Available in English Website www.giggem.com | Owner Giggem, Inc. Commercial Yes | |
Type of site Social networking, Matchmaking Slogan(s) Music Industry Matchmaking | ||
Giggem is an online matchmaking platform for musicians, bands and music industry professionals. The platform uses a proprietary algorithm to analyze user profiles and provide suggestions for potential band members and industry professional connections. Turkish entrepreneur and musician Emir Turan founded Giggem in 2012.
Contents
History
Turan released a beta version of Giggem in 2012 with $150,000 in seed funding. The service was officially launched in 2013. A TechCrunch article from June 2013 stated that investment by founder Emir Turan had reached $600,000.
In September 2013 Giggem introduced venue and promoter profiles, opening up the service to users such as "bars, nightclubs, concert halls, arenas, event organizers and promoters." Also in September 2013, Giggem won the JCI Turkey Chapter's Creative Young Entrepreneur Award. Following the award,the company's founder will attend an award ceremony in Copenhagen to compete to be the world winner.
Services
Giggem's social networking service is designed to automatically match musicians with other musicians, bands and industry professionals based on the info on their profiles. Giggem allows users to create comprehensive résumé like profiles for themselves. Information is extracted from the profiles by Giggem's algorithm, resulting in relevant connection suggestions. The service is available to solo musicians, bands, managers, record labels, songwriters, promoters and venues as of September 2013. Giggem offers three primary features: opportunity notifications of matching users, seeking feeds and profile view analytics.
User profiles can link to relevant media content like SoundCloud files or YouTube videos and include information such as a who the musician or band is looking for, their experience level, dedication, age, and instruments. A July 2013 article in Guitar World noted that Giggem is "the industry's first comprehensive and cohesive platform dedicated to helping musicians find one another, be discovered by managers and labels, as well as promote their music, videos and career highlights."
Auditions
In July 2013 Giggem launched an Audition feature for bands. The feature allows bands to evaluate potential band members based on an online audition. Bands initiate auditions by selecting a desired band position and then specifying location and genre. The auditions can be public or private (invite-only). Once started, an audition is published on the site and relevant musicians get notified about the audition for applying to participate in it.
An Audition goes through two periods: an Application Period and a Reply Period. During the Application Period, bands can invite musicians to audition, and musicians can apply to participate. During the Reply Period, all approved musicians are presented with a specific musical task to record a video of themselves performing that particular task and add it on the Audition platform before the deadline given by the band. After all the replies are gathered, the band has the option to select one of the participants to be their new member or open another audition.
Algorithm and search functionality
The firm's algorithm analyzes the information contained within user profiles and suggests potential connections between musicians, bands and industry professionals. After a user has created his profile, the system sends a message to relevant users notifying them that someone matching their interests and needs is available. Users can also conduct a custom search of Giggem profiles to identify potential band members and collaborations.
Giggem's georeferencing tools utilize a user's IP address to suggest connections that are geographically close to the user.