Innovative tool brings music to thousands of UK children
Inspiration
Music opens the door to wonderful sounds and experiences, and has been proven to develop a child’s intellectual, social, emotional, motor, language, and overall literacy skills. Unfortunately, music education has been at the pointy end of government funding in recent years, and many schools are struggling financially to employ trained music teachers, instead choosing to spread the teaching load across non-musical staff.
But that load can now be lightened for a nominal cost, thanks to Soundbops, a musical tool developed by Glasgow-based company Spark & Rocket Ltd. Designed specifically to make learning music fun and easy for children, Soundbops is now experiencing huge international business growth, thanks to an UMi Debt Finance Scotland loan. Supported under the Scottish Growth Scheme, the loan scheme is designed to help Scottish SMEs innovate, grow and diversify.
Aimed at three to nine-year-olds, the Soundbop has 10 musical instrument sounds, using stackable round ‘bops’ to make chords. The Soundbop console is compact, lightweight yet durable, and the buttons make it easy for smaller hands to operate.
Spark & Rocket CEO Michael Tougher said Soundbop had come a long way since its first prototype:
“My first experiments back in 2015 were with a cardboard box, some wires and a circuit board – basic, yes, but I knew that properly developed, this could become a resilient yet user-friendly way to learn music. Since then, the cardboard has gone, the shape has changed, and the control buttons have developed, thanks to constant testing by families, in one-to-one, and in classrooms.
“I’ve always been musical and Soundbops brings together my passion for music and my business ideas."
"A musical instrument can be incredibly hard to play – a keyboard or guitar needs dexterity and their size is also challenging - so my design goal was to create an instrument that a young child would be able to play, while also making it engaging to play music and build up chords.”
Michael and his team then went looking for the perfect manufacturing and export partners, and also purchased the licenses for popular songs from Abba, Elton John and others, to include in the Soundbop teaching songbooks and activities
UMi Debt Finance Scotland Fund Director, Tom Brock, explained why the Soundbop got the stamp of approval: “All the best ideas look simple but have a lot of creativity and complex thinking behind them. The Soundbop is intuitive and easy to use, and means you don’t need to be a musician to teach with it. We had no hesitation in supporting Michael and his team, because the market opportunities, just in the UK alone, are huge.”
Michael said he turned to UMi Debt Finance Scotland because the company had reached the point of needing to expand: “We had produced our first units and got rave reviews from children, parents and teachers, so the next step was to secure funds to increase stock levels and grow the team. I already knew about UMi Debt Finance Scotland, and getting in touch with them was a really key stage for us.
“The UMi team doesn’t operate like a bank that uses a basic “yes or no” algorithm – they like to hear about the product’s story and journey."
"We discussed sales, cashflow and the general direction of our business plan, and it felt like a really open conversation, where everything was completely transparent.”
Michael said the funding enabled growth into new markets: “We now have an Australian distributor, and we’re exporting to a large number of countries, plus we’re marketing hard to UK retailers in the education space – all of which supports my five-year plan, to become the number one music supplier.”
Next for the company is the development of an entire musical system around the Soundbop, including an online portal full of lessons and resources, plus different instruments for different abilities.
Michael was enthusiastic about the support from UMi Debt Finance Scotland: “There are so many reasons to recommend them – they are lovely people to work with, and so receptive to new ideas. We stay in touch and they continue to be supportive, something that quite honestly I doubt you would get from high street lenders.
“When we first encounter music, we want to dance and sing and express ourselves in a way that is just so joyous to experience. We want every child to have that joy, and the loan from UMi Debt Finance Scotland is helping us do that.”
Key takeaways…
- Soundbops is a musical tool developed by Glasgow-based company Spark & Rocket Ltd, which helps children to learn musical chords.
- The company has been supported by UMi Debt Finance to expand its production, grow its team and develop its markets in the UK and internationally.
- UMi Debt Finance Scotland loans start at £25,001 and can be used for a wide range of purposes including capital investment, exports, innovation and product development.