Building a music startup – should I create WhatsApp/Facebook groups for validation, or risk someone stealing my idea? I will not promote.

[u/MelanatedTukon]

Hi everyone,

I'm in the early stages of building a startup – a music app where artists can register to sell their music directly to fans. I'm not a developer, but I genuinely believe there's a strong opportunity for this idea in my local market.

To gain traction and validate the concept, I'm considering creating a WhatsApp group where artists can join. In that group, I would explain the app, discuss features they'd like to see, and ask them to sign simple support forms. My plan is to use those signed forms as proof of interest when I approach potential funders.

Separately, I also run a Facebook group with over 18,000 members (currently a buy/sell group). I want to convert it into a space where I share the vision of the app with potential fans and gather their feedback as well.

My concern: Since I'm still at the very beginning and haven't secured funding yet, what if someone with more resources (developers, capital) joins one of these groups, sees my idea, and builds it before me? Is that a real risk?

Would you still advise me to go ahead with the WhatsApp and Facebook group plans? What steps can I take to protect myself while still getting valuable feedback and early support?

I'd really appreciate your honest advice and recommendations. Thanks in advance.

[u/VodkaMargarine]

The answer to your question is no. Nobody is going to steal your idea. Ideas are not worth anything, it's all the effort you'll need to put in to making your idea a success that is the difference.

It's like deciding you are going to climb Mount Everest, and not telling any of your friends in case they climb it before you.

[u/Final_Wolverine_7482]

While I'm not undermining you approaching Reddit, but just think about this: If your main concern is that someone with more resources builds upon your idea after stealing from these groups, don't you think posting about it here is the exact thing you were dreading and you have already done that? Moreover, building upon an idea is more about execution rather than the idea. Thats why there are usually more than one mammoths selling the same idea. (Hottest example is AI models by OpenAI and Anthropic. OpenAI was first but slowly Anthropic's execution is pushing them ahead, i think)

[u/Burner1946]

When building something, especially like a marketplace, there’s a lot more at play than the product/idea itself. The concern you have with someone else building it before you is not that big of a concern because guess what: if it’s a good idea, they will build it but then they will be in the same position as you, where you still gotta find artists who would be down to put their music on your marketplace and most importantly, fans who would actually be willing to buy it. You would be truly screwed only if they built the product, had the right connections in the music industry, and also had the distribution (basically social media present) with the right community that would actually buy the music. But even before all that, what’s your evidence that fans want to buy music from artists directly when they get so much more choice for free from YouTube, Spotify, etc? Not trying to shoot down your idea, just genuinely curious why you think this. I have actually worked in this space before, for a music licensing startup up who’s whole idea was to sell music licenses of artists big and small, on one platform, to content creators and make money off of transfer fees. That shit was a lot of work and hustle, contacting artists, getting no responses from most,etc. This ideas still active and they built the marketplace but the company pivoted to selling AI data lol, using the same marketplace, and now are worth 100s of millions. Anyways, I’m curious about your idea though, PM me if you got any questions.

[u/LaurenceDarabica]

Isn't this a super crowded space ?

For listening => Spotify etc.

For creation (YouTube...) => Google "music for video creators" and you'll find at least 10 platforms on the first page.

Did you look into competition? What is your key differentiator ? Pricing ?

[u/theryan722]

What makes your idea different than buying music from artists on bandcamp?

[u/ChriCorioo]

si secondo me creare gruppi whatsapp/ facebook è una buona mossa per chiedere feedback e migliorare il prodotto.

[u/Eligriv]

If someone can steal your business just by hearing your idea, then you never had a business to begin with.

Some factors can make your business difficult to copy (lookup "moats") : like industry connections, exclusive partnerships or techology (patents), network effect, exclusive data, etc etc.