I had a fascinating conversation with Mark Williamson, the co-founder and CEO of ROSTR, Inc - a tech startup building tools for artists and music industry professionals. During our chat I learned about his wild decade-long ride at Spotify, its growth and success, and how it led to the inception of ROSTR. We dove into the origins of ROSTR, the value the product is providing to the music industry, the challenges faced while building the business, what tactics the team took to gain traction, and where ROSTR is headed next. No conversation would be complete without a discussion around the role of AI in the music industry, how ROSTR plans to incorporate it into the business, and what impact we foresee AI having on the industry & the world as a whole.
ROSTR is a music industry directory and data platform that helps artists and music industry professionals build their network, discover artists and save time. The site tracks relationships, signings, artist data, tours, festivals and more; it's like having an all-knowing assistant. In 2023, ROSTR launched Jobs by ROSTR - a music industry job board that doesn't suck. Jobs by ROSTR is already one of the leading places to find jobs and hire talent in the music industry, with 500+ employers, 1k+ job postings and 35k+ applications so far.
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ROSTR
https://hq.rostr.cc/
(00:50) - What is ROSTR?
(02:50) - Experience at Spotify
(05:20) - The ROSTR idea is born
(13:05) - Spotify becomes industry leader
(21:55) - Why Spotify and not others?
(25:35) - Spotify moving into live music/ticketing
(38:45) - Building ROSTR
(45:30) - Overcoming resistance and objections
(49:10) - Where does the data come from?
(51:25) - How ROSTRs growth took off
(64:35) - Extracting value and creating a sustainable business model
(78:45) - Role of AI in the the business and industry
(92:25) - Building software to improve the industry
(96:05) - Optimistic outlook on the future
(99:20) - Music industry job directory in ROSTR
