CrowdTunes is an American Underground @Main-based startup that invites people to connect with commercial spaces by taking ownership of the music playing around them. With the app, stale background tunes become interactive crowd-sourced playlists.
“As a patron,” CEO Brandon Magsamen says, “you can download our application and request any song in our venues directly from your phone – [it’s] a 21st century jukebox.”
The company started at the bottom and moved up …literally, Brandon says: from the windowless co-working space in AU@Main’s basement, to a basement office, to a corner office (with windows), followed by three more relocations until they landed on the second floor, which overlooks Main Street. “Our roots at AU@Main are a critical asset for us,” Brandon says. “We are in the heart of Durham surrounded by other like-minded individuals.”
And their Durham roots don’t stop there. The idea for CrowdTunes incubated at Duke‘s Fuqua School of Business, where the team connected with their first developer, received their first grant and met their first customer. With such a creative influence, focus on music (Moogfest anyone?!) and technical talent, Durham has been an absolute ideal location to build this business,” Brandon says. “We are fortunate to be a small piece of a great story.”
By The Numbers
• CrowdTunes launched June 2014.
• Team grew from four to 10 over two years.
• Their venue base increased by 10 times from 2015-16.
• More than 65,000 users strong.
• Five locations in Durham actively use CrowdTunes, including Social Games and Brews, Satisfaction Restaurant & Bar and three Bull City Applebee’s locations.
• More than 1 million songs have been requested on the platform, with “Sorry” by Justin Bieber and Drake’s “Hotline Bling” taking the lead in recent months.
