Innovation & Job News

Ann Arbor's MyBandStock.com opens local music to local investors

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Ann Arbor

Many music entrepreneurs try to go the Berry Gordy route of making it in the biz: Start an independent label, sign acts, tour, sell records, repeat. The dozen or so people behind Ann Arbor's MyBandStock.com look at things from a slightly different view point.

MyBandStock.com's motto is to give music back to the people who are passionate about it: the artists and their fans. It does that by letting customers buy stock in the bands they like through the company's website. Think of it as viral grassroots funding.

"This is a business but it's not all about making money," says Taylor Hulyk, director of public relations for MyBandStock.com. "This is us out there to help spread the music. MyBandStock.com wants to put the focus back on the music. We want to give the power of the music back to the people who love it."

Right now there are 11 active young people (and a few more behind-the-scenes investors) getting the website and its accompanying web-based community off the ground. The founders are all Michigan-based people who went to the likes of University of Michigan, University of Michigan-Dearborn and Michigan State University.

They all work from their own virtual office (i.e. laptop) where they continue to labor away on their passion � music. Right now that's all about their local music scene, but they have big plans on growing that.

"We hope to expand regionally in the next year and nationally after that," Hulyk says. "It's going to be a slow process."

Source: Taylor Hulyk, director of public relations for MyBandStock.com
Writer: Jon Zemke

Innovation & Job News

Ann Arbor's MyBandStock.com opens local music to local investors

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