Digital

Founded by Nassir Achour and Shire Marius Standnes in 2012, vidFlow has burst on to the Norwegian streaming market with its music video service this month. They’ve combined their love of music videos with an efficient tool designed to allow the consumer to browse through a never ending archive of new and old classics. OFC loves the concept of this brand and we caught up with Nassir to find out more about this emerging startup business.

So what’s vidFlow all about?
vidFlow is a brand new and free premium music video service, which recently launched on iOS and Android. It is simply about making it easy to once again spend hours watching and discovering music videos. With the time-consuming searching and filtering responsibility users have on YouTube, that’s basically impossible – so we’ve put our minds together in trying to resurrect the soul of MTV on digital platforms. Record labels Sony, Universal and Warner liked our vision and ended up serving us the world’s largest music video archive, and now we’re hoping to provide that in a music video service that will become the video equivalent to Spotify.

Who else was involved in creating the brand?
While looking for a design partner we came in touch with Ucef Hanjani, Executive at renown creative agency Ceft and Company New York (who has worked with the likes of Fendi, PepsiCo, Moët & Chandon and many more). Hanjani and Ceft expressed an interest in being a creative partner for the brand and product design, but we quickly had to admit we couldn’t match their price levels. Ceft then said they had faith in our vision and took the initiative to invest their human resources in turning our vision into such a beautiful service and brand. So a special thanks to Ucef, Hally and the rest of the team in New York.

What’s your background in the music industry?
Before vidFlow I had spent a few years working with artist and project management, both independent and including major label artists. While leading a video project called National Cypher, I worked with dozens of the country’s most known hip hop artists, their labels and management, which gave us relations which have proved to be invaluable in the development of vidFlow. When deciding to introduce a service such as vidFlow to the music industry, we understood the importance of dialogue with the people that would in the end be affected by it. We hence began knocking on doors and including artists, directors, labels, management and others at a very early stage – trying to find out what they would want a music video service to provide.

Has social media changed the way we view music in general?
Maybe not the way we view music, but I believe it has changed music itself. The whole globalisation of music has undoubtedly reached a new level with social media. It makes it much easier for artists to get musical influences from far away of their own surroundings. And the same goes for fans, and how easy it is for us to find and get close to artists and their music, through a combination of social media and streaming platforms. Unfortunately, music videos have been left out of that equation.

You officially launched in Norway recently, how has vidFlow been received?
The reception and feedback has been way beyond what we expected, and it’s good to see that the people who hear about it and try it, really like it. Despite reaching the top 5 amongst all music apps in Norway already, we are obviously still working to reach the masses. During our 6 month beta phase, we did receive praise from friends and testers – but we couldn’t really know if they really liked it or if they just felt sorry for us. So it’s great to now see vidFlow’s Facebook and Twitter profiles receive on average about a dozen messages a day with praise from people that have no relation to us what so ever.

Are you collaborating with anyone right now in terms of marketing and endorsing the brand?
We do have a close partnership with Universal, Sony and Warner Music, and will on a regular basis work together on joint marketing measures. But we are at the same time constantly looking for more mutually beneficial partnerships, so if anyone wants to have a coffee for a closer talk don’t hesitate to reach out.

What’s the end goal for vidFlow?
The end goal is being a renowned international digital music service and a preferred source for a visual experience of music. Simple as that.

What do you have coming up in the next few months for vidFlow?
We will still focus on marketing the service and establishing the brand here in Norway, all while continuously improving the service itself. Also, we are a young startup in need of investors so we will be looking for a partner that has trust in our vision and wants to join and work with us on that journey towards that end goal.

How do people download vidFlow?
You can download vidFlow for free for iPhone, iPad or Android now.