Magic Instruments
High-tech musical instruments that make music playing accessible to everyone
We design, manufacture and market high-tech musical instruments that entertain and educate users. Our instruments enable anyone, including people with little or no musical training, to express themselves by playing music, within minutes. We also provide a fun pathway for learning to play traditional instruments.
We design, manufacture and market high-tech musical instruments that entertain and educate users. Our instruments enable anyone, including people with little or no musical training, to express themselves by playing music, within minutes. We also provide a fun pathway for learning to play traditional instruments.
Our Ambition
Everyone wishes they could play music. But if you didn't start learning to play an instrument before the age of 14, chances are you never will. 90% of people trying to learn guitar quit in the first year. Not only is it hard to learn, it takes years of practice. In today's busy world, most people don't have a minute to spare.
We combine technology and tradition to create musical instruments that lower the barrier to playing music. We want to see more people making and playing music together!
Key Facts
- Generated $415K in pre-orders on Indiegogo. Pre-sold over 1,200 guitars.
- MI Guitar allows anyone to play music instantly and is a new, faster way to learn traditional guitar
- Raised just under $2 million in seed funding
- Graduate of Y Combinator, Winter 2016 class (world's #1 startup accelerator. Alumni include Airbnb, Dropbox, and Stripe.)
- Graduate of Highway1, Fall 2015 class (Premier hardware startup accelerator located in San Francisco.)
Documents
Everyone Wants to Learn an Instrument
85% of US adults wish they had learned to play an instrument. Yet only 1 in 10 actually know how. We're making it easy for anyone to express themselves with music.
Magic Instruments is about giving everyone access to music. It is for all ages and anyone who ever had a pipe dream about someday being able to play guitar. MI Guitar is a new instrument to help everyone create and play music instantly, and it's here right now.
85% of Americans
Wish they had learned to play an instrument
12%
US Adults play an instrument
90%
Of those learning guitar quit in the first year
$7 Billion
Spent per year on instruments in the US
So We Designed a Guitar Anyone Can Learn
Beginners can actually play and sing along to their favorite songs in minutes
Like a traditional model, this guitar features strings for fingerpicking and strumming. But on the fretboard it has buttons that act just like strings. Pair it with our companion mobile app to just start playing or use the MI Guitar just like a traditional guitar with real chord finger positions. It scales perfectly from beginner to intermediate to advanced for singers and song writers alike.
Magic Mode / Traditional Mode
A single button press and a strum of the strings is all it takes to play your first song in Magic Mode. Switch to Traditional Mode to play with traditional guitar chord fingerings.
Mobile App
Our song catalog offers a vast library of well-known hits for playing and singing along instantly and provides a fun, easier way to learn traditional guitar.
Amazing Sound
A powerful built-in speaker with volume control can be set to play to a crowd or around a campfire. Choose from a range of on-board guitar sounds, from acoustics to electrics.
Metal Strings
Six velocity-sensitive strings can be strummed or picked for expressive sound. The best part? They never need to be tuned or changed.
We're Sold Out!
We just launched in April and cleared our Indiegogo goal by 753%
$416,000
Revenue to date
1,200
Guitar pre-orders sold
Designed for Both Beginners and Professional Musicians
Play and sing your favorite song with just a few minutes practice or use our software to learn advanced guitar techniques and music theory
We designed the MI Guitar to solve two important problems. First we train motor skills and muscle memory by abstracting the complexity of chords into simple buttons. We also built a companion app that educates users on music theory and how one strings together notes and chords.
We invited some beginners in to try the MI Guitar. Check out their progress after ~1 hour
Even Grammy winners play and write songs on the MI Guitar
"For people who don't have the time to learn the guitar, Magic Instruments is the ultimate shortcut - you’ll be strumming your favorite songs in minutes. For singers and non-guitar playing musicians, it’s also great tool for songwriting."
"The experience is, for lack of a better phrase, fun as hell."
"I have to admit it was both totally fun and shockingly simple to use."
Our Journey Since April Launch
We attended the world's foremost startup accelerator: Y Combinator (alumni include Airbnb, Dropbox, and Stripe). We also exceeded our Indiegogo goal by over 700%! Now we're focused on scaling production before expanding sales this coming Winter.
Prototype
CEO Brian Fan develops first Magic Instruments Guitar prototype.
Highway1 Accelerator
Magic Instruments accepted into Highway1, a leading hardware startup accelerator in San Francisco.
Y Combinator
Magic Instruments accepted into Y Combinator, a leading Silicon Valley startup accelerator. Other alumni include Dropbox, Airbnb, Stripe, Reddit, and Lendup.
Raised $1 million in pre-seed funding
More Funding
Raised an additional $900k in pre-seed funding.
700%+ Indiegogo Campaign
Successful Indiegogo campaign, pre-sold 1,200 guitars, generated $415k revenues.
Winner MusicTech 2016
We won the San Francisco MusicTech 2016 Startup Competition.
Traditional Guitar Mode
This Fall we’re building "traditional guitar mode" software to ensure MI Guitar is beneficial for players of all skill levels.
Asian Manufacturing
We need to scale up production from prototyping to a full production line. So we’ll spend several weeks in Asia locking down production partners.
Expand Music Library
We need more popular songs! This winter we’ll sign licensing agreements with music publishers to expand our library.
Production begins!
Delivery!
We’ll deliver initial units to Indiegogo backers before other online orders and eventually retail partners.
Let's Teach Guitar Together!
Music is magic. It speaks without words, creates connections between strangers, and touches all human beings. Almost everyone wishes they could play a musical instrument, but only those lucky enough to learn as kids (and practice for years) can do so.
I was one of the lucky few. I started learning piano at the age of 5, and attended one of the world's top music schools, The Juilliard School, for 9 years. I can play just about anything on the piano, and have performed in concerts and played in rock bands. As a grownup, I wanted to learn guitar so I stand by my baby daughter's crib and play music to help her fall asleep. But like the rest of us, I failed. Not only was it hard to learn, but practice was no fun, and I realized I would never be able to practice 1-2 hours every day for years, like I did as a kid. In today's busy world, most people don't have a minute to spare!
I decided to incorporate technology into musical instruments to solve this problem, to make playing music accessible to everyone. Similar to how technology simplified photography from something highly technical and complex to something everyone can now enjoy, our guitar enables people to instantly enjoy the incredible delight of making music. Yet at the same time, we give those with more musical ambition a fun and easier way to develop traditional guitar mastery.
Only 12% of US adults play an instrument - but 85% wishes they had learned. The guitar is the #1 dream instrument. The market potential is massive, and global, because the desire to play music is shared by people in every country around the world.
Please join me and my co-founders Mark and Andrew on our journey, and help us with an investment.
Brian, Mark and Andrew
Meet the Founders
and the rest of the team
raised
$2,145,348
from 345+ investors
Details
We’re solving this problem by creating instruments that are accessible for people of any age and musical background. Even if you have very little or no musical background, our instruments are designed so that beginners can play right away, get instant gratification and feel the joy of making music. For those with greater musical ambition, we provide an innovative, fun and easier pathway for people to learn to play a traditional instrument.
For beginners, the most difficult part of learning guitar is mastering chord fingerings, which takes countless hours of practice. Our guitar has buttons instead of strings, so it’s gentler on your fingers. Our proprietary “magic mode” enables people to play entire chords using just one button, so all you need to know is which button to push to play the right chord.
The other difficult part of learning guitar is gaining the musical knowledge to know which chords to play for any given song. For example, a simple song might have four chords: C Major, F Major, G Major and A minor. A beginner has to learn what each chord means (and their fingerings) to play the song.
We enable people to play even if they don’t have musical knowledge, by providing easy playing instructions for songs through our mobile app. You select the song you want to play (out of our catalog of thousands of songs), and the app displays the song lyrics, and the button number/location for the correct chords. As long as someone can find the right button on the fretboard (for example, the button on Fret 1, String 1 or Fret 3, String 2), they can play the right chords for the song.
We’ve tested our guitar on over a thousand users, and everyone - including people who have never learned music or touched a guitar before - has been able to play their first song within 5 minutes. Of course, there is still practice required to play well, with confidence and expressiveness. But instead of it taking dozens of hours of grueling practice to play your first song, it takes only minutes on the Magic Instruments guitar.
1) These numbers include startups currently live on Wefunder if they pass their minimum target.
2) Some startups use two different laws at the same time (i.e., Regulation D and Regulation Crowdfunding).
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