You Were Never Supposed to Start a Music Business. Neither Were They.
Most people who end up starting a music business didn't plan to. Sondre Pedersen was a bartender who got into crypto, dropped out of school, and made money trading NFTs from his apartment at odd hours of the night. He had zero ambition to start a company. Fourteen months later, he's the CEO of an award-winning ticketing startup. His co-founders' assessment: "We tricked you into becoming a founder."
Sound familiar? Most studio owners didn't set out to run a business either. They set out to make music.
The Accidental CEO
Here's how it happened. Jakob from Capella Entertainment came back from LA where every industry meeting was dominated by tech hype. He was frustrated -- all this excitement about new technology with no practical application.
He invited Sondre, a friend-of-a-friend who actually understood the tech, over for coffee. The goal: figure out if there's anything useful Capella could do with it.
They were supposed to talk about staying ahead of the curve. Instead, they kept circling back to one question: what can we actually use this for right now?
The answer: ticketing. Secondary ticket sales generate significant revenue -- up to 20% of tickets for popular shows get resold. But the artists, promoters, and venues who created the event see none of that money. Zero.
So they built Mintix. Got investors. Built a product. Won Startup of the Year at the Music Tech Conference in Bergen. First company in the Nordics doing blockchain-based ticketing.
And Sondre? "If you would have asked me just a couple weeks before we even started Mintix if I was ever to become a CEO of some company, I would have just laughed and said, no, that's not me."
Technology Should Solve Real Problems
The most important lesson from Mintix isn't about any specific technology. It's about the difference between hype and utility.
In 2022, the music industry was drowning in projects that existed purely because the underlying tech was trendy. Most of them didn't solve anything. Most are worth nothing today.
Mintix survived because it started with a problem (artists don't earn from secondary ticket sales) and worked backward to a solution. The tech is invisible to the end user. They just buy a ticket. The technology runs underneath.
That's the standard every tool should meet: does it solve a real problem, or does it just sound impressive?
You Don't Need to Be Qualified
Sondre's story demolishes the myth that founders need to be experienced, credentialed, or confident.
"To this day, it's still a weird feeling to have that much responsibility. But it kind of grows on you, and you learn that it's not so much about what you see in the movies about the title CEO. It's more just you take responsibility and you make some decisions."
He's surrounded by people who know things he doesn't. That's the point. He drives decisions and momentum while relying on a team with specialized knowledge.
"I believe that a lot more people can be founders than what they believe they can actually be themselves," Jakob says. "There's this belief that it needs to be a very strict and special type. I believe a lot more can become that. But they need to be encouraged and put into systems where they can develop."
The Accidental Studio Owner
This is the studio owner's story too. You didn't set out to be a business person. You set out to create music, produce records, or build a space for artists. Somewhere along the way, you ended up managing bookings, handling invoicing, marketing your space, and dealing with no-shows.
You're an accidental founder. And that's fine.
The good news: you don't need an MBA to run a successful studio business. What you need is the same thing Sondre needed -- practical tools that solve real problems, and systems that handle the stuff that isn't your core skill.
What To Do About It
- Accept that you're running a business. Not later, not once you're "big enough." Now. The faster you adopt that mindset, the faster the business side stops feeling like a distraction and starts feeling like part of the work.
- Adopt tools that match how you actually work. Booking systems, calendar management, invoicing -- pick tools that solve your specific friction points. If a tool requires you to change your workflow entirely, it's the wrong tool.
- Surround yourself with people who know what you don't. Sondre succeeds as CEO because he has specialized people around him. You don't need to learn accounting -- you need an accountant. You don't need to master marketing -- you need a platform that handles discovery.
- Apply the Mintix test to every tool you consider: Does it solve a real problem you have today, or does it just sound impressive? If you can't name the specific friction it removes, skip it.
- You don't need to be "the type" to run a business. Sondre went from trading crypto in his apartment to award-winning CEO. Most studio owners are accidental business people too.
- Technology should solve real problems, not chase hype. Apply this filter to every tool you adopt for your studio.
- Systems beat heroics. Success doesn't come from knowing everything. It comes from being in a system with the right people and tools around you.