Mario talks with Peter Fosso about Music2Deal’s upcoming plans and ‘the big update’…

PF: So the big update of Music2Deal is coming soon. Looks like it’s time to tell the members all about it. Quite exciting really…

MC: Yes! 1^st of all I am very pleased that we now have nearly 10,000 music industry professionals on Music2Deal. The concept to combine a community with a marketplace has come to fruition. We could see it from an average of 10,000 visits in a month and so many deals being made via Music2Deal. As an example, each member knows from their pinboard if a business friend has a new music offer or if they’re looking for music. This is interesting, as it helps to make deals more efficiently – saving lots of time – as opposed to using LinkedIn or Facebook. Although the design already suits the needs of professionals, we’ve had some new ideas to improve the system. The new update will include a special new matching system for deals and networking for business. The update should be launched in mid-January 2014.

Yes, the new matching system. Tell us more about that.

At the moment you have to invest time for searching the contacts or the music that are relevant for you. You are waiting for someone who explores your music or finds your music requests. There could be a great song which someone is looking for in the same network but both parties don’t know about it. With the new update, we will offer the world’s first matching system in the music industry. Music2Deal members will see which of our music professionals match their needs and who is offering exactly what they’re looking for – whether it be a type of song for a project or signing their next business deal.

To make the matching process happen we improved the system of posting music offers and music wants in each of our 5 sections. Our 5 sections include the community, as one section, which is called “Members” and the other four sections of the marketplace to deal with artists, songs, music for licensing and vocalists. Additionally, we’ve added a shortcut in each section to post requests as a ‘wanted’. The system detects which ‘wanted’ matches an offer in each section and then informs both parties about it.

So what are some examples for how this matching system can be used?

Let´s say I am a publisher in Germany and post in the member section a wanted that I’m looking for a publishing partner in Italy for a publishing deal. The system shows me all suitable publishers in Italy and, in turn, my profile will be shown to them as a match that I’m interested in their business. If I offer a song with certain criteria for example an up-tempo house song in English and someone already posted a wanted that they’re looking for a song with those criteria, both members will see a match. If I post a wanted that I’m looking for a female vocalist of a certain age from Sweden for a studio project, all vocalists who match those criteria will be displayed as a match and vice versa so they know what I am looking for. So the system will provide more opportunities for business.

Let’s talk about other features of this update. What else can members expect to see?

Our Premium Members will benefit from several special services. This includes a higher ranking in the result listings, better statistics, additional search filters, and even videos in their music offers. We will give them many features that simplify the networking and “dealing” with music.

So that’s great for the Premium Members. What about the benefits for the Basic Members?

So far Basic members could use almost the complete system but it was not possible to offer music on Music2Deal, which is of course, what it’s all about – at least for many of the members. So the new update will give our Basic Members the ability to upload a music offer so they can find the right deal.

That’s great! What else is part of the new update?

Music2Deal members will be able to post and search for job opportunities in the member section. We’ve added the topics “live” and “recording” to the artists and vocalist sections so that our members will be able to post and search for live events and recording projects.

What do you expect from the update, Mario?

We hope that our users appreciate the new features very well and get the important contacts that they are searching for. If somebody signs a recording contract or has to announce another success story, please tell us!

Yes, exactly. What are your plans for Music2Deal in 2014?

With this update we’ll start many promotion campaigns to raise our popularity worldwide. So which, by the way, is a good time for current members to make sure their profiles are up-to-date, as we’ll be seeing even more traffic and many new members. And we’re really pleased to now be working together with such important partners like Berklee Online, SAE, NARIP, Billboard Events, and IMMF, just to name a few. As the music business is a personal business it is important for us to also act locally in order to make the international deals happen. You know, each registration is checked by a local person who knows the music people in their country. Therefore, we will extend our current network of international representatives. So far we are based in more than 30 countries and I’m sure we’ll be adding some interesting new countries to Music2Deal in 2014.

Peter Fosso is the Founder/President of the non-profit, Global Music Project (http://globalmusicproject.org) and is also the U.S. representative for Music2Deal.