Meet The Mind Behind Studiotime.io, The "Airbnb" for Recording Studios

The music industry is a world of incessant travelling, and decisions which take forever to be made. In a flippant world of frequent changes, movement and a need for a constant stream of new sounds, it’s hard to find something unique that can assist the stoic tradition and methods that have been in place for so long. 

One person who has set out to do just this, is Michael Williams, the founder of StudioTime.io. At only two weeks old, the site has already taken the music scene by storm; detailing available studios, their resources and pricing, in one, easy-to-access web domain. With the promise of a mobile app on the horizon, the notion that studio time should be more easily accessible is widely supported, and the music world is more than excited. 

Michael Williams wants to give artists, both emerging and topline, access to make music – something so seemingly simple; but previously much harder that it sounds. Countless times, touring musicians get a call, or an urge to head to the studio, and spend hours calling round to find somewhere to plot. Similarly, emerging artists have no idea where to turn to record their debut record. These days are seemingly over, and with Williams’ previous tech/marketing experience, and plan to expand beyond the current radius of the UK and North America, things are taking an inspiring turn. 

With a desire to “unify artists and studios,” Michael has started something akin to an Airbnb for Recording Studios. The simple idea of rentals for musicians, is ground-breaking, and we wanted to find out more on just where the idea came from, what is planned for the future, and who is expected to use StudioTime.io. 

How did you come up with the idea of creating an “Airnbnb” for recording studios?
My main inspiration for starting Studiotime as an evening project was being around the music industry for a while as most of my friends are artists, managers, and producers and realizing that there was not a technical platform that solved a problem with a marketplace that had a great deal of friction involved and was primarily manual/service driven. Since I have a thorough understanding of technology and have built and scaled online marketplaces before (Founder of Codeity), I set out to build a solution that my friends could use and also help connect an industry that seems disconnected without technology to some extent.

Have you expected such a big reaction from recording studios and musicians?
The response has honestly blown me away. I first launched it on Product Hunt Monday morning to get it out in the tech community. As soon as the first press article went out in the music industry from the Product Hunt launch, it took off! I was sort of joking around with friends saying that I guess it was a good decision to cancel dinner one evening and build it in a few hours instead.

Can you tell us a little bit about your team? Who’s involved and where are you based?
To be honest it was just me from idea to where it is now. I have founded and scaled a few other tech companies previously but nothing that is in the music space. I wanted to simply take an idea that I thought there was a need for and “cool” in the mainstream and build it. I am the founder of Codeity that is sort of an eHarmony for matching developers with tech companies so in the tech scene to say the least. Since Studiotime took off so fast I had one of my friends Max Pelzner come on to help me out with handling some of the social media, talking to studies, and now working in more of the music industry side for some of the top-line artist partnerships we have in the works.

How did you approach the recording studios to work with you? What was their initial response and how do they look at you now?
As you could probably imagine at the beginning, I sent out some cold emails to larger studios and then mid-level to see what kind of response I could get and if I could convince them to join. At first I had a hard time getting them to commit and signup, but as soon as the press leaked out it was much easier! We actually have some big name studios that we are strategically announcing over the course of time instead of just throwing them all on the site now. I like to think that studios are more willing to answer my emails right away now.

So far, the service is only available in North American and UK. Are there plans for expansion?
It’s really interesting to see where it was at Monday morning and now. I thought we would stick to LA and NYC primarily, then all of a sudden I had emails coming in asking for us to add cities all over the world. I added a few markets in Europe, Australia, and then South America. I have been told that the EDM scene in Australia and South Africa really wants something like Studiotime so that is most likely going to be on the immediate roadmap for expansion.

What are the next steps for studiotime.io?
The next steps for us are announcing a few top-line artists that we are going to work with in the near future to become sticky in the artist networks from top-line all the way down to the aspiring artists that are finding it hard to take the next steps into the studio. I think this is our core value to artists that we can provide, which is connecting the up and coming artists with the best studios that can launch off their career. Also, we have some interesting concepts for collab studio time to help artists connect in the studio with others. Oh, and not to forget that we will be launching a mobile app soon!

What impact do you anticipate your service will have in one year?
With Studiotime I hope to accomplish one thing, which is to unify artists and studios through technology and make it easier for artists to make the best music as easiest as possible. On the other side we want to allow the studios to increase their revenue and continue to build revenue themselves so they can do what they do best, which is provide an environment for artists to make dope music.

Have you heard any recorded music that has been made thanks to studiotime.io?
Not yet! This will be sick though and hopefully I can hear some soon! Not sure what it will be, but I am digging Post Malone, or as they call him White Iverson. I think he would be an ideal example of an up and coming artist that could use Studiotime as he is unsigned and a great traveling artist that could find the best studios through us when on the road.