Renowned guitarist and Nashville industry stalwart Ed Eason, who has performed with multi-platinum artists from Carrie Underwood to Steven Tyler and worked with music tech startups and entrepreneurs, has joined the board of advisors for the new social music discovery app SoundStorming. With his music industry expertise and insight, Eason will help build connections with musicians at all stages of their careers.

“We’re excited to have Ed Eason join our board of advisors,” says SoundStorming co-founder Arnau Bosch. “We built SoundStorming to give musicians a social platform for sharing their musical ideas so they can connect, collaborate, and promote their raw talent. Ed is an incredible musician who works with top artists and understands the music industry deeply. With his knowledge of both the tech startup world and the plight of emerging artists, Ed will shape SoundStorming’s outreach to artists and top connections in the industry.” 

Ed Eason is best known on Music Row as Carrie Underwood’s guitarist for more than 14 years, and as a virtuoso guitarist on sold-out arena tours and live shows like the Grammys, Saturday Night Live, Billboard Awards, Country Music Awards and many more. His deep music industry expertise has made him a valuable advisor to multiple entertainment startups and to the young companies incubating at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center.

Eason began his relationship with SoundStorming as a jury member alongside Grammy and Emmy winning artists selecting top talent for a SoundStorming launch event. Upcoming artists submitted song ideas on the SoundStorming app for the chance to develop the idea into a full track with top music industry mentors. The sheer quality and quantity of talent on the platform made an impression on Eason. “It brought me back to my roots as a musician: I feel most inspired when I’m listening to new bands in dive bars or on the street, without lots of production or expensive instruments. In those moments, I can feel the hunger and passion oozing from their raw talent. That excites me musically, and that's what I hear on SoundStorming.” 

SoundStorming’s powerhouse roster of advisors, including music, tech, and business leaders Dave Kushner (Grammy Award-winning musician and guitarist for Velvet Revolver), Jon Kraft (founding CEO, Pandora), Steve Turner (former executive of Apple Music), also impressed Eason. The experienced talent on the board and the raw talent on the app made Eason want to be a part of it. “I saw that this platform has the potential to make an impact and help the next generation of musicians,” Eason explains. 

Co-founders Arnau Bosch and Alicia Rius set out to change how artists are discovered by making the process of musical creation more social. More than ever, artists are looking for new ways to engage with their audiences and sharing their creative process. But they have had to adapt to social media platforms focused on video and images, not music. SoundStorming artists record, share, and collaborate on musical ideas directly, giving listeners unprecedented, unfiltered access. By putting musical creativity first, SoundStorming lets artists focus on what they do best— making music—and listeners are responding. Ed Eason agrees: “SoundStorming has what makes TV talent show The Voice so successful and captivating. The judges are hearing the music first and have their radars tuned to talent, not the artist’s look. ” 

Eason sees SoundStorming as a breakthrough not only for connecting artists with collaborators and listeners but for artist development and A&R. He’s seen too much talent and creativity get lost because new artists don’t know how to produce their music themselves, or can’t afford professional production for more than a few of their songs. “SoundStorming gives a platform for those creative sparks to see the light of day,” Eason explains. “You have to get your ideas out into the world and see other people respond to find who you are as an artist, and the SoundStorming community is growing around developing each other. SoundStorming is the closest access point to discovering that talent: closest to the creative heart and soul of the artist.” According to Eason, great talent is undeniable, and SoundStorming helps great talent get heard.

These times of social distancing are opening artists’ minds and forcing them to be more creative. There will be hardship and loss of revenue, make no mistake. But great new collaborations, sounds, conversations, and interactions will come out of this. I believe that the restrictions required to confront the COVID-19 pandemic are helping us understand the connections and engagement we need with our audiences and with our community.

With tours and gigs on hold, artists at every stage of their careers are trying things that they never would have tried before, experimenting with formats. Erykah Badu invited her audience to choose her next move in a recent live-streamed concert, changing her sound as she performed in different rooms in her house. Thao & the Get Down Stay Down’s new video, shot on zoom, is another sign of the creativity that triumphs over constraints. Every day we’re seeing online-only “festivals” spring up that might feature livestreaming acoustic guitar sets from an artist’s bedroom or live DJ sessions from the living room.

All these artists can’t just move their live shows to small screens, they have to create more intimate experiences out of necessity. They’re going live on social media with limited equipment, playing stripped-down arrangements, and sharing how they make music on lockdown with fans. But they will learn that bringing more of themselves and their creative process to live streaming and social media brings fans closer for good.

They’re learning now what attracted early adopters to live streaming, membership, and crowdfunding platforms like Twitch, Patreon, and Kickstarter: when fans see raw musical ideas take shape, they become fervent supporters. Those fans are more likely to buy merch, pre-save the finished tracks they watched being born, and buy concert tickets (when live shows return).

Music marketing paradigms will shift as a result. Releasing an “exclusive” used to mean a fully finished, totally produced track on one unique platform. From now on the truly sought-after exclusive will be an experience: being there as artists are creating, and feeling like you’re part of the creative process. We knew artists and listeners were moving in this direction, and now social isolation has accelerated that movement.

Social platforms are the most common channels artists use to connect with fans. But previous platforms for text, image, and video content put the focus on lifestyles and personas, not sounds. As a musician myself, I saw the need for a social music platform that adapts the way musicians work: recording musical ideas. With co-founder Alicia Rius, I built the social music collaboration app SoundStorming to give artists new ways of engaging with other musicians as well as the audiences. When artists record and share the beginnings of a track on SoundStorming, other musicians can build on it- adding a drum loop or a vocal track, for example, that takes the idea in a new direction. Using a musical idea (a riff, a melody, a beat) as a piece of content—equivalent to a tweet or Instagram post—opens up a conversation through collaboration. In a music-centered environment, genre barriers disappear in favor of free creativity.

Connecting and collaborating are the keys to success in the music industry. Making collaboration social opens a door to new ways for artists to connect, and for fans to discover artists and connect with their music. We’ll all welcome the return of in-person, live music-making when this pandemic passes, but I predict that artists who are exploring new ways of connecting with their fans now won’t go back to using social media merely to share announcements and photo shoots. They will find closer connection and more effective communication on social platforms that let them focus on musical ideas and the creative process, and they’ll gain creative dividends as well.

Musically and creatively, the COVID-19 pandemic will break down genres, stereotypes, and old mindsets, including how we collaborate and how artists connect with new audiences. If you’re an artist, this is the right time to try new ways to communicate, beyond promoting shows and releases. This is the right time to open up your creative process to fans and potential collaborators. This is the right time to share your ideas, bring listeners with you on your musical journey, and watch them become your strongest supporters.

In a time of social distancing, musicians are forced to find creative solutions to engage with fans, collaborate with other artists, and get their music heard. As a result, many musicians are learning that when fans are a part of their creative process, it brings them even closer. Globally, fans are raving about hearing un-produced, fresh musical ideas in real time from artists through live streams. Engagement between the fans and artists has never been better as they share raw content through these social media platforms.
 

Musicians and listeners are looking for places where they can connect, engage, and experience the creative process as it happens. That’s why Boon, a rising Nashville songwriter & producer, turned to the new social music collaboration app SoundStorming. The 16-year-old artist was in search of musical collaborations, but even in Music City USA he had a hard time making connections. “Before, I would use Instagram hashtags to find people,” Boon recalls. “I would direct message them and just hope they would get back to me. It could be like pulling teeth to get them to a studio for a co-writing session.” When Boon started using SoundStorming, he found himself in a network of artists all focused on collaboration and connection. 
 

So Boon turned to SoundStorming to find something fresh for his new track. “It’s not about genre- I was looking for a vocalist who also had great songwriting skills,” Boon explains. He came across an artist who had uploaded just 16 bars of flow with the cool factor Boon wanted. He was able to message Freeco, the Atlanta rapper behind that track. As they collaborated back and forth on SoundStorming, Boon liked the ease and randomness of trading recordings and evolving their musical ideas. Their SoundStorming collaboration blossomed into “Feelings on the Floor,” a genre-crossing banger on Boon’s just released EP 16.
 

When SoundStorming founders Arnau Bosch and Alicia Rius heard Boon and Freeco’s collaboration in the platform, it was validation of their vision. “We launched SoundStorming because we knew there was a need for a social platform where artists could share their unedited, unfinished ideas, to connect and collaborate openly,” Co-founder Arnau says. Alicia continues, "Artist discovery is one of the biggest challenges in the music industry. By bringing audiences to the beginning of the creative process, we are allowing artists to create a more intimate relationship with their fans, and also use these musical moments as demos or soundbites to promote their talent and be discovered.”
 

You could say that SoundStorming works like TikTok for original musical ideas. Instead of influencers spreading viral dances and copycat lipsynchs, SoundStorming artists share their music as they create it. The platform allows artists to capture their musical ideas on their smartphones, just as they do now, and share them with other artists and listeners immediately. Other users can record their own responses and riffs, taking the ideas in new and unexpected directions. It’s a social platform where connections are forged by music, pure and simple. SoundStorming users are fearlessly collaborating in new genres and contributing ideas that the original artist may have never envisioned. These asynchronous collaborations may be fleeting or they may develop into bigger projects, but everyone who participates—artists and listeners— gains inspiration and connection.
 

For young users like Boon, finding inspiration in the serendipitous collision of ideas on a social platform feels right: “I’ve had some super interesting people collab on my songs, soul singers and blues guitar players, people I never would have thought I’d work with. It’s new things that spark creativity. I want to work with as many people as possible!” 
 

As for Boon, his new EP is already earning him attention from labels. The creative hothouse of SoundStorming collaboration means that artists are able to level up their work even without formal artist development. Just as SoundStorming allowed Boon to connect directly with a community of musicians, it has the potential for future fans and A&R reps to identify emerging talent based on their sounds. No more wading through lifestyle-focused social media platforms that were designed for photos, text, or video rather than the music itself. Creation, collaboration, and discovery all in one place: just what we need for the era of self-isolation.

9 out of 10 artists are left forever undiscovered. Chances are, the next potential hit by an undiscovered artist is stashed away in a garbled voice memo right now.
 
A new social music app, SoundStorming, is going to change how artists are discovered by making music’s process of creation social. Today's musicians are continuously recording song ideas on their phones, this means that artists have hundreds of potential great songs or sounds that are never shared or further developed. Translated globally, this means millions of beats, rhythms, melodies, remixes, and collaborations never see the light of day -- and millions of wasted opportunities for fans and other creators to discover new sounds, new artists, and collaborations.
 
A key to unlocking that hidden treasure trove of creativity is SoundStorming, a social music platform where musicians, songwriters, and artists can connect, collaborate, and promote their talent by sharing their in-progress musical ideas with a global community. The SoundStorming team’s ambitious goal is nothing less than to change the industry – to fill the gap between the music that is consumed and the music that’s being created while incubating the next generation of top musicians in a collective space that focuses on sharing music as a creative process rather than a finished product.
 
“We see ourselves as connecting the fragmented worlds of music creation, collaboration, and distribution, in one place,” explained SoundStorming co-founder, CEO & Musician, Arnau Bosch. Together with co-founder and COO Alicia Rius, he created a new mobile app designed to allow musicians to record, share, and brainstorm with other artists across a social platform, ushering in a new wave of collaboration and innovation.
 
An artist, for example, can record a melody, and another musician from the other side of the globe can collaborate on it and give the original song a new twist. On the other hand, a renowned artist can use SoundStorming to share the first chords of her latest hit, before playing it live, or from the hotel room before the show. The platform has an auto time-stamping feature that ensures each musician owns the rights to his or her own contribution to the composition.
 
SoundStorming’s brilliance is in its simplicity. Just record, share, and then collaborate. Says Bosch. “Music is the top category on social media, making it a potentially powerful tool for artist discovery -- but musicians usually engage with audiences through content that has nothing to do with music on these platforms. Social Media is about creating an outside image: fabricated, filtered, unreachable, and egocentric. SoundStorming is about talent, not looks, making it the first true social music platform”.
 
Music has always been Bosch’s passion. Since buying his first Spanish guitar at seven years old, he has been playing and using music to meet and connect with other people, often sharing sketches of songs with friends across the map via his phone’s voice memos. Fast forward to the last four years: as Creative Director for Apple at TBWA\Media Arts Lab, Bosch was instrumental in the launch of the Apple Music platform and was fortunate enough to get exposure to the real data of the music industry. It was while working closely with top music industry professionals in this capacity that he had his light-bulb moment. “As a creative agency, we found ourselves spending dollars creating secondary assets to promote the real assets: their music. There's a need for exclusive content in all streaming platforms, and we know that more than 95% of musicians record ideas on their phones. If I could go deep into their phones, I could actually start taking out some ideas that tell the story behind their music. Ideas that tell way more stuff about the real artist and what is to come. That is the most exclusive Music content there is.”
 
Under the existing model, musicians reach their audience through distribution -- after a long process of writing, producing, mixing/mastering and relying on the good graces of the industry’s traditional gate-keepers. SoundStorming throws a liberating wrench in that system with the goal to allow artists to share their music with an ever-growing and supportive community from the very beginning of their creative journey. 
 
The strategy is to roll it out in three phases. The first step is empowering the next generation of musicians with a streamlined, user-friendly platform that makes it easy and rewarding to network and collaborate with other artists. The second step will be to bring the professional community of established musicians, producers, A&R folks, etc. into the mix; people who can give well-needed advice and mentoring to emerging artists. The third step will be to open the doors to audiences so artists will be able to use the creative process as exclusive content to engage with fans and be discovered.
 
“If you open those doors, you can really imagine what kind of interaction and engagement we're bringing between artists and fans – something that’s never been seen before,” says Bosch. “I would love for artists to understand the power that they have with their ideas, and to be able to give them the tools to really utilize those ideas.”