ICCE graduate launches digital streaming service Grammofy for classical music fans

An entrepreneurial Goldsmiths, University of London graduate is this month celebrating the launch of his new streaming platform for classical music fans.

Grammofy, a subscription service aimed at both newcomers and diehard fans of classical music, is now online. Available as an iOS app in both English and German, it has just been named as one of the Guardian's 'top 20 apps for May 2016'. 

Lukas Krohn-Grimberghe graduated in 2012 with an MA in Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship from the Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship (ICCE) at Goldsmiths, after writing his disertation on whether streaming was a threat, or a positive development, for classical music.

He studied for his BA in Cultural Management and Communication at Zeppelin University in Germany.

Lukas says: "Goldsmiths is a very creative and inspiring environment which allowed me to engage in conversations about arts, consumption, commodification, and accessibility, with students as well as teachers and professors.

"In my class people knew that I was writing my dissertation on classical music and streaming so they would pass me in the library or the hallway and ask me where there is a good place to stream classical music. I would always have to tell them I am working on it!"

Ahead of the Grammofy launch, Lukas explained: “Classical music needs an innovative regeneration of technology and communication to provide an appealing digital service. Both the technology as well as the packaging and design need a fresh, attractive approach.”

The bilingual Grammofy has been recognised by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy in the form of a Culture and Creativity Pilot Grant, awarded in autumn 2015. Grammofy also has the support of an EXIST bursary for young start-ups.

So, what distinguishes Grammofy from other streaming services?

At £6.99 a month, a subscription gives you access to ambitiously curated weekly themed playlists known as Collections, designed to attract both connoisseurs and newcomers. Presented in CD audio quality, each Collection consists of five complete works (meaning anything from a three-minute Lied to an entire opera), with fine, rarely heard, music by lesser-known composers balanced alongside more widely-known offerings.

In a recent article in The Telegraph, classical music critic Ivan Hewett noted that “Grammofy very cunningly makes a pact with the sharing culture of pop-dominated websites by offering curated playlists such as ‘The beloved and the forlorn’ and ‘The graceful and the grotesque’.”

Each work is presented with full details of all the performers, its recording information, and with a link to purchase it as a download via iTunes, Amazon or JPC. There’s an optional voiceover feature, regular artist interviews, and guest curators. Users can download Collections to listen to offline, and can also build communities to share, swap, and like newly discovered work.

Krohn-Grimberghe’s team also cares about the artists. “Fair-stream” is their motto, with the revenue from each subscription being paid not by work but by length of work, based on the exact time streamed to the second.

Visit www.grammofy.com for more information

Find out more about the MA in Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship and the Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship at Goldsmiths