Former Serato CEO Sam Gribben has appointed new board members to Melodics. Photo / Supplied.
Former Serato CEO Sam Gribben has appointed new board members to Melodics. Photo / Supplied.
New Zealand-based music learning software company Melodics has appointed Karin Tsai and Nick Houldsworth to its board of directors.
From the United States, Tsai joins the company from language learning app Duolingo where she was the senior director of engineering. She is also the vice president of engineering at financialtech startup Propel.
Houldsworth leaves a role as executive general manager at NZ-based accounting software firm Xero.
During his tenure as chief marketing officer at retail point of sale software company Vend, the company’s revenue rose to more than $20 million. He has also served on the boards of Coachseek, Tradify & Ambit and is an investor in Redshield & Spotrisk.
Melodics, started by former Serato chief executive Sam Gribben, produces software to help learn instruments online, offering a desktop app that teaches students to play keyboard, electronic drums and pad controllers.
“The people I’ve met at Melodics are incredibly passionate,” Tsai said.
“I look forward to working with them, and I’m excited to apply my experience of scaling consumer software to a new industry, especially one that allows me to rekindle my musical passion.”
Former Serato CEO Sam Gribben with DJ Jazzy Jeff. Photo / Supplied.
Houldsworth said: “The opportunity to help grow the platform, community and work with inspiring artists and brands is hard to beat.”
Gribben started Melodics in 2014, after 10 years as chief executive at Serato.
“I saw that education was being transformed by technology, but that music was being left behind. And as the popularity of making and playing music was increasing, education became more and more important,” he said.
He said products like Duolingo, Headspace and Fitbit were “doing a great job of helping people to stay motivated to achieve something that was important to them”.
Gribben said the company’s revenue last year was over $6 million last year.
He said Melodics was the official education partner for instrument manufacturers including Yamaha, Roland and Akai.
“The way Melodics gamifies learning an instrument and the progressive nature of the lessons has helped me stick it out and I’m a halfway decent piano player at this point,” Gribben said.
Serato co-founder AJ Bertenshaw chats to Questlove. Photo / Supplied.
The software provides courses, ranging in difficulty level, with access to curated and produced commercial music for learning by artists including Queen, Olivia Rodrigo, Dr. Dre, Silksonic, and others.
“The product saw explosive growth through the pandemic as music lovers stayed home and found time to pick up an instrument they’d wanted to learn.”
Gribben said Karin and Nick brought deep, diverse experience of scaling software businesses.
“We are at a pivotal point, on the verge of breaking into new markets and growth opportunities, and I’m very happy to have them helping us with this next phase.”
Gribben joined Serato in 2004 after approaching founders Steve West and AJ Bertenshaw.
“I came back [from overseas] and met Steve and AJ and basically convinced them that they had to give me a job because I’d been obsessing about this idea for years and years,” Gribben said.
The DJ software has become one of the most used in the world, associated with some of the world’s leading artists including Questlove, Kanye West, and Eminem.
