Marshall student creates musical social media network
When USC Marshall student Vincent Fong launched FindMySong — the equivalent of a musicians-only Facebook — earlier this year in April, he had high expectations for his project. Fong believed he had created something new, creative, innovative, perhaps even something necessary for musicians in the future. A violinist himself, the Hong Kong native created the site out of his frustration — a frustration all too familiar to anyone who has dipped their toes in the music industry.
Making waves · Vincent Fong, a student in USC’s Marshall School of Business, wanted to faciliate musical collaboration. – Mariya Dondonyan | Daily Trojan
“[All the] networking, copyrighting, file sharing, portfolio management, I realized it’s hard work,” Fong said. “Musicians can be really specific, making it difficult to find the exact people you need when you’re looking for help or looking to collaborate.”
Fong aims to use his creation to find solutions to these pressing issues. A website that resembles the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn and Dropbox, the platform facilitates efficient and effective musical collaboration.
Users create profiles that focus on their skills, preferences and current projects, and find other artists who share a common ground. With specific search tools, it becomes easy for users to find projects to audition for in a collaborative effort to create music.
The site also includes group messaging and file sharing to help artists communicate with each other during the audition and recording processes. The most unique part about FindMySong however, is how deftly the website deals with complex legal issues such as ownership. The platform allows its users to assign copyright to project members and manage rights from one central board, helping avoid messy disputes and violations.
The website has proven to be both innovative and successful. In March, Fong and his colleagues — all USC students — entered the annual Student Startup Madness competition. Participants were given the chance to pitch their ideas to investors, create professional connections and learn more about emerging technologies. Fong’s team was selected to present and won third place in the competition.
Now, three months, 3,500 users and more than250 uploaded files since its launch, FindMySong’s next mission is to create a circle within the present community that is composed of only USC students.
“We want an internal system where students within the USC network can find one another easily,” Fong said. “Since April [when the website was launched], we’ve talked to many students and faculty member and discovered that an internal system would be beneficial.”
The idea to add this USC-specific group within the site was a response to a growing dissatisfaction with existing music sharing methods within the university.
“The students complained about how bad Blackboard was when it came to sharing multimedia files,” Fong said. “They told me they would end up uploading their music to Soundcloud and then emailing the link of that to the professor. That just sounds super inefficient to me for both parties.”
By creating an internal community comprised exclusively of USC students, artists will have the opportunity to work and play together in person, while being guaranteed counterparts of exceptional quality.
“At the end of the day, the musicians want to meet each other,” Fong said. “There are also problems with trust issues. You want to make sure you can depend on the other artist,” Fong said. “I believe making a private group for just USC students may fix these two problems.”
After sharing his thoughts with professors from the Thornton School of Music, Fong was invited to a few classes to present the project to students. The feedback he received was positive, giving him confidence that the website could one day become the official platform used by music students and teachers alike. Fong received a particularly strong response from freshmen students.
“Freshmen love it because it also gives them the opportunity to connect with older students too,” Fong said. “Typically, a freshman would not likely be exposed to the same opportunities that are given to seniors.”
Interestingly, Fong firmly believes in a “bottom-up” approach towards the implementation of his site. By having the support of the student body as evidence of his project’s potential for university-wide application, the school authorities would be more easily persuaded to approve the site for student use. He has already been invited music students to sign an online petition, asking USC to bring FindMySong to the Thornton School.
The website for the petition states that a significant number of signatures are needed to make this happen, but with all the support Fong is receiving from both students and faculty, approval from the administration could soon become a reality.
Fong and his colleagues have also started planning another project. During the young entrepreneur’s time at USC, he has met many film students from the School of Cinematic Arts through mutual friends and classes. After talking to film majors this past year, he realized that similar problems exist in the film industry. With his growing interest in the medium, he hopes to expand and evolve FindMySong to allow budding filmmakers to collaborate on movie production and promotion.
On the surface, Vincent Fong seems like just another man in the sea of students walking through Trousdale Parkway. In reality, Fong is someone who marches to the beat of his own drum, transforming USC and the online musical landscape into an environment that makes music something to be truly created and enjoyed by all.