Aplaud Finally elite musicians and those who need them globally have something to aplaud.
The Aplaud Story
Hello! My name is Sophia Serghi and I'd like to welcome you to Aplaud: an online bidding service that matches vetted, highly skilled musicians with people seeking to hire them, either to create recordings or to perform live.
Aplaud will provide instant access to World Class performers, composers, and sound engineers. It will also create a network and promotional agency for young artists.
Our Goal
Aplaud’s goal is to become the leading music industry platform for the discovery, promotion, and employment of the most talented musicians from around the world.
Inspiration For Aplaud
How did Aplaud come to exist? Out of my personal need as a composer to hear my works performed or recorded by real musicians and not midi playbacks. I am one of the lucky composers with reasonable access to world class performers, but even in my case I can’t hire an orchestra on a whim or get hired to compose music on a regular basis.
Beyond my own needs as a composer, similar problems of exposure to gigs and collaborations plague my students and myriads of brilliant young music students around the world…
Market Need
The Problem
People in need of highly talented musicians & engineers have no readily available method of accessing or vetting them.
Musicians, particularly young ones, have few organized venues for seeking paid employment.
In both cases above, geography is a limiting constraint.
I spent years trying to find solutions to these problems for my own needs as a composer and for my students long-term needs as young musicians in a career field with few rewards for the critical mass. It became clear that I needed to find a way to create a sustainable eco-system for musicians and academic music institutions to collaborate, seek employment and continue a viable professional career in their art form.
Solution
Aplaud matches professional musicians with people who need to hire musicians for recorded projects or live gigs.
Aplaud musicians are highly vetted and continually rated.
Aplaud musicians & clients are no longer be limited by proximity to each other.
Aplaud is the “go-to” marketplace in discovering new, young talent (ages 18-25)
The Best Talent Globally
The key word to Aplaud is “ VETTED” musicians. What sets Aplaud apart from any other music industry crowdsourcing site is the fact that the providers are all highly vetted elite musicians who have gone through a number of audition processes regardless of their young age. The quality of their skills and talent is undoubtedly outstanding.
Truly A World Wide Artistic Community
Aplaud aims to discover the best young musicians in the most remote communities on our planet and offer them the opportunity to work with musicians of their own caliber and be hired for paying gigs.
VALUE PROPOSITION: ACCESS A GLOBAL COMMUNITY OF ELITE MUSICIANS
Aplaud provides instant access to vetted World Class performers, composers, sound engineers, as well as create a professional young artist network and promoting agency.
Fact: Every year in the United States, there are approximately 2.5 million weddings. The average price for a wedding band is $1000 per wedding. That’s an average estimated $2.5 Billion spent on musicians services in the USA on weddings alone.
Meet The Founder and CEO of Aplaud
- Dr. Prof. Sophia Serghi CEO and Founder of Aplaud LLC
- Composer, Pianist and Full Professor of Music at College of William and Mary
- Lifelong involvement in music as a composer, pianist, conductor and concert / festival producer for 35 years.
- Academic Professor and Strongly Networked with American and International Higher educational institutions as a member of The College Music Society.
- 20+ years Member of College Music Society
- Performs in major venues all over the world and collaborates with professional musicians in Europe, USA, Asia and Africa.
- Has 30 years of expertise and teaches course/workshops on Rave Music and Culture, HipHop in Africa and America, Film Scoring, Music composition, Turntablism, Performance Art etc.
- Has access to vetted musicians, critics, journals and producers globally.
- Originally from Cyprus and networked with the club scene in Eastern Mediterranean – especially Ayia Napa, Mikonos, Sifnos, Santorini, & Athens.
- Is currently composing a multimedia Ballet for and with Prof. Stephen Hawking.
- Has direct access to major sponsors including several fortune 500 companies.
- Has an extensive network of highly branded Classical, Electronic, Jazz, World and Academic music collaborators around the globe including Maestro Valery Gergiev, DJ Spookey, Keith Jarrette, Youssou Ndour, and Phillip Glass.
Aplaud (BETA)
Aplaud.com is well into development. It currently operates a functioning beta site. We expect its next iteration to be completed by the end of 2015.
How it works
How it works? Aplaud is simple. It's all about providing a platform to match people to people according to musical need... Musicians, recording and live sound engineers to one another and to those who are seeking their services.
The best way to explain this is by giving you a real world example.
Meet Kevin.
My name is Kevin, and I am a current undergraduate student at The College of William and Mary studying both physics and music. However, my natural inclination has been towards music and that is what I am pursuing. More specifically, I study composition and am exploring the world of contemporary classical music.
If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” - Albert Einstein
I Write Acoustic Orchestral and Chamber Music – I’m working on my Graduate School Portfolio and I need outstanding live recordings of my works.
ONE
Kevin is looking to hire musicians to perform his chamber music.
Kevin joins Aplaud... Builds a profile and writes his classified request.
I want to hire musicians on Aplaud to perform my latest string quartet and in addition I want to hire a recording engineer to master the final demo.
TWO
He is looking to hire a recording engineer to record the performance.
THREE
He fills out a request for musician bids and uploads any associated content.
I uploaded my string quartet on Aplaud and I offered to bid $400 to a String Quartet Ensemble - I would like the mp3 of the recordings to be done within 2 weeks.
Once I receive the finished MP3s I will post another project looking to hire a recording engineer to master the recording of my string quartet. His is willing to bid $200 for a recording engineer and needs the Master within 1 week.
FOUR
He then fills out a request for a recording engineer with dates and deadlines.
FIVE
Kevin receives many bids.
A string quartet from Julliard (The Providers) has counterbid to accept Kevin’s offer and they also offered to include the recording and Mastering (which they will handle in house) in the recording price. (This would mean Kevin does not need to hire a recording engineer for extra $200)
Another Quartet from Oberlin Conservatory has counterbid to complete Kevin’s offer 1 week early for $300 but Kevin will be required to outsource to an audio engineer for the Master copy.
But that one particular bid stands out... The all inclusive package.
SIX
Kevin spends sometime on Aplaud to negotiate with both interested string quartet ensembles and finally he decides to go with the student String Quartet from Julliard.
SEVEN
Kevin and the quartet are in live communication through Aplaud until the project is delivered as completed on Aplaud.
Aplaud is about building relationships and creating opportunities. It is about nurturing a high level artistic community.
EIGHT
Kevin gets a completed project performed, recorded and mastered.
The String Quartet Ensemble get another paid project under their belt.
NINE
Both the String Quartet Ensemble from Julliard and Kevin rate the quality of their experience.
PROJECT COMPETED
TEN
The project went so well that Kevin and the musicians from Julliard stayed in touch and began to collaborate on new projects. One of those projects gave them such global exposure they were asked to perform their new compositions before a large audience in a prestigious concert venue.
Contact Info
“Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife.” ― Kahlil Gibran
