Soundplate is an ingenious record label and music technology company built to help independent artists and record labels survive and succeed in the music industry dominated by major labels. Their tools offer these artists the help they need to share their music easier and understand their fans better. 

Company name: Soundplate

Founders: Matt Benn

Headquarters: London

Launched: 2010

Q: In simple terms, what does your startup do?

Matt: We are a record label and music technology company. We build tools designed to help independent artists and record labels. Our latest project, Soundplate Clicks, allows artists to create music smart links, artist pages and better understand their fans with detailed analytics and reporting.

Q: What problem/s do you seek to solve or help?

Matt: The major labels dominate the music industry, so we try to level the playing field by giving independent artists the tools and resources they need to succeed. As we also run a small, independent record label, we constantly run into problems. As we try to solve them, often by building technology, the best solutions eventually become their products which we open up to other artists and record labels.

Q: Are you funded and how?

Matt: No. We have not taken on any external investment in the company to date.

Q: What were you doing before you started Soundplate?

Matt: I started as a club promoter running large student nightclub events. I was also a partner in a digital marketing / social media agency and doing some consultancy work for music industry clients.

Q: What inspired you to start Soundplate?

Matt: I've always been entrepreneurial and never really wanted to get a job. Soundplate started life as a blog where I was just writing about the music I loved at the time. Turning it into a record label seemed like a natural progression, and the tech side of the business has developed organically out of that over the last few years.

Q: What are your goals over the next five years? Where do you see yourself and Soundplate?

Matt: I hope we are still creating amazing tools and technology for the independent music industry and continuing to work with brilliant artists from around the world. I would also hope and expect that our team will be significantly bigger within five years!

To learn more, visit the Soundplate website.

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