Interview with Benjamin Gott, Indistr

Written by Allen Stern - January 15, 2007

Last week I reviewed the launch of a new music site, Indistr. To find out more about the application and what the plans are for monetization along with some lessons about what a startup needs to be successful, I spoke with Benjamin Gott, founder of Indistr. Check out the interview below (sorry, no audio).

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Allen: Can you provide a brief background about yourself?
Benjamin Gott: I have worked in the 'internet industry' for about 8 years, had my first 'real' gig in high school around the middle of the first bubble. My skill set focused first on classic web-design and then moved to backend development pretty much exclusively in classic ASP. Moved around to different employers, did some consulting, a lot of freelance, and then decided to settle a bit in the supply chain industry developing international suppliers portals with a focus on the furniture industry vertical. I have no formal education/college education. I grew up in the south Chicago-land area and I now live in downtown the young thriving city of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Love it. Also, I started and run THE BRILLIANCE with a great friend of mine Chuck Anderson of NoPattern as well as Virgil Abloh our sole contributor - and I have an absolute blast being a part of that site. Maybe more important than all that would be my background in music - of which I really don't have any! I was never talented enough to be an artist myself, but music has an almost 24/7 presence in my life and I have always been surrounded by great friends that make great music - all of them being independent artists.

Allen: Where did the idea for Indistr come from?
Benjamin: I remember reading a magazine called 'The Fader' a while back, the issue had Cam'ron on the cover and he was explaining how the 'mixtape game' works in NYC and how hip hop artist have embraced that form of hand-to-hand distribution. I was fascinated to see how it worked without any 'traditional' record labels or distributors help. INDISTR really started happening this past summer when a great friend of mine, Christopher Kent, approached me to build a site where people could download his music on a site built specifically for him. I started brain storming ideas and really started to develop the idea of a very, very simple distribution model where music is uploaded, sold, and the artist is paid instantly. Enter INDISTR.

Allen: How many musicians do you have signed up so far?
Benjamin: I don't like to discuss specific numbers this early on…but from our core base of beta testers we grew about 6-7x that number in the first 72 hours...was a pretty amazing thing to watch.

Allen: Can you share some information about your users?
Benjamin: Artists: They are heavily self-marketed, often solo artists - but not confined to that, motivated, and from every genre you could imagine. That's really the beauty…these artist love what they do - they are passionate enough to take the risk and make music knowing that they may never 'make it' - they love what they do. Buyers: Internet savvy, pro-indie music, all ages, fans from all genres.

Allen: How do you monetize Indistr?
Benjamin: Super straight-forward - give the artist 75% instantly upon the purchase of their music and we keep the other 25%. We find it extremely important to be as straight forward as possible. Artist can upload as much music as they'd like for free, there is no limit, they can then bundle the music into an album and price it as they wish - no limit on the price or track count. Single tracks can be purchased for a fixed price of $1. Simple stuff…

Allen: Funded or self-funded?
Benjamin: Angel-funded by a local family...very, very small funding in comparison. And we find it important to keep initial funding low.

Allen: How are you marketing Indistr?
Benjamin: Very grass roots. One thing I have learned with running THE BRILLIANCE is the power of connecting with bloggers and being active on message boards, etc. They are so tactile - it's a hand-to-hand marketing approach that spreads like wild fire. I love bloggers!!! I also love detractors - they seem to be the best people to get the word out quickly, they love to talk. Myspace has certainly helped as well.

Allen: What technology is used for Indistr?
Benjamin: The backend is done in ASP.net with an SQL database and the front end uses some Ajax stuff and minimal Flash where needed.

Allen: Who are your competitors?
Benjamin: Not as many as I thought there would be. Snocap for sure - they are a bit of an 800 pound gorilla in the indie music game, obviously with the MySpace deal. CDbaby is a bit, but they are still heavily focused on a brick-and-mortar type setup having a warehouse, etc. I would also say in a sense that Amie.st is, but they have a different model for pricing.

Allen: How does Indistr compare to Amie.st?
Benjamin: First off, let me say this - I really like Amie.st. In regards to how we compare - we have a completely different pricing model. Big difference is the ability to bundle music into albums and give the artist pricing control - Amie.st is dynamic pricing based on popularity. There payment terms are also more standard - I believe once a month, once a quarter? We are instant.

Allen: How does Indistr compare to iTunes?
Benjamin: One great thing about iTunes is the checkout process - can't beat a client side application like that - very easy to buy music. But they are obviously more powered by the labels rather than the actual independent artist themselves. They have pretty much admitted that the store is there to power the sales of their iPod - and its working well. I know there are services out there to get your music into iTunes - but they are cumbersome and once it's up it's not easily changed. INDISTR is totally flexible allowing the artist to change album artwork, track sequence, add tracks, delete tracks, rename tracks, rename albums, adjust pricing, etc all on the fly. And, of course, we pay instantly.

Allen: What's next for Indistr?
Benjamin: New design and search features! We just launched, but being a small house and needing to get to market quickly we ended up rushing the design in hindsight. I don't hate the design we have right now, in fact some people have commented they really like it, but I just think it could be a lot better - heavy focus on usability and more fluid process for uploading music and building albums…as well as checking out.

I also really want to focus on more search features. Honestly - I really looked at INDISTR as a conduit site - not really a destination to find new music. You were simply referred there by an artist's blog, Myspace, site, etc. But an overwhelming amount of feedback about searching, tagging, genres, etc have come up this past week. Fortunately we have been working on some of these features for the past few weeks - so be on the look out for some new functionality.

...and lots of growth!!

Allen: Do you find it's harder to compete from Michigan vs. if Indistr was located in the Valley?
Benjamin: My favorite part about INDISTR might be that we are not in the Valley. I don't have anything against the Valley - it's a breeding ground filled with some really amazing people. The overhead costs here in Grand Rapids are obviously way, way lower - huge advantage for a start up in terms of securing funding. I think one thing about West Michigan that a lot of outsiders don't know is the 'fertile' business climate. We have some seriously concentrated wealth here on the lake shore - its pretty amazing - and as manufacturing type industries go overseas this wealth needs to be invested somewhere - and I think its an amazing opportunity for young startups like myself to foster great relationships with very savvy business types that can not only invest, but give guidance. Since the business community is so concentrated there is a lot of hand-shaking, collaborating and overall respect - no back-stabbing allowed in a community this small. It's made an amazing environment to start a business - I love it.

And lets not forget - it's the world wide web.

Allen: What are the most important things that a startup must have to be successful?
Benjamin: Be frugal. Be focused. Spend the majority of your funding on whatever it is that will differentiate you in your market - the backend, or feature set. If you are using a service provider and not doing it in-house make sure you love who you pick. Be small until you need to be big - I find that to be very important, sort of something to live by. Another thing that is more left-field, some might disagree: don't be afraid to build/develop your idea in a bit of a vacuum. Outside influence and opinions can be unbelievably distracting to what your initial vision was/is. I'm not saying don't do market research - but be cautious that you don't live and die by a focus-groups opinion or what all the tech/venture blogs are saying. I'm sure there are more, but one of the most important is to have as much fun as possible - that's the magic in our favorite companies - they love what they do.

Allen: Which Web apps besides Indistr you believe is next to be a star?
Benjamin: Swivel.com! Love that site - I may be wrong, but I really see them being acquired for a decent chunk of change. Their model is great - and they really focus on business, not consumers. They will be one of the first true 'Business 2.0' companies embraced by really, really large (sometimes boring) companies that have massive amounts of information that needs to be cataloged, compared and acted upon. Brilliantly simple.

Allen: Where do you see the digital music moving in the next year?
Benjamin: I'm biased of course, but I really see the shift being control back into the hands of the artist. Record sales need to be so high today to make the existing models work - and with artist doing their own distribution on sites like INDISTR it makes things so much easier. Selling 100,000 records in a year's time would be more than enough as an indie artist. In today's world, selling that few records would get you dropped from your label! But I also don't think all artists are capable of managing the business end of things - such as marketing themselves and perhaps using INDISTR for distribution - so I think we'll see the traditional label model kind of fade away while management type models will be king - distribution will happen directly on sites such as INDISTR. DRM will really start disappearing more and more - but until the iPod loses market share there is no reason for Steve Jobs to get rid of their DRM - why would he?

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Interview with Benjamin Gott, Indistr

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