“I think we were moving to a more digital collaboration era anyways, and the pandemic sped it up a lot. We’re not there just yet, but I feel like the products are all being built right now, and we got a lot closer…And I think collaboration is going to be almost entirely digital or at least be able to be really soon… that’ll open up a lot of doors. And I think once that’s done now, we will be able to help support that in terms of connecting a global database of musicians. So I’m excited to support, with us just representing so many people.” — Elmo Lovano, Founder, and CEO at Jammcard
This week we bring you the highlights from the new Fast Forward episode where our Niko Slavnic, CMO at HTEC, had the pleasure to chat with the founder of the tech and media startup, Elmo Lovano.
About the Speaker
Elmo Lovano is a professional musician, musical director, producer, and the founder and CEO of Jammcard: The Music Professionals Network. He started touring at age 15 and has recorded and performed with some of the biggest names on the music scene. In 2017, Lovano released the Jammcard app — home to some of the top professionals in music which is becoming the digital foundation for the music industry.
About Jammcard
Jammcard allows professional musicians to build their musical profile and connect with others with the goal of finding new opportunities to work and play. Founded and based in Los Angeles, California, Jammcard is the first verified professional mobile network for the music industry. The HTEC team joined the efforts and provided a complete rebuild of the Jammcard platform. Forbes called Jammcard a “LinkedIn for musicians,” and the app won Best UI/UX at the Good Design USA Awards and the Gold Award for Best Mobile Social App at the W3 Awards.
Listen to the podcast to hear his amazing story. You will learn more about:
- How Covid-19 is impacting Jammcard and the global music industry
- Rising opportunities on a worldwide music scene
- Innovation as the main driver on the music scene
- Smart Contract systems
- The story behind Jammcard success
- The experience in working with HTEC Group
- A superpower that keeps him going and growing
With Covid-29 making tectonic shifts globally, the world of music and tech has also been hit by this storm. Lovano shares how this major change impacted the music industry as a whole, including Jammcard.
“Oh, my gosh, yeah, so COVID-19 completely influenced our project. You know, the majority of Jammcard are professional musicians, the majority are touring musicians, and are on tour. And so you know, everyone that may be living in live entertainment lost all of their work, you know, for the last year or so. And it’s definitely affected global because what’s going to happen first is artists are only going to be touring domestically, in whatever nation they’re in…American artists are gonna have to stay in America, European artists are gonna have to stay in Europe, Australia, and etc. That has been crazy…So you know, I’m excited that we’re now, we seem to be at the beginning of an uptick of a whole new year touring, and that’s coming back, and I think it’ll be bigger than ever.“
New opportunities start to emerge on a global music scene. As businesses struggle to make sense of the post-COVID-19 business environment, many opportunities are arising on the market, and there will be a massive shift in prioritization in years to come. Lovano explains that this specifically reflected on communication and collaboration between fellow musicians, empowering a more digital collaboration era and opening a lot of new doors in terms of building a global database of musicians.
“I think we were moving to a more digital collaboration era anyways, and this sped it up a lot. We’re not there just yet, but I feel like the products are all being built right now, and we got a lot closer…And I think collaboration is going to be almost entirely digital or at least be able to be really soon… That’ll open up a lot of doors. And I think once that’s done now, we will be able to help support that in terms of connecting a global database of musicians. So I’m excited to support, with us just representing so many people.” — Elmo Lovano, Founder, and CEO at Jammcard
Levano explains that while there is a lot of innovation happening, most of it is still art-focused. He believes that more and more music-focused platforms (like Jammcard) will start gaining a lot of attention among people and that solutions like smart contract systems and blockchain will be huge.
“There’s a lot of innovation happening. But I think in terms of how quickly it’s come out and garnered so much attention. But, it still is art-focused more than it is music-focused. So there will be platforms coming out that are going to make more music-focused. And I think that’ll be huge. I think a big part of why that will be huge is the smart contract system, which is really greatly needed in the music industry. Metadata is a huge problem in the music industry..I think blockchain and smart contracts will be very important to music. It’s not there yet, but I think NF T’s are helping it come faster.“
Being aware of how most of the music platforms that come out are mostly artist-focused, Levano points out that Jammcard tries hard to put musicians at the focal point and enable them to create networks that would allow them to stand out and shine.
“…We create tools for modernizing the music industry, and we are music-focused…I think a lot of the music tech platforms, if not entirely, music platforms that come out are very artist-focused, or songwriter or producer-focused; we care about all those, but we’re also like musician-focused…musicians are at the bottom of the barrel…”
“As a drummer, I’m making a stand to try to build tools that make it better for all of us, helping artists and songwriters and producers and just kind of how we interact with each other. So we’re building many different tools to do that.“
Since the HTEC team was involved in rebuilding the Jammcard platform from the start, we asked Levano to share more about their experience working with the HTEC team.
“Yeah, we worked with HTEC the whole time. It’s been awesome. You know Alex and I became friends. I think we hit it off really fast. He was really like a savior to me because when I started Jammcard, I didn’t know what I was doing tech-wise, I knew what I wanted product-wise, but I didn’t know at all how to make it…And so when Alex and I met and started talking, he was like: “The side you don’t know how to do is the side that I really know how to do. So let me help you.” And he did, and we’ve been with HTEC ever since then, like for years.”
Read Setting the Beat for Music Industry Network to find out more about how the HTEC team helped rebuild the Jammcard platform.
To learn more about Elmo Lovano’s background and experience and how we connected with HTEC in the first place, read this article.
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