This week, The Argus sat down with Daniel Silverstein ’25 and Annabelle Schlesinger ’25, co-founders of Soundscape, a music-sharing platform. From launching their project in “Startup Incubator: The Art and Science of Launching Your Idea” (CSPL239) to pitching it at the Wesleyan Shark Tank student forum (CSPL420), Silverstein and Schlesinger have devoted much of their time at the University to bringing this idea to life.
The Argus: Tell us about Soundscape.
Daniel Silverstein: Soundscape is an app we’ve been building. It’s a music sharing platform built on your real-life connections. With it, we hope to create a platform where people can connect with their friends, share moments, and share their identity through the music they listen to. You get to create a curated profile by connecting your Apple Music or Spotify account to your Soundscape profile, and then from there, you get to seamlessly share and interact with your music and other people’s music that you follow on the platform.
Annabelle Schlesinger: Daniel and I saw the power of music to harness nostalgia. We thought that creating a platform that was community-oriented was really important. We saw the way that music has really connected us. I think that it is a common thread in a lot of the different things that Wesleyan has to offer. Music plays such a big role, even if it’s just the playlist that’s playing at Pi Café.
A: I am curious to know how you two met and what the starting point of this entrepreneurial journey was.
AS: Daniel and I met right before we came to Wesleyan. We’re both from New York City, and we had a mutual friend who connected us. We instantly clicked. On the first day of school, I helped him move in, which was a really fun and special memory that we have. And in the spring of our sophomore year, we chose to take the startup incubator class [(CSPL239)]. The class was centered around starting something, and so we had to come up with an idea.
Something that I had noticed about our relationship was that he loved music, and I loved that he loved music. But the biggest gap that I saw was that he was an Apple Music user, and I’m a Spotify user, so I wasn’t able to access his Apple Music profile. When he shared songs, I had to use SongShift; it just felt like such a pain. We saw this as an issue, and that kind of just got the ball rolling for what Soundscape is today. On top of all of that, being at Wesleyan, seeing the way that music is such a big part here, we thought about rethinking the way that we share and experience music.
A: That’s beautiful. Since you did this sophomore spring, did you have any plans after the class ended, maybe over the summer?
DS: The class culminated in a final presentation of a minimum viable product, which was a website initially, but Annabelle and I genuinely wanted to create an app for it, because we needed it. So we decided to keep working on this. Over the summer, we made a better website. Then we came back junior year and talked to our friends about it. People were very interested, and so that summer we applied for a grant from the Patricelli Center [for Social Entrepreneurship] to work on it. We both were awarded $5,000 to commit ourselves to it. Over the summer of our junior year, after we came back from abroad, we connected with the coder, and from there, we’ve really dedicated ourselves to building this into an app. Now the app is on our phones, and right before we graduate, it’s hopefully going to be on everyone’s phone.
A: I saw Soundscape at the Wesleyan Shark Tank final presentation, so I was wondering what inspired you to join that and present at the event?
DS: Annabelle and I know Michael [Astorino ’26] and Ben [Carbeau ’25] personally, so they told us about planning the Shark Tank event. When it came to fruition, they asked if we’d be interested in signing up. Annabelle and I were super excited to be a part of it because it really provided a structure for us this semester. We had all of these ambitious plans to launch and incorporate, and get approved by Spotify so we can start sending it to people. But [balancing] that with senior spring social life and all the things we do on campus other than Soundscape and finals and capstone projects, whatever that may be, was a great opportunity to provide some structure and format to what we wanted to accomplish with Soundscape this semester and get a credit. I think we’ve honestly exceeded what we thought we would be able to do. We’re right on track, which is awesome.
AS: We saw this opportunity to challenge ourselves and hone in and get our ducks in a row, like how we want to represent ourselves and how we want to describe ourselves, etc. On top of all of that, being able to build those connections with the sharks that were there is going to be forever such a valuable thing to us. It was incredible to see the Wesleyan community and these alumni coming back to support us. And it gave us this sense of hope and inspired us, because they were one of us, and now they’re on to doing incredible things, building incredible, massive companies. Being able to have that experience was enticing.
A: What’s the plan after Wesleyan?
AS: The plan is to continue Soundscape, to hone in on growing it. This summer, we want to flesh out a college ambassador program so that we can reach other schools like Wesleyan [in the] NESCAC and so on—just to continue to grow.
DS: I am going to be committed to Soundscape over the summer, after we graduate. It’s exciting to be able to build something of your own and take your creative vision and bring it to people and ask how it can be useful for them, and hear from real people. [It’s exciting to] figure out how we can be helpful in making music sharing and music discovery more seamless and more integrated within a community.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Raiza Goel can be reached at rgoel@wesleyan.edu.
Leave a Reply