10 Year Anniversary interview with founder Onnik Tavitian
Congratulations on House of Tracks reaching its 10-year milestone! How does it feel to look back on a decade of success?
The last decade has been a lot of fun and especially educational. When I started this company 10 years ago, I had no idea what would happen. Many people told me it wouldn’t work out, but that just gave me more drive to make House of Tracks a success. Ghost producing already existed, of course, but no one had ever marketed it as a website. There were some challenges, but through hard work and staying on top of it, we made it happen.
How did you come up with the idea for House of Tracks?
I was a DJ myself for 15 years and had my own music studio for 10 years. I produced a lot with other producers, so-called co-producing. Because as a DJ I didn't always have steady work, but I did have two kids to take care of, I tried to find other ways to make money with my music. One day, I had a conversation with a fellow producer. I told him that I had more than 50 tracks that I didn't plan to release myself and asked if he had any idea what I could do with them. He told me that he sold the tracks he made but didn't release. "Sell?" I said. "Who would buy that?" He said there were plenty of DJs who bought tracks from ghost producers. So, I contacted some DJs I knew who performed but didn't produce. Within two weeks I had sold all my tracks. I thought, there's a market for this. I asked family and friends if they wanted to invest. In the end I had more investors than I needed. And within six months, House of Tracks was born.
What were the initial challenges you faced when starting House of Tracks, and how did you overcome them?
In the early years, we noticed that a lot of people were against the concept. Ghost production has always been something done a bit secretly and no one really talked about it. House of Tracks was the first website to openly market it. Many people had a negative opinion about it back then, and that's okay. It was up to us to explain why we support it. Even though many of our customers are DJs, the idea has always been to provide music that buyers can use in whatever way they want. Many of our customers are not from the dance scene at all. There are companies that buy our music for advertising, but also for the gaming industry, vocalists, streaming, and TV. When it comes to DJs who buy tracks and release them under their own name, the challenge was mainly to point out that ghost production has been happening for a long time anyway, so it is a solution many DJs were looking for.
How has the music industry changed over the past decade, particularly in the realm of ghost production?
As I said before, there was a lot of resistance, especially in the first three years. Nowadays, you hardly hear about it anymore—at least, we as a company don't. If we just look at the numbers from the past few years, there has been tremendous growth in both the music supply and demand. It seems that, bit by bit, it is becoming more accepted to buy a track instead of producing everything yourself.
How do you ensure the quality and originality of the tracks produced and sold through House of Tracks?
I think the admission process and the collaboration with the company DJMonitor are key. Everyone who wants to sell music on our platform must audition. It's quite simple: you upload two of your best tracks that you want to sell and audition with, and fill in the questionnaire. The A&R team then listens to the tracks and does a background check. For example, we look at the state of someone's musical career. This doesn't mean that beginner producers are not welcome, but we have to have some proof you can make good quality tracks that fit our requirements. If everything looks good, we always do a one-on-one live chat with the producer. Only after this chat -where we ask a few more questions- do we decide whether to admit a producer to our platform. And even after a producer is admitted, we still check every track that is uploaded. We have high standards for how we want the total package to be presented for a customer. This takes a lot of man-hours, but it's the only way to ensure quality.
I also wanted to be able to monitor from day one whether music had been available online before. Customers should be able to trust that they are buying a unique track. A friend of mine introduced me to the company DJMonitor. I made an appointment with the owner, Yuri Doktor, and was sold. House of Tracks submits every track we receive to DJMonitor. They then scan this track against a database of over 100 million tracks. If it's not recognized by DJMonitor, we know that the track has never been online before in any form. Again, this requires a lot of time and money, but it's the only way we can be sure. We are still the only ghost production site that works with such a system.
What are some of the key factors that have contributed to House of Tracks' sustained growth and success?
One of our USPs is our customer service. I find this really important as the owner: helping people quickly and in a friendly way. All my employees know how I feel about this, and we've set up protocols together to ensure it. People pay a lot of money for a track, so we need to offer good customer service, and we guarantee that.
Can you tell us about the team behind House of Tracks? How have they contributed to the company's achievements?
We work with an enthusiastic team of five people in the office and two externally. Some have been here since day one. We do everything in-house: A&R, customer support, social media, programming, SEO, etc. I think the strength of this team is that we go the extra mile for each other and for the company. The atmosphere in the workplace is always good. Even during stressful moments, we can rely on each other.
Can you give us a glimpse into the future? What are your plans and visions for House of Tracks in the next 10 years?
Looking 10 years ahead is quite far, but I think we will continue to grow in the coming years. Especially with the rise of AI, things will change. We see this as an addition, not something that will replace our company. For example, we just added the option for producers to include AI -generated vocals in their tracks. In the near future, we will add two major features to House of Tracks:
First, we are going to bring back our award system with a completely new look. This way, everyone can see what a producer has achieved on our site.
Second, something that has been on my wish list for a long time, is the ability to listen to the instrumental version of a track. If a track has vocals, you can currently only listen to that version. Soon you will also be able to listen to the instrumental version, which is included in the price. This way our customers can hear what the track sounds like without vocals and perhaps buy a track to use the instrumental version for their project.
What advice would you give to aspiring music producers who are looking to break into the industry today?
Making music is the best thing there is, and you can make money with it as well. Many producers who sell on House of Tracks are also DJs who release music themselves. Selling ghost productions doesn't have to get in the way of that. In fact, I think it only makes you a better producer. Be original and stay true to yourself, even if you are producing in a different genre than usual. And be consistent in your uploads. A constant flow of new tracks works best to get followers on House of Tracks.