Online music studio sets up shop in Charlottetown

A new company on P.E.I. wants to make the often costly process of producing music cheaper and more accessible by giving singers and songwriters access to an online recording studio.

SongCat Music recently moved their headquarters to Charlottetown, where it set up shop at the Atlantic Technology Centre.

"What we are building is a recording studio in the cloud where session musicians can work with song writers to create a song (…) without ever having to step into a recording studio," CEO Chris Erhardt told Mainstreet P.E.I. on Thursday.

Recording from the comforts of home

Erhardt said there was a need for a place that allows musicians with little financial means to record quality music.

SongCat also gives singers and songwriters access to session musicians and vocalists.

They can talk and jam with them on video chat, and then produce their music from the comforts of home, he said.

"Right now the music industry is very much concentrated on the industry hubs like London in Europe, New York, Nashville and Los Angeles in the U.S., Toronto to an extent here in Canada," he said.

"What we want to do is distribute this, basically decentralize the music industry."

Moving to the Island for access to North America

SongCat originally started in Ireland in 2014.

But with much of their funding coming out of North America, Erhardt and co-founder Mylène Besançon decided to move closer.

They discovered that P.E.I. was the perfect location to access their clients in the United States and Canada, while also staying in touch with Europe — Erhardt is from Germany, while Besançon grew up in France.

Erhardt said they received funding for the business and a start-up visa for staying in Canada through business incubators Innovation PEI and LaunchPad PEI.

He plans to hire more permanent staff once the business is fully established.

"Part of the reason we chose Prince Edward Island is because it's a rural location," he said, adding that the business's goal is to give everyone access to a studio, wherever they live.

"It would be very contradictory if we set up our main office in New York city and say we want to distribute the music industry."

Not competing with local studios

Erhardt added that SongCat Music is not in competition with smaller, local recording studios.

He said their clients are mostly musicians from the rural parts of the United States, or people who would not go to a regular studio in any event.

But rural studios may utilize SongCat for their own purposes, in case they need a musician for a specific instrument who may not be available on the Island.

"They can go to the SongCat platform and just really cherry-pick the parts they can't supply at their own studio and collaborate through the SongCat platform with a session musician," he said.