Finding music on the Internet is pretty easy these days. Whether it's mainstream hits or independent artists toiling underground, there is no shortage of services that specialize in bringing a certain type of music to your computer.
Ourtunez, a Macomb Township-based software startup, thinks it can carve out its own niche by exposing people to all sorts of contemporary music, ranging from mainstream to independent musicians.
"Our main differentiator is indie music," says Chris Ciaramitaro, co-founder of
Ourtunez. "While we have all of the mainstream music, we have all of the great independent artists from across the nation."
Ciaramitaro and his co-founder, Sam Munaco, loved to search out new bands in high school. As free time became more sparse as they got older, they found less and less time to do it. So the friends decided to make their own easy-to-use, web-streaming service that mixes both mainstream music and independent artists.
"We started out grassrootsing it," Munaco says. "We found them on Facebook, told them about our product and went from there."
Ourtunez has attracted a number of bands from across the U.S., including
Taddy Porter (Oklahoma),
New Hollow (Ohio) and
Kaleido (Detroit). The team of five people launched the service in September. It now has 200 independent bands and 10,000 users.
"If we continue to have the numbers we had last month, we'll double in December," Ciaramitaro says.
Source: Sam Munaco & Chris Ciaramitaro, co-founders of Ourtunez
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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