MIT Solve

Solution Overview

Solution Name

Stellar Sound Podcast

One-line solution summary.

Fun and educative content, music industry focused, but explained also through different life stories and circumstances on which anyone can relate.

Elevator pitch

What is your solution?

Stellar Sound Podcast is a show that educates, promotes and entertains. Guests can showcase their creative process, as well as personal life and struggles they went through.

The guests are the most talented artists in the music industry nowadays.

What specific problem are you trying to solve?

In this pandemic time, one of the fields most affected has been the world of art and culture. The COVID-19 pandemic increased the difficult financial situation faced by many artists and cultural creators. According to a recent report written by Ernst & Young, revenues in the cultural and creative sectors plunged by 31% in 2020 compared to 2019. In 2020, the cultural sector lost approximately €200 billion in revenues. In light of the above, targeted measures to tackle these issues in a coordinated and coherent fashion. Too many people have not had the opportunity to perform concerts and give voice to their art. This project wants to be the microphone they have not had in the last years to make them known and have the opportunity to explain their emotions and feelings about themselves.

We want to help improve content in the music industry, help musicians be bolder in their creativity.

There are many unknown and outstanding music artists and by putting the spotlight on their craft in our Podcast, we are promoting their work.

Next to that, we will also aim to bring strongest names of music industry, so they can share their most important tips, moments from their lives and choices that made that who they are today. So content despite it is music industry connected, anyone who shares passion for music or certain artist can simply at least have fun watching our podcast and a lot of other content.

Who does your solution serve? In what ways will the solution impact their lives?

The COVID-19 pandemic increased the difficult financial situation faced by many artists and cultural creators.

Stellar Sound Podcast serves a part of people that are building their career in the music and cultural industry. Giving voice to the artists through podcast interviews allows them to make them know, above all because the interviews are focused about their life, habits, thoughts and the listener has the opportunity to know every musician at 360°. This manner can help them to show and explain all their effort and passion about music, describe and depict their musician envision, and try to help them in this pandemic time. This wants to be a bridge from musicians and listeners.

What steps have you taken to understand the needs of the population you want to serve?

During the COVID period we saw that too many artists were facing one of the worst moments of the last 60 years. Recent research shows that COVID-19 accelerated pre-existing trends and inequities about cultural and creative sectors, which created a sense of urgency to tackle the situation on a European level. Furthermore not all people know that artists and cultural workers are more likely to work part-time, not to have an open-ended contract, and to combine employment and self-employment in several countries throughout their careers, and in other sectors (services, education, etc). Self-employment is higher in the cultural and creative sectors (33%) than in employment for the total economy (14%). The consequence of all this is precariousness.

We decided to talk to them, and we realized that we needed to find a new way to give them a voice and we thought we could use the podcast as a new stage for them. After a few podcast trials we realized that the artists were happy and that they could reach the same people as in a concert. We strongly believe in this new form of musical communication and the musicians with us. This is one of the reasons why we have many musicians in our team...

Which aspects of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Other: Addressing an unmet social, environmental, or economic need not covered in the four dimensions above

What is the unmet need that your solution tried to address? Why is it important?

We will simply entertain people and make them also learn through our content about music industry although crucial steps of anyone's career path, different life aspects and perspectives.

Our solution's stage of development:

Pilot: An organization deploying a tested product, service, or business model in at least one community

Explain why you selected this stage of development for your solution—in other words, what have you accomplished to date?

We have a team of 10 volunteers working on Stellar Sound Podcast. Every team member has its role and become experts in their fields. Team has weekly meetings as well as in-person meetings once a month for brainstorming and team building workshops.

There are 9 episodes released as a First Season. We have researched and tried multiple tools for online episode distribution platforms and uploading, episode content and online promotion. Our conclusions and learnings improved our episode release cycle.

The website is created with all episodes, basic info, email subscription, contact form, SEO optimization, Google Analytics.

Logo is brainstormed and well thought through and rebranding is in final stages.

Patreon is set with 3 tiers for the donations, and will be activated when the time comes.

Where our solution team is headquartered or located:

Den Bosch, Netherlands

Team Lead:

Lazar Babic