Chew
London,
United Kingdom
Idea
Introduction
As far as we know there’s currently no single online community that brings the globally disparate community of passionate amateur DJs together, allowing this community to learn from each other, support one another, make a name for themselves or even discover the next big thing.
We’re changing that.
Chew is the DJs' live streaming community - think Twitch for DJs.
Using Chew, bedroom DJs can share their mixes, while building and engaging a global fanbase. But they can also learn from the professionals who are using Chew to broadcast from studios, educational facilities and events across the world.
The bedroom DJs can hear and see how some of the biggest names in electronic music create their mixes. We also cater to the music fans; the fans who want to experience the mixes rather than create them. Every time a DJ streams live on Chew, the performance is recorded and archived so anyone can enjoy it at a later date - anywhere and at any time.
Chew is a community, it’s a platform, and it’s a music library.
Intended impact
We built the Chew platform in two weeks during Christmas 2014/15. Since then, we've had over 17,000 users sign up from nearly two thirds of the world's countries.
We've gone some way towards our goal of building the destination for DJs and fans of DJ culture on the web - but we've got a long, long way to go. We'd like your help to get us there!
Substantial accomplishments to date
We’ve built a global community of DJs and music fans in just ten months!
Since launching Chew on January 5th 2015, we've had 17,000 users sign up from 130 countries. Our DJs have gone on broadcast over 7,000 hours of content.
Our audience have watched over 30,000 hours of content in over 190 countries.
Monetisation strategy
Brand Advertising/ Partnerships
While we are concentrating on building a community for our DJs, we also want to monetise our international user- and viewer-base. We believe the company offers an authentic way for brands to communicate with a highly engaged (and, in most cases, affluent) audience - an audience who, on Chew, are both our content creators and our content consumers.
User Subscriptions
The core features (i.e. the live broadcast of DJ performances through Chew and being able to watch these performances on the Chew platform) of the company will be free - but we will be looking to trial a ‘Pro’ tier of user subscriptions that gives subscribing DJs features non-subscribers do not have access to. Planned subscription concepts include in-depth viewer analytics, profile customisation, large-scale event consultancy and more.
User Data
Linked to the ‘Pro’ user subscriptions, we’re looking at how to maximise the value of the data we collect. If an artist performs regularly on the platform, we aim to accurately gauge viewer interest - down to specific cities around the world. In our view, this data is highly valuable to the music industry ecosystem as it can be used to plan marketing and sales strategies, events or even tours. As music continues to lose its material worth, touring is where the music industry generates most of its revenue.
Affiliate Schemes
We plan to generate supplementary revenue through music/ DJ equipment retailer affiliate schemes. These are being considered for 2016/17 rollout once a) the community has reached sufficient scale b) we have the necessary features in place to allow these schemes to occur.
Use of proceeds
We're raising our next investment round by crowdfunding to allow our DJs (and their viewers) to buy into the platform. We're a global community and we'd like the community to be involved in what we do as a business.
We'll use the funds to continue to scale the platform: bringing in new features, more DJs, bigger audiences and better events. We'll also start our commercial discussions for the end of 2016.
Market
Target market
- As a DJ, there are currently a number of disparate platforms to market yourself and your craft. Each platform offers different features for different prices.
- It’s time consuming (and potentially very costly) to become a DJ. Courses at one of London’s leading DJ schools range from £400 to £6,000.
- To our knowledge there’s no open, DJ-dedicated live streaming platform that allows live audiovisual music-based content.
Chew has changed that.
Using Chew, bedroom DJs share their mixes, while building and engaging a global fanbase. But they also learn from the professionals who are using Chew to broadcast from studios, educational facilities and events across the world. The bedroom DJs can hear and see how the biggest names in electronic music create their mixes.
We also cater to the music fans; the fans who want to experience the mixes rather than create them. Every time a DJ streams live on Chew, the performance is recorded and archived so anyone can enjoy it at a later date - anywhere and at any time.
Think of Chew as the “Twitch for DJs”. It’s a platform where DJs can learn from one another, enjoy each other’s music and share it with the world. Chew is a community, it’s a platform, and it’s a library of musical performances.
People who love electronic music love Chew; they can listen to artists they already know, and discover the next big thing, too.
Characteristics of target market
The Global electronic music industry has grown 11% to $6.2B in 2015.
The global popularity of electronic music has continued its astronomic growth in 2015; with the world's top 12 DJs (by 2015 earnings) now engaging an estimated 300M+ fans. While we estimate the professional DJ market to contain 2.5M DJs, Chew focuses on the estimated 100M+ amateur DJs worldwide.
Electronic music is now the fourth most popular genre of all music streamed in the USA and Canada. It's also the 3rd most popular genre discussed on social media - behind Pop/ Rock and Rap.
Sales of DJ equipment increased 15% over the last year, whilst sales of more traditional music equipment (stringed instruments and percussion) fell by 4%. We believe this market growth doesn’t come from industry-leading talent (professional DJs often have sponsorship deals); the amateurs are driving this revenue growth. DJ product sales have grown over 60% in the USA, with DJ controllers accounting for 38% of this growth.
Marketing strategy
Since launching earlier this year, we've been experimenting with a number of ways to reach our target market.
Chew helps DJs to build and inspire fanbases from their bedrooms, studios and clubs around the world. As we sign up more DJs, they share their performances on the platform with new viewers - creating an ever-increasing feedback loop of content creation and consumption.
Our DJs act as our most effective marketing tool; sharing (their performances on) Chew within pre-existing fanbases and communities as a live, viral and unique way to communicate with electronic music fans all over the world.
Our goal is, therefore, to recruit as many DJs as possible.
So far, we have demonstrated early success in:
- Community referrals. Our DJs often refer other DJs to Chew during registration process.
- Artist-led partnerships. We partner with established DJs (with pre-existing, large-scale fanbases) to create content on Chew; bringing new viewers to the platform who go on to discover other content.
- Educational partnerships. Working with educational facilities, we help the newest DJ talent build their audiences online as they start their career in the music industry.
- Digital marketing. We market Chew to both DJs and viewers on existing internet communities (Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, forums, PPC etc).
- Event marketing. We partner with (or host) events - DJ tradeshows, conferences, club nights, festivals etc - to build brand awareness while creating content for our audience on the platform.
- Physical marketing. We work with a DJ equipment retailer etc to distribute marketing material to new DJs and viewers.
Competition strategy
We have a number of features that we believe sets us apart from our competition.
1) Chew is an open platform, available to anyone, anywhere. We see value across the global DJ community and think everyone - at any stage in their career - should be able to use Chew.
2) Chew is free to use. We see no need in charging our DJs a fee to broadcast their performances. We can't achieve the growth or scale we want by doing so - it presents an unnecessary barrier to entry.
3) We also think charging our audience to watch Chew content is unnecessary. We want to monetise in ways that don't impact the content creation or consumption experience.
4) Chew is built mobile-first; allowing our users and viewers to experience the platform via any browser on any device.
5) Chew is a specialist audiovisual live streaming platform. Unlike generalist live streaming platforms, we are dedicated to building the world's first DJ- and music-focused live streaming community.
6) As a small team of DJs and record label managers, we feel we are able to learn, develop and test updates quickly. We can move fast and deploy new features based on user feedback and community data.
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