“A struggling band from the middle of nowhere, could so effortlessly find listeners half way across the world – just through exposure and like-mindedness”
It was June 2013, and UCL master’s student Boris Cardozo was prepping for his final assignment – a business plan pitch in front of his class and professors. It was a mobile game he was pitching, but when his professor exclaimed “That’s it!?”, in disappointment – Cardozo had to make something up on the spot to avoid embarrassment. “There is one more thing, independent musicians can feature their songs in-game, which can help users discover and download fresh new music..”
While the game itself wasn’t well received – there was a lot of curiosity towards that last line of music discovery, impulsively thrown into the pitch. Fast forward a few years, when Abhishek Kamdar (Boris’ long time friend and musician) sent him a new track released by Kamdar’s band in India – Boris listened to it in his office in London. A few minutes later, a few of his colleagues circled around to listen – one of them a talented young developer and music enthusiast named Dmitry, “That’s a great track, who is it by?”
It was ironic that a struggling band from the middle of nowhere, could so effortlessly find listeners half way across the world – just through exposure and like-mindedness.
And therein lay the opportunity – and the birth of Humbug.
The three came together to start Humbug in early 2018, focussing on the key tenets of exposure – helping independent musicians cut through the commercial noise to give listeners fresh music they would love; and like-mindedness – allowing listeners to share tracks directly into their friends’ playlists. After all, 80% of your favourite music comes via recommendations from your close circle (think about it!)
This concept has existed for decades!
It’s no different to what shows like X-Factor do today, what A&Rs did for decades, or what radio jockeys have been doing since the first radio waves reached audiences in 1920 – finding talent and putting it on a global stage.
Humbug democratises this by putting the listeners in control, and not the labels – because you cannot leave the fate of a talented many in the hands of a powerful few.
Our Team
Having all walked the downtrodden path of music and technology, and seen triumphs and tribulations therein, we are now committed to helping musicians make a living out of their passion – and enabling listeners discover music that they genuinely love, from across the globe.
“You cannot leave the fate of a talented many in the hands of a powerful few”
We aspire to change the way that people discover new music and put the power in the hands of the listener, thus supporting and championing independent artists everywhere.
Join the revolution!
Enter your information below, and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours with exciting details on how you can get onboard as a musician – or how you can be one of our first app users!