Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mike Bielenberg. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Tell us the story of a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big, life changing risk or a small risk. Either way, paint the picture for us, tell us the backstory and all the relevant details so we can fully understand the context and circumstances around when and why you took the risk and tell us how it turned out.
Deciding to launch my first commercial music library was a giant leap of faith that truly tested my ability to push past fear.

In my late twenties, I had a wife and child and was making a decent living composing music for TV commercials/corporate videos/independent films/whatever. However, I kept hearing a refrain from clients that concerned me: “Sorry, we’d love to hire a music composer for our next project, but it’s literally ten times cheaper to choose something from that pile of CDs we just got from a music library.”

At the time, the internet was brand new. Although I knew nothing about building websites, I realized that Flash designers and website developers were generally underserved by music libraries. So, after saving up some cash and negotiating barter deals with providers, I launched www.bbm.net out of my basement. I’ll never forget our first order: a San Francisco ad agency found us on Google and licensed a track for an interactive media project. Five years later, we were acquired by JupiterImages.

Every professional success I’ve experienced since can be traced back to taking that risk and creating BBM.net.

For folks who may not have read about you before, can you please tell our readers about yourself, how you got into your industry / business / discipline / craft etc, what type of products/services/creative works you provide, what problems you solve for your clients and/or what you think sets you apart from others.

What are you most proud of and what are the main things you want potential clients/followers/fans to know about you/your brand/your work/ etc.
Please provide as much detail as you feel relevant as this is one of the core questions where the reader will get to know about you and your brand/organization/etc.
I am a co-founder of MusicRevolution.com, an online music library offering over 100,000 high-quality, royalty-free music (or “stock music”) tracks to producers, video creators, and more.

We also provide musicians with the opportunity to upload and sell their music online. While most of our competitors curate their music from a small, tightly controlled group of artists (or even just one artist), MusicRevolution.com accepts uploads from new musicians every day. Our commitment to staying open to new talent is what sets us apart from other music libraries.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories – perhaps a time when you took a risk marketing wise or pulled off a sale where the odds were heavily stacked against you. Give us the backstory, paint the picture and help us feel what you felt back then.
Five years ago, my business partner, Chris Cardell, and I noticed a growing trend in the tracks musicians were submitting. More and more musicians did not belong to a performing rights organization (PRO) such as ASCAP or BMI. For those not well-versed in music licensing, this essentially means they aren’t part of any songwriters’ union.

We hadn’t seen any revenue spikes in a while, and, mostly out of frustration, I built a simple informational microsite to educate users about our Non-PRO music (www.nonpromusic.com).

Like most lead-generation websites, the only leads we initially received were junk. But one day, an executive from Adobe reached out through the site to inquire about our Non-PRO music. It felt like that scene in Cast Away when Tom Hanks’ character says, “Then one day, the tide brought me a sail.” That email was every bit as important as my first online order.

Today, MusicRevolution.com is Adobe’s leading provider of music. Whenever one of the estimated 9 million users of Adobe Premiere Pro needs music, they can access over 30,000 of our finest Non-PRO tracks right there in the menu. Adobe has been an incredible business partner to work with.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
AI is about to disrupt the creative arts industry. So, I’d like to direct this message to our musicians; and I guess myself as an artist: Establish your own unique point of view, and fearlessly infuse that into your work. Don’t try to sound like everyone else — that’s already been done. There is only one of you. So just be you.

In the words of world-renowned music producer and creative guru Rick Rubin: “All that matters is that you are making something you love, to the best of your ability, here and now.”

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