In around three weeks, the new Music2Deal should go online. Before that happens, I want to share a bit of the story behind it. Back in 2006, Music2Deal was still in beta mode. But the real story started much earlier. The background of Music2Deal was Musikplaza.de, a German website I started in 1997. Musikplaza was the roof under which several independent music websites could be found: Talentweb for artists, Songshop.net for song plugging, Vocals Online for singers, and Talentstore for paid downloads. Especially for talents, it was also not yet the right time to sell music via Talentstore, which was based on the service and technology of Music on Demand, a daughter company of Deutsche Telekom. At that time, modem connections were still very slow, so even good ideas could come too early. Before the 2000 crash, I got competitors like Besonic, Peoplesound or Virtual Volume. They had funding. Today they are all gone. After the crash, I restarted the business, founded Music2Deal e.k., and continued to build what later became Music2Deal. So this old flyer is not only a memory for me. It is one step in a very long journey. In the next post I will show an old Music2Deal homepage from 2010. I’m happy about any feedback and comments.

This was Music2Deal in 2010. Of course, from today’s view, it looks old. But when I look at it, I can still clearly see what I wanted to build. Music2Deal was never meant to be just another place where people create a profile and then disappear. The idea was to create something more useful for the music business. One big challenge from early on was that it should fit very different people: artists, songwriters, singers, producers, managers, labels, publishers, licensing people and more. And also different levels — from newcomers to very experienced professionals. Step by step it became clearer what the real value should be: not only getting in contact, but also staying in contact in a meaningful way. In our business, it is not enough to know somebody. It also matters to know what they are doing right now, what they offer, and what they are looking for. That was already a big part of the idea behind Music2Deal by then. Next I will go a bit more into the international side and POPKOMM.

This picture takes me back to POPKOMM 2010. POPKOMM was an international music business fair, first in Cologne, later in Berlin, and at that time in competition with MIDEM in Cannes. For me, events like this always showed very clearly what the music business is really about: people, trust, timing and staying in touch. Quite early, it was clear to me that Music2Deal should not stay only German. In fact, already in summer 2004, Richard Rogers, ex A&R Warner/Chappell Music UK, became the first Music2Deal representative. I am happy to say he is still on board today, more than 20 years later. Today we have 18 representatives. So the international idea is really not new at all. Act local but benefit from the international network of Music2Deal. Even the translation system for representatives was part of this early concept. And to be honest, this was also one reason why the programming moved more slowly than I had hoped. But I still believed this was the right way, because the music business is local and international at the same time. In the next post I will show one early layout and explain why Music2Deal became more complex than it may have looked.

This early layout from 2010 reminds me how much work went into Music2Deal behind the scenes. Many people only see the front end of a platform. They see pages, buttons, colors and profiles. But behind that there are so many thoughts, changes, setbacks and compromises. Music2Deal was never planned as just a simple contact database. The idea was to build a community and marketplace in one place — with members who can offer or want artists, songs, licensing, vocalists, business contacts and other music-related opportunities. That is much more complex than it may look from outside. And the challenge was not only technical. The challenge was also to create a tool that makes sense for very different people in the music business with very different needs. If I look back honestly, I would say the effort was always strong, but the usability was not always where I wanted it to be. That is one important reason why this next update means a lot to me. In the next post it gets a bit more personal.

May 18. The new Music2Deal is finally going live. After many years of development, redesigns, ups and downs, late nights and endless discussions, it is finally happening. To be honest: Music2Deal was not always as easy and intuitive as I wanted it to be. Building a platform for very different music business people around the world became much more complex than I expected years ago. But the idea never changed: Get in contact. Stay in contact about music opportunities. Now I really hope the new version finally brings Music2Deal much closer to that vision.

Today is the day. The new Music2Deal is now live. What started many years ago with a simple idea continued step by step and has now reached a completely new level. The goal was never to build just another social network. The idea was always to create a place where music professionals can stay informed about what their contacts are doing, offering or looking for. The new version is cleaner, faster, easier to use and much more focused on what really matters: music opportunities and meaningful connections. After all these years, I’m really excited to finally share this new chapter with you. Would love to hear your feedback. https://www.music2deal.com