Brian Erickson ’08 said he and his friends recently discussed upcoming summer internships and how much they would hate to work in a cubicle for their entire lives.
“We decided the only way around that was to come up with a big idea,” said Erickson.
Along with four friends, Erickson, a Mirror staff writer, started a music business-networking Web site called Kicknote.com while abroad in Australia.
“Think MySpace meets Deviant Art meets Digg meets Google Earth and done in a way Apple Computers would be proud of,” Erickson said.
Kicknote’s purpose is to make it easy for local and major music labels to run independently. Ideally, Erickson said, it will remove record labels from the process and make buying music and concert tickers cheaper.
“Give more money to the artists who deserve it and at the same time let the fans spend less,” said Erickson. “Make everything run smoother, more efficiently and faster.”
Erickson is joined by four others as owners and managers of the company.
Mike Beach, a senior at Marist College, is the head Web designer and handles the legal aspects. Jarrod Gecek, a 2006 graduate of Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, is in charge of all graphic design for logo and print materials. The group also includes Dan Whitley and Rob Hicks, both juniors at George Washington University.
Whitley is handling public relations and financial strategy and Hicks is in charge of advertising and marketing.
Erickson, Hicks and Whitley were childhood friends in Middletown, N.J., while Erickson found Beach and Gecek through an online networking site.
“I’ve been devising an advertising plan for promoting the site using posters, business cards, flyers, T-shirts and online ads,” said Hicks.
Although an official launch date has not yet been decided, Erickson said he is optimistic about getting it started soon.
“I would like to say we will be up and running at some point during mid-July of this year,” he said. “But don’t hold me to it.”
So far, there are listings for the company on GoBigNetwork.com, a site for businesses and investors to connect.
“We have gotten a few bites, but it’s not something we’re actively pursuing recently. We realized we just need to get things off the ground before we start thinking about that,” said Erickson. “My biggest goal is to take it step by step and be realistic. There have been so many unforeseen problems, challenges and surprises that I could have never anticipated when we started this almost a year ago.”
Throughout the course of assembling the project, there have been about 10 other people who left the project, something that Gecek said has slowed down the process.
“I think the biggest challenges, and everyone else would agree, were weeding out the people who wanted to work from the people who actually worked,” said Gecek.
“In the short term, this is a great learning experience. The most important part of this for me is going through the process and doing things correctly, because I know this won’t be the last crazy idea I have,” said Erickson.
The budget for the project is not infinite, but because it is run through the Internet, large funds are not necessary.
“Ideally we should be able to start the business on a thousand or two,” Erickson said. “That’s the wonder of the Internet. That’s why so many young people are making it big; all it takes is some motivation and talent these days.”
The developers of Kicknote.com have chosen to pair with Musicane, a third party service that will host technology for bands to sell such as ring tones and music videos.
This will be beneficial for both parties, Erickson said. Money will be saved as Musicane stores files and is exposed to a much larger customer base.
Although Erickson is currently abroad in Brisbane, Australia, he and his co-owners are utilizing the wonders of the Internet to make this project a reality.
“The cool thing about this business is we’re doing everything completely independently and collaborating using the Internet,” said Erickson. “If we can make this business work from remote locations around the world, even if it’s not huge, I’ll consider this project an amazing success.”
Despite the difficult and unforeseen challenges that Erickson and his team have faced, he said he is hopeful that a positive future is in store.
“It’s definitely a challenge at times when you’re 12,000 miles away from something you’ve put a year of your life into. Especially when all you can do is send an e-mail and pray that people will act on what you’ve said,” said Erickson.
Gecek agreed.
“To get six guys in remote locations to see the same vision, have the same motivation and work in tandem with each other is an accomplishment within itself,” said Gecek.
Hicks said he is also optimistic about the success of the project.
“I think Kicknote has the potential to be a big success,” he said. “If all goes to plan, it will end up being a one-stop site for everything in the music business. It’s a lofty goal, but I think we can do it.”
Though uncertain of what’s to come, Erickson said the timing is just right for Kicknote.com to launch.
“I believe we are good enough, and I believe the market is perfect right now, but who knows for sure,” he said.
For the time being the owners of Kicknote are waiting for everything to come together.
“We’ve put in a lot of work already, and I think once we’re able to really get things off the ground, the site will take off fairly quickly,” Hicks said. “For now we’re all just continuing our behind-the-scenes work and hopefully everything will fall into place soon.”
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