Steve Martocci

And, you know, honestly, if I had charged for it, I think we would have gotten a stronger signal if people committed to it. And I think we would have invested more resources in it. Because once you do generate revenue, all your focus shifts to generating more revenue. Right. So with when Splice Sounds generated revenue, that was like our focus. Right.

And, you know, honestly, if I had charged for it, I think we would have gotten a stronger signal if people committed to it. And I think we would have invested more resources in it. Because once you do generate revenue, all your focus shifts to generating more revenue. Right. So with when Splice Sounds generated revenue, that was like our focus. Right.

And, you know, honestly, if I had charged for it, I think we would have gotten a stronger signal if people committed to it. And I think we would have invested more resources in it. Because once you do generate revenue, all your focus shifts to generating more revenue. Right. So with when Splice Sounds generated revenue, that was like our focus. Right.

And so that was so for Splice, our biggest kind of real competition at that point in time was piracy. People just stealing sounds. Right. So we had to build a user experience that was kind of good enough to, you know, kind of like what Spotify would do from listening to music. Right. Like it now was like, oh, I'd rather do it if it's not on Spotify. I don't know if I'm going to listen.

And so that was so for Splice, our biggest kind of real competition at that point in time was piracy. People just stealing sounds. Right. So we had to build a user experience that was kind of good enough to, you know, kind of like what Spotify would do from listening to music. Right. Like it now was like, oh, I'd rather do it if it's not on Spotify. I don't know if I'm going to listen.

And so that was so for Splice, our biggest kind of real competition at that point in time was piracy. People just stealing sounds. Right. So we had to build a user experience that was kind of good enough to, you know, kind of like what Spotify would do from listening to music. Right. Like it now was like, oh, I'd rather do it if it's not on Spotify. I don't know if I'm going to listen.

I might go to Torrent site anymore. Right. So we had to build a great product. And, you know, initially the price point was like $7.99 a month. And, you know, we had to build all these tools to let people put their accounts on hold because musicians would literally go month to month being like, all right, it's Netflix or Splice this month. Right. And so we kind of kept that price low.

I might go to Torrent site anymore. Right. So we had to build a great product. And, you know, initially the price point was like $7.99 a month. And, you know, we had to build all these tools to let people put their accounts on hold because musicians would literally go month to month being like, all right, it's Netflix or Splice this month. Right. And so we kind of kept that price low.

I might go to Torrent site anymore. Right. So we had to build a great product. And, you know, initially the price point was like $7.99 a month. And, you know, we had to build all these tools to let people put their accounts on hold because musicians would literally go month to month being like, all right, it's Netflix or Splice this month. Right. And so we kind of kept that price low.

And then also what we did is we shared revenue, major amounts of our revenue with the content creators. And so all of a sudden we were a new revenue stream for these people who then wanted to market their content on the platform, which created this like pretty epic flywheel. And that still exists today.

And then also what we did is we shared revenue, major amounts of our revenue with the content creators. And so all of a sudden we were a new revenue stream for these people who then wanted to market their content on the platform, which created this like pretty epic flywheel. And that still exists today.

And then also what we did is we shared revenue, major amounts of our revenue with the content creators. And so all of a sudden we were a new revenue stream for these people who then wanted to market their content on the platform, which created this like pretty epic flywheel. And that still exists today.

I mean, I think if you pulled the numbers now, I think we would have paid over $100 million to artists for sound. And that was just amazing. And like, you know, some people would look at the model and be like, well, you know, okay. You're used on these top 40 tracks, but the artist isn't making any money off. The sound creator is not making any money off because it's royalty free.

I mean, I think if you pulled the numbers now, I think we would have paid over $100 million to artists for sound. And that was just amazing. And like, you know, some people would look at the model and be like, well, you know, okay. You're used on these top 40 tracks, but the artist isn't making any money off. The sound creator is not making any money off because it's royalty free.

I mean, I think if you pulled the numbers now, I think we would have paid over $100 million to artists for sound. And that was just amazing. And like, you know, some people would look at the model and be like, well, you know, okay. You're used on these top 40 tracks, but the artist isn't making any money off. The sound creator is not making any money off because it's royalty free.

And then we moved over to this other thing called our plugins, our rent-to-own model for plugins. So the problem, again, that was pirating sounds. Then there's pirating the software. So like music software, you know, when it goes to like the top piracy, pirated apps in the world, it's like, you know, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, Adobe, then the music software. It's like right there.

And then we moved over to this other thing called our plugins, our rent-to-own model for plugins. So the problem, again, that was pirating sounds. Then there's pirating the software. So like music software, you know, when it goes to like the top piracy, pirated apps in the world, it's like, you know, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, Adobe, then the music software. It's like right there.

And then we moved over to this other thing called our plugins, our rent-to-own model for plugins. So the problem, again, that was pirating sounds. Then there's pirating the software. So like music software, you know, when it goes to like the top piracy, pirated apps in the world, it's like, you know, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, Adobe, then the music software. It's like right there.

And so, you know, these guys, most of the software wasn't like on SaaS yet. And it didn't really even make sense to necessarily be on SaaS because it was like not getting updates all the time. It wasn't network connected. So we kind of did this rent to own subscription model.

And so, you know, these guys, most of the software wasn't like on SaaS yet. And it didn't really even make sense to necessarily be on SaaS because it was like not getting updates all the time. It wasn't network connected. So we kind of did this rent to own subscription model.