The goal of Pindrop is to walk away thinking, “Wow, I never knew there was such great music from that part of the world.”
This week we speak to Ben Ma, a musician at heart who blends his passion for music with his IT background in innovative ways. In college, he studied the effects of music on emotion in a machine learning lab. Now, he works at Rivet, a music tech startup focused on direct-to-fan marketing, while also juggling passion projects like the Pindrop music discovery platform and the Export the Sound podcast, which explores how the music industry facilitates the global movement of music across borders. Ben's interest in music discovery sparked from his experiences DJing for community organisations, where he witnessed the profound impact of music across different generations and cultures. His goal is to foster empathy through the discovery of music from around the world. Pindrop, launched in February 2024, aims to offer a visually appealing and engaging way to discover amazing music from different regions, and is a means to connect with like-minded individuals and organisations.
Hi Ben, we’re excited to have this conversation with you. Please tell us about your career, how did you get to this point in your professional career? What are the projects that you work on a daily basis?
I’ve been a mediocre (but enthusiastic) musician as long as I can remember, but I connected the dots that I could still wind music into a viable career in college, where I joined a machine learning lab studying the effects of music on human emotion. After graduation, I found my way to a music tech startup called Rivet, where I work now. Rivet focuses on helping musicians directly market to their fans, but I also had so many other ideas that I have a whole menagerie of music x tech passion projects in various states of repair: a podcast, a music recommender, a YouTube channel... Pindrop is probably the most polished of these!
Why is music discovery important to you?
My high school had a community service requirement, and at the time (early 2010s) I was getting really into dubstep. I had a lightbulb moment and started offering DJ services for free to different community organisations. Luckily, my parents gave me a stack of Frank Sinatra CD’s to play before I gave everyone heart attacks at my first gig at a retirement home. By playing 50s and 60s tracks, I was discovering new music at the same time while the people I was playing for would come up to me, telling me how much these tracks meant to them… it was a very powerful combination, and as I expanded my volunteering gigs to play for all kinds of people, I learned decade-by-decade of how different songs intertwined with their lives.
Why do you think discovering new artists is important for the world as a whole?
Everyone knows that the world today needs more empathy in it. But it’s of course easier said than done. I think that discovering and loving music from another place is a fantastic way to break through, to humanise the artists behind it, and to persuade with emotion & beauty where logic might fail. When I was living in Beijing a few years ago, I found that discovering Chinese music was a deeply enriching experience that broke some of the implicit stereotypes I had formed in my life… moshing at a punk rock show can do that to a man.
Tell us about the vision behind Pindrop.
The goal of Pindrop is to walk away thinking, “Wow, I never knew there was such great music from that part of the world.” I wanted to make a music discovery experience that was fun, visually appealing, easy to play, and most of all, gave ample opportunity to be amazed by new music.
Tell us about some this project’s milestones and future plans.
Pindrop first launched about a year ago, in February 2024. After a few months of friend group play, we realised we had something special & that other organisations might be interested. We ran a fundraiser for local Boston music non-profit Global Arts Live in September, then launched our collaboration with Hidden Gems. In the future, we’d love to keep using Pindrop as a locus for connecting with individuals and organisations that believe in our mission. And stay tuned for future activity with Hidden Gems!
Regarding music and technology. What are the projects that are catching your attention and the topics that we should check out, in terms of how music can improve our communities?
For personal growth & curiosity, I think digital music discovery is great. But for community impact, you can’t beat live music. Find venues or orgs in your community that put on kinds of music you’ve never heard before. Here in Boston, Global Arts Live and Berklee College of Music are two that I’ve latched on to. And if all else fails, see if there’s a Hidden Gems guide for your city ;)
Regarding music and technology, is there a book, article or thought leader that we should focus on?
I’ve lately been musing about technology transforms the way music spreads through and affects society. The phonograph & recorded music allowed certain rhythms and musical motifs to propagate globally, beginning a global musical conversation – I learned about this in the excellent book Noise Uprising by Michael Denning. The Netflix miniseries “The Playlist” about the founding of Spotify had me thinking more about the music industry’s role… are they the saviour of a dying industry or a villain commodifying the music experience? How can we apply the lessons of these previous transformations to predict and shape what will happen with the TikTok-ification of music discovery & the explosion of AI-generated music around the corner? (If you have answers to that question, call me).
We met you first through your Export the Sound podcast series. Tell us about the motivation behind that podcast series and how that experience connects to the current work you’re doing in your work through Pindrop and your other projects?
Export the Sound is a podcast about how the music industry moves music across borders, as told by interviews with global experts. I wanted to help listeners (and myself) understand the cogs that help or hinder songs and artists from becoming global sensations. My goal is to help in that effort, but first I needed to learn a bit more… Pindrop is trying to advance that same mission through a different means, by going straight to the people.
Explore the world through music with Pindrop! This visually engaging game helps you discover new sounds, build empathy, and break down cultural stereotypes. Discover music from our Hidden Gems for Music Tourism itineraries.
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