When they’re not having rap battles and jamming together, economics junior Dan Ackerman and Austin Bowen, a telecommunication, information studies and media junior, are turning their passion for music into a business.
As co-owners of Sound-Gifts.com, the roommates plan on making personalized songs for customers. Their musical chemistry got them interested in creating the business, Ackerman said.
“We’ll bring all the music equipment into the living room, I’ll start making beats and different sounds with my laptop hooked up and then he’ll play along with his guitar,” he said.
Bowen made music videos for his sister and cousin as graduation presents, which inspired him to apply his talents toward a business, he said. Watching their reactions to his gifts was rewarding, he added.
“That’s the gratifying part of it — seeing the smile on their faces when you give it to them,” he said.
For social work junior Krupa Vora, receiving a song as a gift would be a nice change of pace, she said.
“It would be a creative gift — something sweet (and) something new,” Vora said. “It’s not something you can just go to the store and buy — you have to put thought into it.”
For the most part, the business was fairly inexpensive to launch because it’s based online, Bowen said. So far, he’s invested about $50 for the domain name and server space, although he plans to spend more on advertising.
Both are experienced musicians. Ackerman has played piano for about seven to eight years and Bowen has been giving guitar lessons for about six years.
Still, they have more to learn, Ackerman said. They offer songs ranging from blues to rap, which gives them an opportunity to practice a wide variety of music.
“It’s something to broaden our … knowledge of them,” Ackerman said. “That also (is) one of the plans of our business — we want to get better with different (genres).”
As students, managing their classes and starting a business sometimes can be difficult, Bowen said. But with web design and web development classes, what he learns in school directly applies to Sound-Gifts.com, Bowen said.
Gaining interest in the website has been their biggest challenge, Ackerman said.
“It will be interesting to see … how it works and how people respond,” Vora said.
Despite the struggle, Ackerman isn’t worried about the business’ future.
“Right now we’re just doing it for fun,” Ackerman. “If it takes off, then we’ll decide what to do with it then.”
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