Picture a warm July night in the heart of Gloucester. A long-haired Londoner and a slightly sunburnt Devonian found themselves enjoying a few after-hours campfire drinks with a cluster of friends, strangers, and family members. 

They didn’t know each other; in fact, they’d never even met. But, as so often happens amidst the mud, singalongs, and dented tins of lukewarm lager, these two strangers caught each other’s eye and struck up a conversation. 

And so began a friendship, formed around and amongst music, between two young men - namely, Danny Starr and Danny Angove. 

As the years flew by, what started with talk of their university parties and juvenile crushes turned into deeper, more serious discussions about their futures and the state of the world. Naturally, it all came back to music; Starr had spent the last few years nurturing a multi-faceted identity as  a neuroscientist, data scientist, songwriter, and globally recognised recording artist, while Angove developed a portfolio career as an experienced artist manager, digital marketer, music journalist, and international lecturer.

Simultaneously, both men realised that there was a significant knowledge gap in the music industry; namely, that of the humanisation of fan data, and the subsequent application of this data to real-world digital products and strategies. 

Fortunately, they also realised that they were pretty uniquely positioned to do something about it. Starr’s work at the cutting edge of Customer Experience optimisation for one of the world’s largest media companies had equipped him with the technical skills needed to build an effective set of solutions, while Angove’s position at the heart of the music industry - and a history of founding and growing digital companies - had gifted him an innate understanding of wider industry and fan workings, trends, pain points, and patterns.

And so, Backline was born. A company of right-brained creatives, technologists, and music lovers, actively working to help music brands of all sizes understand how their customers think, act, and behave. And, at the heart of it all, a group of music lovers, who stubbornly refuse to overlook the fact that a great song can mean more, to one and to many, than anything else in this world. 

Because after all, isn’t that the whole point?