Levi Moscovici was born in Congo, Africa in 1982. He didn’t have the most “ordinary” start to life, soon after being born he was abandoned by his mother. While his life didn’t look very promising and lacked many essentials one thing that he had in abundance was the joy of children singing and playing around him.
The news went around the community that a young baby had been left by the mother with no family to turn to, and his future seemed uncertain. A wealthy diplomatic couple who at this time were looking to adopt happened to hear of his situation. In some sort of serendipitous event he was adopted by that very same couple – this only happens to the luckiest of babies and young children in Africa who are left to fend by themselves!
From there, his life took a 180 degree turn. He lived in several countries and by the age of 11 spoke five languages fluently. He was inspired by the music his adoptive mother listened to, jazz, especially artists such as Harry Belafonte, Fats Domino, Little Richard and Ray Charles. Levi began to wonder what it would be like to play music professionally, even though his father always said, “music is not a proper career.” Nevertheless, he took on piano lessons at the unusually late age of 14 and showed much talent. Two years later he auditioned at the Royal Conservatoire of Brussels and obtained a scholarship to continue his piano studies as their youngest-ever student.
He continued his piano studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and then the Royal College of Music where he also studied Composition for Screen. He was awarded an Outstanding Distinction for his final recital.
After graduation Levi dived into composition. He later connected with Paul Farrer, a UK multi award-winning media composer with whom he is now best friends. He has shadowed Paul and worked on several projects ranging from well-known TV shows, Disney Soundtracks to PlayStation games. Levi has also composed several soundtracks for short films in the US and consequently won a Best Music Prize.
Levi believes everyone should have that serendipitous moment, that 180-degree turn, that moment that changes a person’s life…. with music, everything is possible and with this in mind SPRK MUSIC was born.
Levi answers a few questions about SPRK MUSIC…
What is SPRK MUSIC?
SPRK MUSIC is a social media and video streaming music community as well as a talent spotting platform for the music industry.
What made you want to start the project?
In today’s world every musician be it a vocalist, songwriter or instrumentalist is trying to get noticed and looking for that break to become a superstar – be it through TV or online exposure. As a musician myself, I know how difficult it is to get noticed – no matter how talented the individual. There are enough audio streaming platforms. However, I felt we needed a music only video streaming platform where artists had the ability to show the world their talent.
Another reason I came up with SPRK MUSIC, was to try and devise a way to make it easier for artists to get noticed by the important and top people in the industry. Being a musician, and being described as a whiz-kid on the computer and mobile, I still found it difficult to promote myself online – be it through YouTube, Facebook, Instagram or other social media. The problem with these platforms is that they are too broad in the different industries and subjects covered. Take, for example, Facebook and YouTube, two of the biggest social media platforms – with so many videos being uploaded in the hundreds of different categories unrelated to music, it’s getting harder and harder to find and spot genuine talent. I thought to myself – wouldn’t it be great if musicians as well as industry professionals could have their own platform, with the ability to filter every specialty/instrument and genre. Crazy I know, but I went ahead and did it.
Who is SPRK MUSIC for?
It is intended for all kinds of musicians. When I say “musician” – I don’t necessarily mean just people who sing and/or play an instrument. SPRK MUSIC is intended for any artist who works as a musician in the music business, theatre, tv or in film. A vocalist in musical theatre, a DJ or even a tv/film composer…whether you play or make music you can still take advantage of the platform.
What benefits does SPRK MUSIC give to musicians?
We are bringing the next era in music by combining video streaming (YouTube-like) and social media (Instagram-like) to create the perfect music platform. Musicians have the ability to becoming trending by uploading videos and photos which other artists and fans can comment and rate on. The big difference making this an absolute “must-have” tool for musicians is that we’ve also crafted a unique, specialized and focused speciality/instrument/genre filter feature which enables our users, musicians and music professionals to find talent in a more precise, faster and easier way. Musicians can now become the ‘highest trending’ in their own speciality and also within other filters which can be used singly, or multiple filters can be selected. For example, users can see who the most trending vocalist on the entire platform, or just the most trending pop – vocalist. A vocalist could even just become the most trending in their city. The possibilities are endless. Musicians are now able to compete for the top spot as they would do in the real world – and by this I mean not having to compete with billions of videos unrelated to music.
Finding new musicians to collaborate with that specialize in a specific specialty/instrument and/or genre is so easy! Our filters extend to age, gender, location and ethnicity which means you can get even more granular results should you need it. Yes, there are a couple of microsites out there that filter instruments and genres but they don’t have an extensive list that we do and most importantly they haven’t combined that with the social media and video streaming aspect, which means they don’t have the ability to audition the musician’s content as we’re so used to doing on general platforms these days.
Our “Artist Directory” feature essentially makes SPRK MUSIC a database of musicians worldwide. I have always looked at it as a kind of the equivalent to LinkedIn, but for musicians – where artists are able to upload their videos and photos and show their music information / biography. The number of times I have heard singers come up to me and ask, “Levi, do you know any good hip hop producer I can work with” and a lot of the time I say “You need to find someone that makes music that gels with your style. A good producer for singer A might not be a good fit for singer B.” I got pretty tired of people asking me so I decided, let’s make this platform a reality.
SPRK MUSIC also helps musicians get found for projects, gigs, concerts and other work.
Collaborating on SPRK MUSIC!
I have always believed that musical collaboration, experimentation and self-directed projects on an entirely music-based platform would create more opportunities and therefore also attract a diversity of gifted aspiring musicians. Artist collaboration is also one of the biggest creative forces driving music today. Artists looking to project their talents onto a wider audience via collaboration is probably one of the best success strategies out there.
Imagine a singer-songwriter living in a small town, lingering over their unfinished song. They might want to approach another songwriter to help finish the song – or even a rapper – or better still, a producer. It’s so easy on SPRK MUSIC! It’s as easy as setting the filters to what you’re looking for: audition their videos/pictures, and, if you like their vibe, just start chatting privately on our inbuilt messenger. We are always delighted to hear from people who have linked up on SPRK MUSIC and gone on to collaborate with others on their projects – so do email us and tell us your stories! (hello@sprkmusic.com)
How does SPRK MUSIC help music professionals?
Labels, A&R, talent scouts, managers, agents, event organizers, promoters, clubs, societies and brands are always looking out for new up-and-coming talent. As well as being able to use our app, we have also created a talent dashboard that allows them to see and organize all the information they need to help them scout for talent. SPRK MUSIC makes searching for talented individuals, bands and groups easy for the industry professionals.
To Finish…
Spread the good news of SPRK MUSIC, because the more musicians who know about it, the more powerful a tool it becomes.
Sign up here: https://join.sprkmusic.com/signup