Local entrepreneurs Matt Mostad and Matthew Sutton have partnered up to revolutionize the music industry. Launched last week, their sheet music app, iSheetMusic, enables musicians to access thousands of songs anytime, anywhere.

"We're bringing sheet music into the 21st century," said co-founder Matthew Sutton in a phone interview.
"Sheet music has been one of the things that have been rather untouched by new technology. Only two percent is sold digitally."

But Mostad and Sutton are changing this by creating the world's first full dynamic mobile sheet music app.

Sutton said the idea came to Mostad while playing his guitar on the beach one day.

"We were out on the beach with a guitar and Matt couldn't remember more than a few songs. He's the kind of guy who likes to solve problems and thought, "How can I have sheet music with me wherever I go?'," Sutton recalled. "He came to see me (because I'm a guy who builds software) and I thought it was a great idea."

What makes the software special is that the sheet music is optimized for the screen size.

"We needed to approach sheet music in a new way and not see it as a piece of paper the size of an iPad," Sutton explained. "The notes are redrawn on the screen for the appropriate size. And the page turns automatically. A build-in metronome keeps the beat so the software knows when to turn the page."

Supported by agreements with two of the world's largest sheet music publishers, Hal Leonard Corporation and Alfred Music Publishing, iSheetMusic comes pre-equipped with a number of public domain songs, as well as unparalleled access to an ever-expanding catalog of tens of thousands more, which users can purchase directly from iSheetMusic.net, or from within the app.

"Copyrighted artists will get paid every time we sell a song," Sutton said. "It's something that legally you have to do and morally, you should."

Mostad and Sutton's dedication to helping "more people to play more music" comes from a personal and professional connection to music.

Sutton said Mostad is a casual musician and Sutton is no stranger to the music industry.

For 15 years, Sutton was the primary audio tech for recording, broadcast and live facilities in the Pacific Northwest.  He built and maintained studios for Microsoft, Steve Miller, Heart, Paul Allen and dozens of other famous and not so famous people as well as building unique custom electronics solutions in the audio field.  

Mostad grew up with music and considers himself a hobby musician. Mostad has founded or co-founded several successful companies in the Pacific Northwest and leads the musician advisory board of iSheet music in addition to his job in Sales & Marketing at a cutting edge engineering firm in the Seattle area.

"We've both done this before and we're excited to take sheet music to a mobile platform," Sutton said.

For more information, visit www.isheetmusic.net.