Timbredio’s Roots Run Deep in Northern Indiana

By Christina Clark 

Dominic Go

Timbredio’s Dominic Go may not live in South Bend anymore, but his roots with the local music community, his alma mater, and family run deep.

Timbredio is a streaming service that helps support artists as they gain listeners and fans. Listeners pay a monthly fee of $7.99 to access the platform, while artists can sign up and add their music for free. The platform, just over a year old, recently expanded and launched commercial accounts for businesses to play the Timbredio service over their sound systems.

After launching his music streaming service that boasts a “farm-to-table” approach to serving up music, Go has seen the service take root mostly in the Midwest regions surrounding the South Bend and Chicago markets. With this model, Go hopes to change the music industry from being dependent on corporate labels to giving the control back to the creatives. Continuing Go’s commitment to his home region, Timbredio was most recently one of the sponsors for Homebody IV: Goshen, as well as Soounds Stage.

Working with Myles Robertson, the founder of the South Bend, and now Goshen, Homebody House show festivals, is one way Go stays plugged into the local music scene. He also has many local artists on Timbredio’s platform.

Go has known the members of Frances Luke Accord, Nicholas Gunty and Brian Powers, since he was in grade school. Frances Luke Accord’s members were raised in South Bend.

He also has known Abby Joiner for most of his life, South Bend’s The Ember Jar’s and now knows the other half of the duo, Kevin Scott Joiner. Joe Feeks, a guitarist local to the Michiana area, is also someone that Go has known since grade school. With the music community in the Michiana area being a quilt of all kinds coming together, these deeper connections branched out to James Neary and the Bevy Blue and Dena Woods.

These artists all utilize the Timbredio platform, along with others including (but not limited to) Brittany Lee Moffitt, Scuttlebugs, and Shiny Penny.

The artists and grounds from which Go learned music and became part of the scene are imperative to his passion and drive for the service. The inspiration for Timbredio actually came while Go was traveling, however, in Asheville, North Carolina.

“It’s a sleepy, hippie town, very cool little spot. I was walking by and saw this street performer, they were really, really good,” Go says. “I am classically trained and highly critical, and my first thought is ‘can I do that? Can I do that better than them?’ and this guy was really good. He was doing original songs, not doing covers. I thought, wouldn’t it be cool if there was some way tip him and throw something in his guitar case with my phone?” explains Go. He didn’t have cash on him at the time, but in this observation and want, he was inspired to find a way to do just that.

Go himself is a musician, and through his education prior to this trip his expectations and goals had already begun to change his view of the music industry.

“I very much saw myself heading on a John Mayer trajectory, the best-case scenario, but it made no sense to me that essentially your entire career prior to ‘making it’ is an ongoing audition. And you get in front of a record label? And you get them to sign you? Then you have to start that over and over to make any sort of money,” says Go.

“The idea of writing music with that goal in mind rather than the real goal of music: self-expression and connecting with people on more meaningful levels, those things were in competition with one another,” he says. He built other skills and found he had a knack for the technological aspect of things.

The seed for Timbredio was planted.

Timbredio is a combination of the words ‘timbre’ and ‘radio.’ Timbre is a term used to describe the unique characteristic of a sound.

Listeners on the streaming service can help an artist directly by “backing” them. When a listener backs an artist, they are dedicating $2 of their monthly subscription cost directly to the artist. This gives them a way to build an income stream. The service also has a Reaction Royalty, where they dedicate $1 from every subscription to be put into a pot that pays out each quarter to artists for their unique “likes.” According to Timbredio website, “We compensate artists every time they connect with a listener.”

The effect of Go’s model is just that of a farm to table experience, from artists to buyers.

“[Artists are] making real money on our platform, and that’s because we’ve eliminated the middle-man, much like how a farmer’s market makes a better profit for farmers,” Go says.

 “I was a regular participant in the South Bend Civic Theatre, I used to perform at Fiddler’s Hearth, I’ve always been tied to the music community there,” Go says.

He also used to do the open mic circuit in town, and while that has faded into the past as well, he is still actively making music.

“I sing with an ensemble that does early music, like Renaissance-type music, not the type of things most people listen to on Timbredio,” Go says.

Now based in Arlington, Virginia, where Go’s wife is in medical school, he works from home on Timbredio. While he works to support artists back home and on his service, he also continues to be one.

With Timbredio just over a year old at this point, their goal is still growth.

“We are constantly thinking about the best ways to grow, and the best ways to find the right people,” Go says. We’ve realized we are a niche product, this is by design, it’s not a mass market product.”

“We’ve always been about supporting and empowering independent artists,” he explains. “Rather than trying to solve it down stream, we’ve decided to invest even more into our artists.”

https://www.timbredio.com/