Community Musician Archives

Rock ‘n roll may be dead, but the music business is still projected to grow to $142 billion by 2030 globally, according to Goldman Sachs. Despite this growth the average musician is consistently being squeezed by the big players and not earning their fair share of the value of the art they have created. Community Musician — originally a “Craig’s List” for musicians — has developed a plan and formed a team to disrupt this unbalanced monopolistic system, all while ensuring that the musicians they work with are properly compensated for their talents.

Scott Arey, the CEO of Community Musician who is also the front man and songwriter for his latest band The Lost Cavaliers of Mercy, understands the struggles of the average musician in the cutthroat industry. As a young musician, Arey signed with Warner Music and began touring as a warm-up act for the Indigo Girls, but he quickly discovered he couldn’t make enough money to pay his bills.

“I would max out my credit cards just trying to pay the expenses of putting together a few cities’ tour, never mind trying to pay the band,” Arey reminisces.

Partly due to the economic hardships he faced as a musician, Arey decided to pivot to a business career. After graduating from Stanford University, he began his career with KPMG and soon joined Bank of America where he worked for ten years, eventually becoming CFO of the Commercial Banking Division and then CFO of BofA’s International Trade Bank. He then led a series of successful start-ups to growth and investor exits, such as Journey, Alsbridge, Gearbox and even a publicly traded microcap company he got NASDAQ to agree to list on their exchange.

Whether or not Arey has the ability to lead Community Musician in a way that forever alters the landscape of the music industry could be a billion-dollar question. Just before his current run of with Community Musician, Arey took a company valued at $66 million when he joined to a $1.3 billion exit in less than three years. Arey won’t be alone leading the company, as he is partnering with Community Musician President Derek Toone who has also driven hundreds of millions of dollars in shareholder value — most recently at Automation Anywhere, which in 2018 had the highest Series A valuation at $1.8 billion in Silicon Valley history.

Arey believes that he has the resources and the personnel to take Community Musician to the next level.

“Derek Toone and I have individually and collectively applied sound business practices to the enterprises we’ve made successful, enterprises that frankly, were resistant to doing so. We are uniting musicians in common cause to pool resources and apply those resources wisely and effectively to meet the challenges all musicians face,” says Arey.

While the road ahead will be a long one, Community Musician plans the start of its journey with an acquisition of Puddletown Rehearsal Studios based in Portland, Oregon, which currently has 8 buildings and 350 rooms serving a community of over 8,000 local musicians. Community Musician plans to further develop its already successful app for musicians and its patented Collectible Music Card which uses the same NFC chip that trigger high fidelity (i.e., lossless vinyl quality) recordings to play on any smartphone, with just a tap.

Nic Yannariello, who toured with bands like Tool, Filter and Rage Against the Machine, created Puddletown after he built and sold the now-iconic venue the Hawthorne Theatre. Yannariello has joined Community Musician as SVP of Operations and will run the nationwide music rehearsal studio business.

“If you’re a serious musician, you either have a rehearsal space, you’re sharing with someone, or trying to get off the waiting list for a space,” Yannariello said. “Either way it all starts with rehearsal.”

Yannariello is chopping at the bit. “You wanna rock? Then let’s roll, we’ve got tools, we’ve got the talent, jump in, the water’s just fine.”

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Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cm.commuscian
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Community Musician announces the release of the Community Music Card. The Collectible Music Card is a newly created patented product that claims to revolutionize how music will be produced by artists and consumed by audiences around the world. Developed by Community Musician, the Collectible Music Card holds the song or album until it is successfully uploaded onto one’s mobile device. Essentially, it is acting as the modern CD, with an added bonus that the design is similar to that of a trading card and is purchased in the same manner as a gift card.

Music fans can buy Collectible Music Cards after their favorite artists’ shows with the band’s other merch. The card enables fans to enjoy and display the collectible artwork of the band and the convenience of “tap to play” on their phone. Tapping the card on the phone also adds the song to the fan’s “private” library in the Community Musician App so fans don’t have to carry the card to listen to songs if they don’t want to. “Tap ‘N Play” does this using the NFC (near field communication) chip embedded in each card. The NFC reader is already built into every smartphone. Scott Arey, the CEO of Community Musician, quickly developed the technology to adapt the NFC chips used in debit and credit cards to play music on the phone.

Importantly, fans know that they’re supporting the artists they love who keep the vast bulk of the profit since the transaction occurs outside the app stores, which is positive for both the musicians and the fans.

“We’re going to make it possible for everyday musicians today to do something I never could, to make enough money so they don’t have to work full time while trying to be an artist,” Arey said. “We’ll do this by giving them a product they can sell directly to their fans, like CD’s and vinyl, that still has all the convenience of music on the phone.”

Scott Arey knows from where he speaks. As a young musician, Arey signed with Warner Music and began touring as a warm-up act for the Indigo Girls, but he quickly discovered he couldn’t make enough money to pay his bills. Nothing has changed in the last 30 years. If anything, it’s gotten even harder for musicians to earn a living wage.

Arey plans to gain early adoption for the cards at the grass roots level by having Community Musician provide music rehearsal spaces to independent artists and providing them cards to sell to their fans before scaling to record stores in partnership with speaker companies. Once enough critical mass is achieved, Community Musician will leverage the existing infrastructure and distribution relationships to sell the cards in big box retailers in 50+ countries around the world.As this product emerges, Arey and his team plan on teaming up with speaker companies so users can “tap and play” on wireless speakers that are ubiquitous in dorm rooms, homes and businesses today.

The cards are seen as combining the best of CDs and large music streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, and with them, powered by new artists with new music, Community Musician hopes that its Collectible Music Card can carve a substantial corner in the roughly $60 billion music industry.

“One of the things we’ve all lost as fans is the ability to share, trade and sell music to each other face to face like we did in the heyday of LPs and CDs. With our tech we can have it all . . . the physical face to face sharing and the convenience of a million songs in your pocket,” Arey noted. “The best part is when you buy music on our cards you’re really putting cash in the hands of local artists that badly need your support. This is a revolution that’s going to happen, because for new music to survive, it must.”

Tag: Community Musician

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