Founded in 2012, Soundslice is a web-based music learning platform that synchronizes interactive sheet music and tablature with real audio and video recordings. Its value proposition is that it gives life to music notation through an audiovisual interface that combines practice tools with a web-based notation editor, optical music recognition, and business to business potential for educators, institutions and content creators. Soundslice was co-founded by Adrian Holovaty and PJ Macklin, though Adrian is the sole remaining co-founder today.
Adrian himself is an innovator, being both the inventor and entrepreneur of this music technology. He co-created the Python framework Django in 2005 (now being used by Instagram and Pinterest) and in 2018 was appointed co-chair towards the development of MNX (machine-readable music notation semantics for the web) by the W3C Music Notation Community Group. His work shows sustained field credibility and dedication towards the music-technology market. Soundslice operates as a three-person team with no disclosed outside investors or board of directors.
I chose Adrian to be on parade today because his venture emerged from a genuine combination of passion, technical skill, and firsthand experience. As someone drawn to the intersection of music, guitar, technology, and learning, it was neat to rediscover his arrangements of the Super Mario theme song and “All of Me” guitar arrangements. I had watched these on YouTube nearly fifteen years ago and had no idea he was the co-founder of Soundslice and the Django framework. Looking at his journey makes me reflect on my relationship towards the inventor-entrepreneur-innovator spectrum and what market-building instincts I would need to develop to accomplish what he has.
https://www.soundslice.com/slices/gcNNc
References
Holovaty, A. (n.d.). Adrian Holovaty. https://www.holovaty.com/
Soundslice. (n.d.). About Soundslice. https://www.soundslice.com/about/
W3C Music Notation Community Group. (2018, December 19). Co-chair announcement. https://www.w3.org/community/music-notation/2018/12/19/co-chair-announcement/
Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Adrian Holovaty. In Wikipedia. Retrieved June 14, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Holovaty
I enjoyed reading about your selected founder and think he is a great asset for learners. I was never able to take music classes in school, so learning any instruments now would be through YouTube tutorials and instructional videos. I can absolutely see how this model is helpful for teaching, particularly its application in a large class with many different instruments being learned and taught. Giving students a project or skill and having them use it to learn, get feedback, and improve their skills in the classroom. Thank you for sharing.