Gumtree is well-trodden ground for most musicians. Whether you’re looking to flog your old amp, buy a new six-string, or you’re just bored and browsing around to see if there’s an obscure pedal or stomp box you don’t yet have in your collection, you’re intimately familiar with the online marketplace.
But Gumtree can be a frustrating prospect if you happen to be a muso. Music is esoteric and Gumtree, where you can get everything from concert tickets to used wooden pallets that are free if you’re willing to drive out to Bayswater and pick them up, is anything but.
What if there was an online market place that worked just like Gumtree, but was specifically designed with musicians in mind?
What if there was a Gumtree where the folks you were dealing with were fellow musicians just like yourself and the terms of the trade were a better fit for the typical muso’s budget?
Enter Shario, a new platform for swapping musical instruments and accessories, which recently took out first prize at QUT Creative Enterprise Australia’s Startup Weekend in Brisbane. In other words, it’s about to go from an idea a bunch of like-minded musos had to an actual thing.
As Business Spectator reports, Shario, which the fledgling company describe as ‘Gumtree for Musos’, came about after the founders noticed that a lot of musos out there are broke. With this in mind, they wanted to make it easier for them to find and trade equipment.
Shario allows musicians to swap their gear temporarily or permanently and they can also meet their fellow musicians to network and foster collaborations and networks. “A lot of musicians have things lying around,” group presenter Ellen Hartwig told ABC News.
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“If I’m not currently using my guitar and Michael is not currently using his microphone, we could swap for the weekend,” she added.
Ellen and her teammates will receive over $6,500 in prizes, including one-on-one business consultations, mentoring, and a marketing audit with Alpha Digital.
“The atmosphere was inspiring and the results each team managed in just 54 hours was honestly insane! Walking away from this experience I’m never going to underestimate what can get done on short notice if you apply yourself,” Ellen said of the event.
