Sound and Voice Startups in Iceland

This is a follow up on my previous post about why I believe Voice and Sound are going to be the next killer platform. I wanted to highlight some of the companies in the Voice and Sound cohort right here in Iceland. The Icelandic startups can be found in the working list that I published a couple of  days back.

1. Gogoyoko - Gogoyoko is a music store and social network where you can buy music directly from the artist and listen to music for free. They have a built a very interesting concept around Fair Play in Music where the artists get to decide how their music gets sold and they get to keep the bulk of the revenue. This model I believe will be get bigger in my opinion. BTW, they have pivoted and iterated to crystalize their vision... disclaimer, I have advised this team.
2. Grapewire - White-label music store software and distribution network is how this company was defined to me but I believe there is more to it. Here is an example of talented team which basically does not have proper mentoring atleast when it comes to defining their company and what they do. It is very hard to understand what problem they are solving. I have mentioned them in this post because with the right kind of mentoring this team can actually create some fantastic value proposition in the Sound and Voice cohort. 
3. Guitar Party: Again a really talented team but the whole website is in Icelandic so one has to dig to understand the real problem they solve. 
4. Gagarín - Gagarin develops highly interactive media solutions that allow people to uniquely experience, understand and share...
5. MediaLux - MediaLux provide music for Commercials, Computer Games, TV and Film and produce bands and artists. They want you to think of them as a production hub with a big network of artists and their own production resources.

Iceland is also the host of Iceland Airwaves which has become one of the premier annual showcases for new music – Icelandic and otherwise – in the world. It's made a heap of friends and won many fans along the way, and been lavished with praise pretty much everywhere they write about music. Example: Rolling Stone magazine called it "The hippest long weekend on the annual music-festival calendar."

Clara, whom I have written about before is also very musically talented. The CTO has hacked and created a streaming website for techno music which one of the employees (who moonlights as a DJ) uses in his gigs. The web front end designer is an accomplished drummer and piano player, again he moonlights playing gigs in weddings and other gatherings. The office is filled with sound and music equipment and when I visit the office I wonder where I am. 

Related articles

• Gift of the Day (talyai.wordpress.com)