3 questions with…Bernd from Guguchu

Bernd emailed me after reading my guest post on Hypebot.  His enthusiasm got my attention, so I set up a fake account on Guguchu and fiddled around with the site leaving me with two initial thoughts:

1. The site is interesting in theory, but there’s a lot of work needs to be done on its execution before they can seriously contend with its competition (ie Reverb Nation and Nimbit).
2. Is Guguchu a reference to “I am the egg man”?

However, I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt of explaining the site with 3 questions.

Q:  What differentiates Guguchu from similar music companies?

A:  Guguchu offers an integrated data analytics, sales and marketing platform for bands, band managers and labels. We differentiate ourselves from pure sales solutions by providing intelligence to bands about who is buying your music, where are those fans based, which fans are more likely to spend on you, where should you tour based on your fans’ location, alongside which other bands should you tour in other geographic areas, which bloggers should you network with, which of your songs should be released and promoted based on demand testing, how can you improve your offline marketing effectiveness, and so on. We pack all of this into a highly intuitive platform. We don’t simply offer bands a store front; we offer them the tools and data to help them become successful, whether they are total novices to marketing or experts.

Q:  Where does the name “Guguchu” come from?

A:  The name-giving is a great story. Before my wife Monika and I got married, we commuted for a couple of years between London and New York, doing the so called NYLON. I was still in my old job in London and Monika worked in New York. We had this incredible almost surreal connection across the pond. There were times when I had a song in my head which I hadn’t listened to in months. I called her up and the song was playing in the background. Monika came up with “Guguchu” to give a name to our profound connection. The word derives from Sanskrit and means “telepathy or the natural language”. Music is a natural language and a universal one. At that time, we were also looking for a name for the business. We all loved the name and did some research on the Web. We found one English reference which referred to an ancient Indian musical instrument. A voice disguiser that was used by young people in local sun dances. It was perfect and Guguchu was named. We hope to strengthen with our tools the deep connection between the artists and their fans – the essence of a band’s success. And of course, we hope to unearth a real Guguchu one day!

Q:  How we intend to make money?

A:  Guguchu is free for everyone at this stage. At some point we will start charging for usage of our tools. We feel that subscription models don’t work well. Indie labels with a typical roster of 10 to 20 bands find a monthly capital outlay expensive and bands often find the cost prohibitive. Tiered offerings also mean that bands that are just starting out are denied access to all the important tools that are essential to their success.

Having spoken to many artists, artist managers and indie labels, we find that the music industry is accustomed to paying commission to online service companies that assist with the sale of music related products. The largest online retailers charge between 25 and 30 per cent. for acting as the sales conduit between the band and the fan while providing nothing more than a store front. No data, no buzz creators, no fan communication tools, and so on.

We think that a commission based model is the most beneficial model, as bands, their managers and indie labels don’t have an upfront capital outlay when using our products. Regardless of how established your band is, whether you are currently playing your first shows or whether you are already selling thousands of albums, everyone gets access to the same tools and data. As you sell music and merch, Guguchu will earn a small commission on each sale conducted through its platform, a bit like Paypal charges a commission when using their payment platform.

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