MusicExpresso®

OPPORTUNITY: The idea for MusicExpresso came about during a conversation Fran Kick had with music educator Adam Marthaler, who was a band director at the time in Ohio. Fran sketched out the idea to Adam and wondered if band directors would purchase band arrangements online—kind of like computer software without the disks.

RESULTS: Fran Kick developed a proof-of-concept startup version of MusicExpresso in January of 1996. This first-of-its-kind ecommerce music publishing website was built thanks to a profit-sharing alliance with APR, of Columbus, Ohio. APR served as the B2B fully managed IT support team, ISP, and website developer for MusicExpresso. Using PDFs and RealAudio files, the site enabled directors to listen to every piece of music and review every score online. Upon purchase, directors downloaded the score and parts—printing as many as they needed with zero copyright hassles. Each piece of music was licensed to the individual school building with a unique site-based license agreement that enabled directors to legally copy as many parts as needed, perform in any non-commercial settings, even record, distribute, and sell the concert recordings as a fund raiser!

The full site launched publicly as an online publisher and distributor of music in January 1997 initially with selected works for band. These works came from two sources: those works electronically distributed from a group of existing music publishers, and additional works exclusively available through MusicExpresso, including titles from Scott Hickey, David Shaffer, Rob Sigler, and Jay Rees. MusicExpresso was the first non-paper-oriented music publisher and distributor at that time.

UPDATE: On January 1, 2000 Fran Kick sold two-thirds of MusicExpresso to other investors. As the original founder and sole owner, it was Fran’s entrepreneurial mind, hard work, and capital that first developed the concept in 1996 and then launched the first working version of MusicExpresso in 1997. The initial phase of development, in conjunction with the strategically significant relationship negotiated and forged with MusicExpresso’s ISP and IT support team at APR demonstrated the very real viability of an exclusively online music publishing and distribution company. Having founded MusicExpresso and forged what started as an interesting concept into a solid, marketable reality, Fran continued on as Founder and Chairman. In this role, he remained a visionary contributor to MusicExpresso and served as an enthusiastic evangelist even after the dot.com bubble burst in March of 2000. MusicExpresso ceased operations in 2001.