Shapemix

ShapeMix has a simple vision: Unlock Music. The origin of ShapeMix came from a simple idea – rethink the way music is mixed and produced so that anyone can do it. That simple idea led to the development of groundbreaking new application and ShapeMix has now blossomed into revolutionary new platform to Unlock Music for everyone.

Initially launched as an app for iPhone and iPad in 2011, ShapeMix for the first time allowed anyone to remix, mash-up, arrange, and add effects to master recordings of music with a simple tool on the world’s most popular mobile devices. Also in 2011, ShapeMix opened the first of its kind music marketplace offering songs from major music publishers for purchase in stem format – meaning you can take the vocal track from one song and drop it into a new mix with guitar and drums from another song, then add a backbeat from a third song and so on.

This was the first step in our vision to unlock music – breaking apart the components of songs and providing them to anyone, along with a simple, yet powerful tool to create new music. Next is unlocking how this music is shared and how new, talented producers, DJs and vocalists are discovered.

ShapeMix’s new Facebook app does just that. Launched in December 2011, ShapeMix ties its groundbreaking iOS creation tools directly to a massive Facebook experience, allowing the entire music loving world to participate in the discovery of new talent, to engage on a deeper level with artists you already love, and to participate directly in the creative process with thousands of fans artists around the globe.

Inventor, Cofounder, Chief Product Officer, Professor, Irish Ninja

With more than 15 years of experience as a designer, software programmer, hardware hacker, sound designer, musician, entrepreneur and educator, Colin Owens is the mastermind behind ShapeMix. He is also a master practitioner of Irish Yoga and an occasional speaker of Gaelic.

An adjunct professor for undergraduate graphic design at RISD and visiting professor at Massachusetts College of Art Dynamic Media Institute Graduate program, Colin spent years developing ground-breaking curriculum that brings sound to visual artists and designers. By researching light and sound in audio-based software tools and how one sense can affect the other sense's perception, he developed the idea for ShapeMix. Colin hacked a pre-iPad touch-screen device he secured from a "friend in Hong Kong" and wrote an Alpha version of ShapeMix in JAVA, which he then deployed in a series of human-subject live tests in which no animals were harmed. The record of these tests can no longer be located in University files.

Colin's passion for music and extensive musical background has had the greatest impact on the development of ShapeMix. Growing up in a musical family, he began creating music and playing a variety of instruments at the age of 5. He has owned several old-school recording consoles including an MCI and a Neotek, his first synthesizer was a Casio CZ-101 and first drum machine was a TR-707. Additionally, he was the sexy frontman for techno-rave act "Blind" in the early 90s which charted at 33 on AP magazine's club dance list.

Cofounder, CEO, Dubstep convert, Pixies fanatic, Gamer

A serial entrepreneur with 15 years of experience building digital media and tech companies, Mike worked with Colin to develop ShapeMix from a revolutionary concept into a pervasive music platform and is now focused on achieving their joint goal of world domination. Mike and Colin met in Boston in the early 90s and bonded over a fascination with the city's rambunctious and diverse music scene. They now hold late night brainstorming sessions in games of MW3.

A strong believer in the power of the internet to spur positive collaboration and healthy competition, Mike is also the cofounder, former CEO and current Chairman of Major League Gaming, a global competitive gaming phenomenon and is credited with helping turn the LAN party into a legitimate professional sport with global media distribution and millions of fans. Under Mike's leadership, MLG raised over $50mm in venture capital and secured global partnerships with some of the world's leading brands and media companies like Doritos, Dr Pepper and IMG.

Mike has a degree in management from Babson College with majors in both Entrepreneurial Studies and Finance and is an avid Yankees and Knicks fan. Mike also serves on the Advisory Board of the NY Metro Chapter of NFTE, a global nonprofit that seeks to inspire kids from low income communities to stay in school by teaching the virtues of entrepreneurship. He also believes that the Pixies are the best rock band of all time and that Halo:CE may be the perfect video game.

COO, OCD, ODB, Data Nerd

Ten years in a variety of senior roles at the world's most respected management consulting firm, McKinsey & Co, didn't kill him and thus made Greg infinitely stronger. In his last role at McKinsey, Greg was responsible for over $1 billion of McKinsey's global operating expenses, and the souls of over 300 human-like creatures. Greg previously served in a variety of consulting roles to technology companies in Silicon Valley and Boston, but of course he can't talk about any of it since it's all confidential.

Greg sang karaoke once, and was so bad that a guy in the crowd wanted to fight him. Since we know he has no musical talent, Greg is our obsessively organized data nerd. He has made it his personal quest to collect and analyze every data point created by every use of ShapeMix - to help the product and tech teams create perfect user experiences. Once we are able to jack the data output directly into his brain, he will be able to predict every future remix before it's made and personally give ShapeMix to everyone in the world who should have it but doesn't yet.

Greg has both an undergraduate management degree and an MBA from Babson College and prior to joining McKinsey was the #1 sales person for an early e-commerce dotcom that went public. He met Mike at Babson where they were in the same graduating class. He also shaving cream bombed Mike's dorm room their freshman year and has yet to receive sufficient payback.

CTO, Architect of the Matrix, Secret Agent

Pavel was born in Russia and then emigrated to a racing sailboat in the U.S. as a teenager. He subsequently spent a winter living on that boat in Bridgeport Harbor, one of the scariest places on earth. Having survived both the elements and random crossfire of Bridgeport's excitable gangs, he went on to become a prolific software engineer and architect.

A graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Computer Science and co-inventor/patent holder of a dynamic digital video ad technology, Pavel is a renowned expert in architecting media streaming systems, transactional and reporting systems for large, scalable platforms. He has led development teams for over a decade and led the creation and development of the video ad platform at Maven Networks, which was sold to Yahoo! in 2008. Pavel then spent three years at Yahoo! integrating the Maven ad platform into Yahoo!'s ad delivery infrastructure as lead architect.

Pavel created the system that powers the revolutionary ShapeMix marketplace and oversees all technical development of the ShapeMix platform. He has spent 15 years in the greater Boston tech scene and is still one of the nicest dudes ever, a very rare trait.

Visual Designer, Mountain Dew Chugger, Better gamer than Mike and Colin

Bryan is the lead visual designer and web designer for ShapeMix. He is a recent graduate of Massachusetts College of Art and Design and a former student of Colin's. Colin convinced Bryan this whole ShapeMix thing is an extra credit project, so let's see how long we can keep him from finding out the truth. Bryan is also an avid gamer and can pwn either Mike or Colin at any time in almost any game. A specialist in interactive design, Bryan has been an integral part of the team that developed the ShapeMix user experience and is the lead UX designer for the ShapeMix Facebook app.

Pound for pound, Bryan can eat more fried food and drink more Mountain Dew than anyone on the planet.

Go to email form

Go to blog

Download PDF