AUDIOFEATHER

Music lovers consume music in multiple ways these days.

Artists themselves are constantly looking at how they can get their music out into the world, reaching new listeners while keeping loyal fans onboard. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But in reality, it’s fiendishly complicated in a world of multiple digital music platforms, where anyone can upload any old tat, including content that is completely AI-generated.

This complex picture creates opportunities for clever people to develop tech-led solutions to these issues.

As well as assisting artists and audiences, there’s a lot of money to be made by individuals and companies developing these tech solutions. Liverpool is looking to be at the forefront of this music tech revolution. This is helped by the Music Futures initiative, based at the University of Liverpool, which has received around £7m in funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to support the growth of a music tech cluster in the city region.

Audiofeather is just one of the many new companies looking to make a mark in this exciting music tech space. Harry, Tobi and Oscar are the team behind Audiofeather, and I caught up with Harry, who told me about the team and their work.

Me, Tobi and Oscar are all local to different parts of Liverpool (Anfield, Wavertree and the Wirral, respectively), but we met at Merseyside Youth Association through the Noise Project specifically. We owe a lot to that project, as they’ve supported us throughout everything, including this.

We’ve since created a CIC named Audiofeather, dedicated to creating tangible, face-to-face connections via our physical merchandise and digitally tailored artist pages. We debuted with a pop-up in Rough Trade, then got funding from numerous organisations and are currently collaborating with the explosive punk-grime artist KOJ and an enriching afro-jazz collective named The Finite Experience.

If you’re wondering what the Audiofeather cards do, then Harry explained it so even a Luddite like me could understand.

Through the tap of a phone, our cards lead to an artist’s exclusive music, artwork, videos, bios, gig dates, ways to support them and much more. They essentially act as a one-stop shop for everything to do with an artist, without the use of social media.

We build as much as we can ourselves from the ground up, such as the custom cards and artist pages, which we then combine with NFC tech to link one another. NFC acts like a QR code without the faff (or ugliness).

I asked Harry where the idea came from.

Noise had developed a few programmes with the help of Yaw Owusu and other industry veterans (like yourself). They were dedicated to teaching young people about all corners of the music industry and eventually utilising that knowledge to advise a specific local artist on everything they should do to further their career. One of those artists was KOJ, funnily enough.

Once the programmes were over, the three of us took it a step further and decided to construct a promo campaign for a local band named BITE for their single ‘Move Around’.

Long story short, we realised how the main (often only) available avenue to promotion for local grassroots artists is to use the ‘slot machine’ that is social media. To us, it felt like an echo chamber that sapped so much of our energy, barely translating into any actual, real-world engagement. It’s no secret that most artists have been conditioned to view it as a necessary evil.

So, with a lot of prep and hard work, we decided to make our own avenue for promotion to give some power back to local artists.

Developing new ideas and new tech takes time, and Harry explained their journey and how they have taken Audiofeather forward.

We’ve worked on this idea for over a year now, probably, meeting with the same industry veterans from our time at Noise for advice.

Out of our own pocket, using materials we could find and design online, we held a Rough Trade pop-up stall to test if our idea was viable for engagement. We ran out of our entire stock that day and got some amazing feedback.

It showed us that people do want a physical, intentional way to stay updated with the music scene without the need for social media.

We then very thankfully received funding from a few organisations, such as the King’s Trust, PRS Foundation and Music Futures, who believed in the cause and helped us further the community.

We’ve now been able to buy our own 3D printer and other materials necessary to develop into a CIC and work directly with artists to offer bespoke packages!

Finally, I asked Harry about the ambition of the team and how far they think they can go with Audiofeather.

We want to give some power back to local artists when it comes to promotion.

Grassroots artists especially feel buried under millions of names on streaming services whilst being beholden to a predatory social media algorithm.

Even though these services can have their uses, we want to bring back the value of bonding with an artist in person and feeling part of their community.

We plan on proving this with brilliant artists like KOJ, who’s been making waves in Liverpool for quite some time. He’s a punk-grime prodigy who truly cares & speaks on what’s right for the people of this city, he doesn’t need much of an introduction. He’ll be dropping his PUNK PANTHER MIXTAPE through our cards on October 26th to be found at his future shows! He’ll also be taking over Audiofeather.com this weekend with some exclusive never-heard-before tracks!

Alongside, we’ve joined with The Finite Experience’s amazing afro-jazz community by setting up a selling booth with them at their Suono gigs on Bold Street. Finite play every single Wednesday, completely free entry too! The talent there is so hard to find and we truly love those welcoming people and the belonging they bring to all who come by (the sound being incredible helps too).

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