About a year ago young developers started to work on the online application that defines itself as a social jukebox. The interest towards the innovative project has been raised since it was introduced worldwide at different technological forums, but this year private investment group Phoenix Investment handled by InvestLife PLC decided to bring capital into the enterprise. The majority of ownership still belongs to Digital Natives, but from the 1st of June 2012 Mixgar exists as an independent company.
Mixgar online music application can be used two ways: professionally and at house parties. The professional version targets bars, restaurants and shops. For every customer with a smartphone, a playlist appears once they read the QR-code while entering to a venue and hence immediately check-in to mixgar.com. Guests can influence the sequence of the songs on the venue’s playlist: they can bring songs forward or vote for them to fall backwards. The venue and the song playing can be published instantly with a Facebook-button beside the songs that helps the publicity of the locations on the social network. At restaurants, bars and shops Mixgar’s professional DJ’s assemble different music packages, playlists of quality checked music that best suit the profile and the style of the place.
The locations pay a monthly fee or can get the service as a sponsorship by big brands. The house party application allows the favorite songs of the users to be sucked into the playlist from their Facebook or Last.fm favourites or by adding them manually, hence making music mixing on a party completely democratic. You can give the house party version a free try at mixgar.com. Your guests or the guests at the bar can also participate in the collective mixing with their smartphones. No special hardware is needed for the professional or for the house party versions: a PC, internet access and a smartphone is all that is necessary.
“With the owners we have set very specific business goals for ourselves for the next 6 months. We are going to use the capital for product development, commercial and marketing objectives.”- says Gerzson Huszar who in the last period has been a regular on International startup meetings: from the Karios Global Summit 2012 in New York, through Tech Media Europe 2012 in Lisbon, HackFwd Build 07 in Berlin, Startup Weekend in Vienna to Mini Seedcamp in Prague.
At the Investor Day Central Eastern Europe in Kiev he took the main prize. Of course it is not obvious to attend these events with your startup, organizers chose Mixgar from thousands of applicants. Huszar’s name already sounds good in technological-business circles as the ex-Director of Development of LogMeIn, which he followed on to Nasdaq from the beginnings.
“I am following the development of Mixgar with excitement! Knowing Huszar there is a big chance that we will witness an international business success-story evolving with Hungarian technological-development-investment background.” - says Tamas Kovacs, Managing Director of LogMeIn.
Anyone who would like to test Mixgar has the opportunity to do so at PEPSI’s DJ Bar at EFOTT (3-8 July 2012), Hegyalja (18-22 July 2012), Campus (25-29 July 2012) and SZIN (22-26 August 2012) festivals, where the visitors of the PEPSI Bar can mix lounge music during the day, and after concerts they can influence the video-disco playlists. People living in Budapest can also be part of the Mixgar DJ feeling and try their creativity first at Grund and in Sugar! venues. The house party version of the application is available on the Mixgar website.
