In creating and building anything there is always the possibility for failure. Failing at anything is a total bummer. However, with failure comes potential- potential to bounce back, to refresh, to create, or to look at something from a different perspective. My parents have taught me that you should never accept failure; to always go at a goal knowing you will accomplish it and if for some reason that does not happen, turn around and look at how you can make some good come out of what you’ve learned. They have definitely walked the talk in this lesson too; here is what I mean by that.
My parents, Tracy and Kathy Nelson began Main Street Music (MSM) in 1999 as a physical store located in Duvall, WA, and a website, mainstreetmusic.com. The decision to create both in parallel was made right from the start, both opening their doors on the same day. The internet-based music service allowed visitors to the website to purchase CDs from the MSM stock and interact with activities in the store. A few months later the website was able to offer music downloads as well, making MSM one of the earliest entries into the new world of music downloading, even preceding Napster which began operations in the same year. In 2000, after only one and a half years, it was decided to close the physical store and focus exclusively on the online business. Ironically, the lackluster sales at the physical store were at least in part attributable to the illegal free downloads that were being offered by Napster.
MSM, the website, evolved to become recognized as a down-home, family-run business with very attentive customer support. As an online retail service provider, MSM had been dependent on its relationship with a wholesale content supplier, Liquid Digital Media (LDM) since 1999 when it became one of Liquid Audio’s first affiliates. LDM was the first company to deliver secure digitized music over the Internet, including both copy protection and copyright management.
All was going well. Then Walmart bought the parent of Liquid Audio in 2005 and the dream was over.
All during the time of my parents’ store and downloads Kathy also managed a hard rock band from our home town of Duvall. She helped the band break into the Seattle music scene, open for larger bands,tour, and record in a popular studio, managed to get distribution of the cds, the cd got played on internet radio stations and college radio stations. The band’s cd release party broke records in Seattle. The band broke up after 4 years of hard work and great music.
What were the lessons they learned from the demise of Main Street Music and the rock band? Among many was that the music that they offered their clients was always owned by a distributor. Who sold it to a larger corporation and they had NO control over this. My mother was also not able to go on without a band when they decided to start families and stopped playing shows. She had no control of the band either.
Next Kathy (mom) thought of making fun and nutritional muffins and call it Mimi’s Muffins after her mother in law. She bought muffins on the internet to see packaging and researched by working at a local bakery and found she hated the hours and saw the baker never left the kitchen. Then Tracy and Kathy thought of the servers sitting in the bedroom and how much they loved working from home, and how they created the Main Street Music website with a shopping cart and how they could grow a business online.They put the servers back in Seattle and started Ovaleye August 2006.
“Ovaleye is solely our company and our products. We own our servers, our family can also provide all the services we offer. We do not have to rely on anyone! We are working from our home office and helping businesses online. It feels good…” - Kathy
