Gabriel Bouchard: Boutique Music Library That Allows TV Producers, Brands and Agencies to Legally License 100% Pre-cleared Music

Bopper is a new one-stop boutique music library that allows TV producers, brands and agencies to legally license 100% pre-cleared music from a selection of the very best recording Indie artists in minutes while making sure they are paid fairly.

Our mission is to champion the use of indie music by brands by making it as easy as buying stock music but through a more ethical business model.

Tell us about yourself?

I’ve been scaling businesses for over 30 years. I got involved growing digital business as early as 1997 when I played a role at Monster.com in its global expansion.This is when I learned what scaling a global business involves. My passion is for organic growth and people career development. Bopper also gives me the opportunity to combine my passion for music, advertising and growing digital businesses.

If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?

I would start building a network of potential investors right from day one.

What problem does your business solve?

There is a growing appetite from brands and TV producers for high quality recorded music that can get licensed instantly. Their main source of recorded music has been stock music libraries so far but brands are realizing that the quality is not there and that this is not an ethical source of music which creates a reputational risk for them. On the bright side, using ethical music allows them to make a difference in the lives of great artists who got hit badly by covid, most of their revenues usually coming from live performances and merchandise sales.

What is the inspiration behind your business?

Helping talented artists to get considered for sync and ensuring they are getting paid fairly when chosen. In order to achieve this we had to make it as easy as stock music to buy these tracks. It’s truly a win-win for both parties.

What is your magic sauce?

The biggest differentiator is our ability to instantly price each track individually based on the terms of the license (market, media, duration….) AND the artist’s popularity. This translates into a much better compensation for the artists and attracts top of the line creators so better music for our clients. We also clear all tracks on both sides BEFORE posting them on the platform which saves days to the agencies.

What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?

The plan is to increase our coverage of the US Ad and TV markets over the next 2 years. Then, we go global. We are also exploring how we could leverage NFTs to make it even more profitable for artists.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?

Bopper is at the early growth stage so access to funding to feed our growth requires a lot of work.

How do people get involved/buy into your vision?

We want to create a movement with socially responsible brands to start shifting a portion of their stock music budgets toward a more ethical source of music. Imagine shifting a fraction of this $2B market toward artists who’ve been hit hard by covid. We are also inviting our business partner to own a piece of Bopper through an equity crowdfunding initiative www.frontfundr.com/bopper