Miriam El Abbassi | Arts Editor
Featured Image: Sounds Like Noise is an online streaming service where independent artists and musicians can host their music. | Courtesy of Pixabay
For anyone that has ever wondered about how their art can reach a wider audience, Sounds Like Noise may be the answer everyone has been searching for. Created by Vik Makker, a York University Arts and Media Management alumni, Sounds Like Noise is an online streaming platform where independent artists and musicians can host their music.
According to Makker: “The artists can sign up, upload content, and I promote it to interested listeners. Thanks to social media, I’m able to target specific listeners who are more likely to enjoy the content uploaded, thereby increasing the fan base.”
Sounds Like Noise is also a non-profit organization, in that the advertising revenue is shared with artists being streamed. For now, Makker adds that he is only working with Toronto artists, but hopes to later expand to other areas.
When asked about how Sounds Like Noise could help up and coming artists, Makker discusses how this platform can help with relieving some of the strain that comes with being independent. “An artist is expected to create content, record (which can be expensive), be their own promoter, and share their work on websites that are flooded with content. In addition, they have to compete for user attention on those platforms.
“Since the platform is aimed at listeners that are already interested in discovering new content, it makes it relatively less challenging to get more fans.”
So fans get to brag about “discovering artists before they get big and artists get compensated for streaming on the platform.”
Makker then describes his own background in the music industry, and how that lead to creating this kind of platform. “I played in a band from 2011 to 2017, going on province wide tours. It was a challenge to increase your fan base then, and it’s a challenge now, so I wanted to create a platform exclusively for independent artists, where listeners who are tired of listening to the radio and top songs on Spotify could discover new, Canadian content.”
Of course, the process of creating something from the ground up is never an easy one, as Makker describes how his journey was not without a few bumps in the road. “The platform has been in the works since 2014, and of course, no venture capitalist wants to invest in a small nonprofit. That can be a challenge, but it gave me an opportunity to do things on a grassroots level.”
Makker stated that he also invested his own savings into the project, and continues to work with a small team in order to scale development, as he hopes to bring his platform to the app store in the future.
