SonicAngel was launched one year ago by two Flemings, who combined the best of both their worlds: musician and producer Maurice Engelen (otherwise known as Praga Khan) and internet entrepreneur Bart Becks.

Becks' background is like a how-to of business: He started his career with FNAC in Paris, became CEO of Belgacom, switched to SBS Media Group, where he was named Senior VP of New Media, and was at the cradle of Netlog, Flanders' answer to Facebook.

He was introduced to Engelen about 10 years ago. "We worked together to produce the first-ever streaming concert in Belgium - Praga Khan's performance in the Ancienne Belgique, which was streamed via Skynet," Becks explains. "We were specialised in our own domains but wanted to cross over: Maurice was interested in innovating within the music business, and music was never far away from what I did."

It finally came together when Engelen was on the jury of X-Factor, a Flemish TV talent search. "Tom Dice, one of the finalists, was not given a recording contract," Engelen says. "That's when we decided to go ahead with SonicAngel, combining my long- time experience in the ‘traditional' music industry, with a thorough knowledge of promotion, distribution, publishing and media deals, and Bart's expert knowledge of new media like Facebook and Twitter - the direct communication between artists and fans."

How it works
SonicAngel replaces the current music industry business model with a new combination of music and technology in which fans invest in musicians they believe in. Known as "fanfunding", SonicAngel makes music listeners stockholders in their favourite bands and artists, plus supports specific project financing and corporate financing.

"The name SonicAngel stands for music, innovation, and angel investors," says Becks. "Plus, Maurice's surname is Engelen." (Engelen is the Dutch word for "angels".) Becks and Engelen screened hundreds of internet music companies to see what worked and what didn't. The conclusion was that fan empowerment continues to grow and could serve as a basis for a new business model, with fans helping to discover, finance and even release the music of their favourite artists.

In a parallel move, the two persuaded sponsors such as AB-Inbev, Sony Ericsson and ING bank to give financial support to the project. "We produced tailor-made programmes for the sponsors where we go along with their business philosophy," explains Becks. "The goal is to give new talent an opportunity, and many companies bear the same concern."

Partner companies have access to SonicAngel artists and their music for marketing, promotion and concerts, such as the AB-Inbev club tour, summer concerts for ING or free SonicAngel downloads on Sony Ericsson phones.
Corporate interest has been so successful, that SonicAngel recently launched the FAB division (Fans, Artists & Brands) "that finds new partners to see how we can work together, with all respect for the artists," says Becks.

They asked, they received
Business has moved very fast for SonicAngel - after they signed Tom Dice (whose supporters received back 260% of their €10 investments in his album Teardrop), the idea was to launch about 12 artists in the first year. Less than a year later, their artist roster lists 16 artists and bands, 12 of them fully financed for amounts between €12,500 and €45,000.

"The concept is really catching on with the fans as we gave ourselves until mid-June to finance the whole roster," enthuses Becks. Backed by the success in the home market, SonicAngel is now launching internationally, via strategic partnerships in Germany, France and the Netherlands. "A thorough knowledge of the market is crucial, so we prefer to work with local partners, who have an eye for emerging talent," explains Engelen. "We supply the platform for their artists, traditional talent scouting and monitoring what's moving on the internet, for which we developed our own tools."

On 1 March, SonicAngel launched as a fully fledged company in the US. Corporate and strategic partners in Belgium, supporting the idea of exporting the concept, paved the way with American parent companies and affiliates, like Anheuser-Busch and Hewlett Packard.

"The fan base idea has much more potential in the US, with so many artists," says Becks. "So we plan to start up a number of sub-labels there to categorise different music styles." The first will be Electroland, for techno and dance artists.

The launch of SonicAngel in the States includes a one-month tour that kicked off 2 March at the Los Angeles Nokia theatre, featuring Engelen's Praga Khan spin-off band Lords of Acid and Radical G. www.sonicangel.com

Pictured: SonicAngels Bart Becks (left) and Maurice Engelen (aka Praga Khan)