specific song requests and personal messages included for each. “Customers can come to the Encore Website, book a specific performer, and can have a unique gift delivered within just 24-48 hours. We’ve been scrambling to catch up with demand in the last few days”, says MCauley. “I think everyone around the world has felt the need to connect with loved ones in a way that we haven’t before. Ironically it’s not possible to be with one another.”

The speed of delivery is impressive: it took longer for me to decide a song request this morning, than it did to receive the finished recording. The video performances are shipped as a private Youtube video link, so accessible to anyone with an internet connection at home or on mobile.

“We’ve had people wanting to send urgent birthday messages overseas, messages of friendship and hope, romantic notes, and anniversary well-wishes, as customers can’t be with their loved-ones, they are struggling to celebrate special events, or are wanting to console one another in times of crisis. Bookings are coming in from Canada and Portugal for example, so it seems to be going international immediately.”

“We have had song commissions specially for nurses, for sharing on NHS WhatsApp groups, and a memorable booking for a frontline doctor last week from his family, knowing the next three months are going to be super challenging for him”. Funds are even being raised for the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) by Encore, as a beneficiary contribution is made with each booking. The concept seems like a tech-empowered remix of the famous war-time musical morale booster events, like those performed for troops by Dame Vera Lynn and Ella Fitzgerald

The only thing better than singing is more singing.

Ella Fitzgerald

What people want is to connect with one another and to show them that they care. For now, we need to focus on how people can make music in their homes, and take some of that joy and share it with others.” Encore’s unique personalised musical gifts start from just £15, which seems infinitely more valuable as a present, than buying stuff people don’t really need from Amazon.

The idea has really struck a chord. It’s honestly been amazing and the most heartwarming thing we’ve ever done at Encore

James McAuley, Co-founder of Encore

While the sudden shock of pandemic lock-down must have proven incredibly demoralising for many, Encore’s comeback gives us a fresh perspective on innovation and how we can all try to adapt to the changing market. This looks like a hit product from the outset, that may save this company, many hundreds of freelance performers, and lift many people’s spirits during this unprecedented global crisis.  

If music be the food of love, play on. Give me excess of it.

William Shakespeare



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