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23.05.2023
#bayernkreativPORTRAIT: connactz shows what happens when you combine artistic passion with technical know-how. Because performing on stage is the greatest thing for the team. But investing dozens of hours to spend an hour on stage? That's a thing of the past! Out of necessity, the team is developing a digital agent based on artificial intelligence that makes life easier for musicians. In our new bayernkreativPORTRAIT, Max tells us about the challenges involved in development, why the music business remains a "people business" even with a digital agent and what the team hopes for in the future.
Dear connactz team, first of all, congratulations on receiving the "Cultural and Creative Pilots 2022" award! With connactz, you have developed a digital agent for music creators. What can it do that human music agents can't?
Thank you very much for the congratulations! Well... being available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year for 15 euros a month is probably not feasible for human music agents. Our digital agent takes care of annoying organizational tasks that normally take a lot of time and automates them in just a few seconds. By automating the creation of offers, calendar coordination of all band members through to contract and invoice creation, we help musicians to focus on their music instead of wasting too much time on annoying side tasks.
On your homepage you write that "connactz was developed by musicians for musicians". How did you come up with the idea of developing a digital music agent?
Our core team consists of musicians themselves. Performing live is probably the greatest thing for us - as it is for almost all musicians. We know from our own experience: The road to the stage is unfortunately always an organizational nightmare. Looking for performance opportunities, writing offers, organizing rehearsals, planning tour calendars, clarifying availability... for one hour on stage, you spend dozens of other hours in the background dealing with issues that actually have nothing to do with art and creative passion. Based on our own needs and with the know-how of what is now technically possible, it was clear to us: this has to be easier and faster. The idea of a digital agent was born.
What were the particular challenges during development?
Like many musicians, over the years we have simply resigned ourselves to many annoying tasks when organizing live performances and taken them for granted. When developing our digital agent, however, we have to question these processes every time: "Do we really need this button?" or "Couldn't it be a bit simpler?". As we want to make complex tasks easy to use for everyone, we have to constantly question our concepts.
There is currently a lot of discussion about whether AI will make human work obsolete. What would you say to this, what do you think of your digital agent? A replacement for human labor? A supplement? Only possible in cooperation with humans?
The music business is a "people's business" and also thrives on personal interaction. This interaction, for example between music creators and event organizers, is extremely important and should not be taken over by our AI. On the contrary: our digital agent should take over the repetitive organizational tasks so that music creators have more time for things that cannot be automated with a clear conscience, such as contact with colleagues or event organizers.
With our automated processes, human agents can use their time more efficiently and focus more on artistic or marketing development, such as selecting album covers or interacting with their artists' fans. Our tool will not replace human agents. However, their area of responsibility will shift from organizational to more creative tasks.
In addition to the "Start?Zuschuss" funding award from the Free State of Bavaria, which you received in 2021, you were also awarded the title of "Kultur- und Kreativpiloten" last year. What does that mean for your work? Do the awards have an impact on the external perception of your offer and the acquisition of new customers?
For us as founders, these awards are a great confirmation of our efforts. Experts from the start-up scene and the cultural and creative industries tell us appreciatively that we have developed something great here that will offer many music creators real added value. Given all the work that goes into connactz, this is a great recognition. However, we can't say to what extent the musicians will use our agent because of the prizes.
What are your hopes for the future?
After the corona years, we primarily want great gigs for our musicians again and a revival of the live music scene in Germany. For ourselves, we hope to continue to have as much enthusiasm and motivation and always have the right instinct for ideas on how we can help musicians even better.
The Bavarian cultural and creative industries are vital, cooperative, polyphonic and relevant to the future. We introduce you to Bavarian players. What is their business model? What drives them?
Would you also like to answer a few questions and be part of our "bayernkreativPORTRAIT" campaign? Then send us an email to kontakt(at)bayern-kreativ.de with the keyword "bayernkreativPORTRAIT".