Over the Past 35 Years, LearnToPlayMusic.com has Transformed the Music Lesson Industry Three Times, Generated More Than 25+ Million Book & Video Sales and is about to Launch the Next Spotify / Oyster Music Content Platform

Created for Musicians by Musicians, @LTPMusic has been pioneering the way people learn to play music utilizing printed music books, videos, CDs & DVDs, eBooks & WebTV shows and soon will be launching a brand new type of digital music teaching platform

By Robert Hoskins

Los Angeles, California – For a company that has defied convention by flying under the radar for most of its life, www.LearnToPlayMusic.com (originally called, Koala Music Publications) has a lot of reasons to celebrate on its 35th birthday. The company has just launched a new ecommerce website and wrapped up production on the first season of its acclaimed WebTV series, Music Space. Soon it will be unveiling a new state-of-the-art digital music lesson content platform that will provide the next game-changing evolution of the music learning industry for up and coming musicians.

As rock-n-roll musicians from the same music scene as AC/DC, playing on bills supporting INXS and other iconic Australian rock bands, Gary Turner and Brenton White found their passion in teaching people how to play music. Frustrated at the lack of music training materials for the contemporary guitarist, the duo sensed a huge business opportunity. In 1979 they drew up a business plan on a napkin and soon thereafter founded Koala Music Productions in Adelaide, Australia (click here to read the rest of the story).

LearnToPlayMusic’s Free Ebook and New Digital Music Teaching Platform

“When we first started, if you were a kid who really wanted to learn how to play the guitar, or the piano, or the violin, you had two options; you took lessons with a teacher or you bought a music lesson book from the local music store and taught yourself,” said Gary Turner, LearnToPlayMusic.com’s CEO. “In today’s world, kids are armed with laptops, tablets, and smartphones and now social media and digital content sharing networks are the focal point of their lives and are used 24×7 to keep in touch with friends and family. To tap into this new lifestyle, we realized that once again that we needed to transform our business. In 2009, we started this journey by digitizing over 35-years worth of music lessons, music books and an entire library of analog instructional music videos.”

“We have been tracking the success of subscription-based digital music, eBook and movie downloading services and platforms such as Amazon Prime, Oyster, Netflix, and Spotify. These media companies have been very successful at transforming the way they interact with and sell content and new services to customers,” Turner continued. “We think the music learning industry is going to be very impressed when we unveil our new leading-edge digital music platform, which will make it much easier for aspiring musicians, their parents and music teachers, music schools and music stores to get involved and share the wealth from the booming digital music industry.”

Turner added that, “Soon we will be launching an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign that will allow musicians and anyone in the music teaching industry to get involved in building our platform. We will be offering some really cool perks to support and fund the project and give everyone that contributes a small piece of the action.”

To receive more information on LearnToPlayMusic.com’s new Digital Media Platform please register at www.learntoplaymusic.com/freemium or contact Gary Turner at gat@learntoplaymusic.com.

A full press kit is available at www.learntoplaymusic.com/press-room.

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Zivix Launches Indiegogo Music Crowdfunding Campaign for JamStik, which Won a Popular Science 2013 Invention Awards

By Robert Hoskins

Zivix, LLC announced it has partnered with Indiegogo to launch a crowdfunding campaign for its  popular JamStik, a portable, easy-to-use guitar-like instrument for iOS. Recently named a winner of the Popular Science 2013 Invention Awards, the JamStik enables a new dimension for learning, experiencing music and giving both novice and experienced players access to hundreds of existing midi-based applications. Over a span of 40 days, the campaign aims to raise $100,000, which will go toward prototypes, tooling, manufacturing set-up and consumer experience enhancements.

JamStik enables a new dimension for learning, experiencing music and giving both novice and experienced players access to hundreds of existing midi-based applications

Making its debut in Las Vegas at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January, Zivix demonstrated for attendees how JamStik bridges music with mobile technology to provide consumers with a real-time, life-like guitar experience on the go. The easy-to-use instrument transforms your mobile device into a guitar speaker and musical interface with real strings and frets that users can pluck and play while experiencing the real “feel” of a traditional guitar. Based on the company’s multi-patented IR fingertip-sensing technology, JamStik delivers an authentic guitar experience in a mobile-friendly style and with mobile-friendly connectivity.

IR Fingertip-sensing Technology at Heart of JamStik

Zivix’s proprietary, multi-patented (more than 90 claims), optical fingertip-sensing technology, which makes guitars compatible with the digital world, is at the heart of JamStik. This technology is unique in being able to precisely locate the position of the user’s fingers even before they touch the strings. High-speed scanning of all finger positions ensures there is virtually no latency. Since JamStik is a digital instrument, users do not have to tune it, which makes it easy for beginners. When they are ready, users can transfer the skills they learn on JamStik to a guitar.

JamStik Complemented by Bundled Apps, MIDI Apps

Zivix has developed a suite of bundled apps that broaden the appeal and depth of JamStik:

• JamTutor is a truly interactive system that teaches entry-level guitar. Users can actually see where their fingers are on JamStik’s frets, get instant feedback, and learn at their own pace.
• Using a variety of interactive game-like activities within JamTutor lets users learn and play songs in fun, engaging and rewarding way.
• JamMix is a hybrid experience that combines guitar and DJ elements for instant action for both beginners and advanced players. JamMix enables players to mix loops, sounds and instruments on the fly to explore and create original music.

Over the past couple of years, crowdfunding has emerged as an alternative to the traditional Venture Capital or Angel investment route for start-up companies or products looking for funding. Launched as a collective public effort to fund companies and products, individuals have the ability to invest money in a product or cause based on tiered investments. In most cases each investment tier is accompanied by a return for the investor with the reward being early product access, mention as an investor in the campaign product campaign, or the ability to show support at an early stage for a new and exciting idea. Indiegogo, an international crowdfunding site and crowdfunding partner of JamStik, is headquartered in San Francisco, Calif., and has hosted over 100,000 funding campaigns in the music, charity, small business and film space.

The Zivix team, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, needs funding to get the JamStik in the hands of guitar players, both expert and novice, throughout the United States. For contributing to this Indiegogo campaign, Zivix is offering various rewards in appreciation. Everyone who donates $25 will have their name creatively displayed on the Founder’s Page at JamStik.com, which will be incorporated into the JamStik Founder’s Poster design, as well as exclusive progress updates and a JamStik-backer T-shirt.

Those who donate $50 to the campaign will additionally receive a $35 discount coupon towards their future purchase of a JamStik. Other rewards include owning the JamStik prior to in-store and online availability, an option for an exclusive numbered version of the JamStik, receiving developer credit and being personally invited to attend Zivix’s official JamStik release party as a VIP.

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