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# Soundcharts’ David Weiszfeld On Monitoring Social, Streams
- URL: https://www.hypebot.com/interview-with-soundcharts-david-weiszfeld/
- Published: 2018-01-18T10:15:00.000Z
- Updated: 2018-01-18T10:15:00.000Z
- Description: In this interview David Weiszfeld sat down to discuss his successful startup venture Soundcharts, which acts as a system for monitoring artists' activity on social media and streaming platforms.
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Music Business, Music Tech, Social Media, Startups & Funding, Amazon, Apple, Apple Music, Google, music, music industry, musician, musicians, Pandora, Spotify, Tech Stories, YouTube, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-01-21 10:05

[![1](https://a0.typepad.com/6a016766638dee970b01b7c9469aa0970b-200wi "1")](http://a0.typepad.com/6a016766638dee970b01b7c9469aa0970b-popup?ref=hypebot.com)

In this interview David Weiszfeld sat down to discuss his successful startup venture Soundcharts, which acts as a system for monitoring artists' activity on social media and streaming platforms.

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*Guest post by *James Martin* of [Midem](https://blog.midem.com/2018/01/interview-with-david-weiszfeld-soundcharts-founder-ceo/?ref=hypebot.com)*After leaving **Universal Music France** in 2013, David Weiszfeld founded an artist management company with its own system for monitoring its artists’ activity on social media, streaming playlists and more. Called **Soundcharts**, this system proved so useful that Weiszfeld decided to make it his new startup venture. Four years later, last June, **Soundcharts won the 10th edition of Midemlab**. Here, as the call for entries for the 2018 edition of Midem’s world-renowned startup competition opens, Weiszfeld tells us what’s coming next.**midemblog: How would you describe Soundcharts?** 
  
**David Weiszfeld: We are the market intelligence and productivity platform of the music industry.** By market intelligence, we mean that we monitor the global consumption and engagement (social metrics, charts positions, playlists on DSPs and airplay from global stations). By productivity/workflow, we mean that **we don’t show the data in a raw spreadsheet-looking format, but rather help our users work more efficiently by showing the right data at the right time** (alerts, reports, in depth views, overviews etc).**\> Why did you decide to launch your own business?** 
Having started working in the industry in 2004, I was dealing with downsizing like most companies, having to multitask. Automating some of the workflow was a necessity. When I left **Universal** in 2013, I created **bSHARP**, an artist management and consulting company. As a two-person setup, we had to be even more productive. **Soundcharts** became an internal project used exclusively by my bSHARP team and a few friends. But when more and more people started to use it, **I became fascinated by how people work, and so started to develop the system’s visibility for all professionals in the new global market.** **\>** **What does it take to launch a startup today?** 
A team, patience and execution. The idea is just the first part. Most startups fail because of a lack of product-market fit; but execution is a close second. **Finding and growing talent, trying to look at the long term while dealing with today’s priorities**, are all key, I’d say.**\> What are the specific challenges faced by music startups?** [![2](http://hypebot.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b36c69e201b8d2d0e8e4970c-200wi "2")](http://hypebot.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b36c69e201b8d2d0e8e4970c-popup?ref=hypebot.com)For us as a B2B platform, even if people like a product, there is a barrier to paying for a SaaS (software as a service) product. Most small to medium-sized businesses in music don’t make as much as other industries (real estate, finance, sales etc). **Making sure people understand Soundcharts is an investment** with a positive ROI, rather than a spend, was the initial challenge. We were in open beta for a year, that helped a lot in terms of giving our product a kick-start, and helping people understand that a new way of working was possible.**\> What did winning Midemlab 2017 change for Soundcharts?** **Midemlab brought us two major things: credibility and visibility.** To win Midemlab is to follow the steps of successful companies such as **EchoNest**, **Soundcloud** or **Next Big Sound** (now part of Pandora), so **it provides you with a lot of credibility among the music professionals.** In doing so, it gave us additional media exposure, which never hurts early.**\> What’s next for Soundcharts in 2018?**Making sure our platform is ahead of the market. We are building the tools for today while preparing tomorrow. **Giving all our users the added value they are looking for is our number one priority.** We’ve built an amazing platform, but we’re focused on giving a lot more value to our users over the next months and years!**Looking to join Soundcharts in the Midemlab hall of fame? [Submit your startup for Midemlab 2018 here](http://www.midem.com/competitions-concerts/midemlab/?ref=hypebot.com)!** *Photo: David Weiszfeld, Soundcharts (left) and Alexandre Deniot, MIDEM Director (right) at International Midem Awards 2017*