A Conversation with Ye Bin of Xiaoyezi: Is a Stringless Guitar a "Stupidity Tax"? Hear What a Ten-Year Industry Veteran Has to Say | *The Real Deal* EP30
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If you've ever been drawn to LiberLive's stringless guitar, then I have to recommend The ONE, a piano for playing and singing. You may not know this, but this music tech company founded by a Tsinghua engineering grad was the pioneer in China's music education and smart instrument hardware market, and has remained an industry leader.
With the vision of "letting more people enjoy the pleasure of music," Ye Bin founded Xiaoyezi (Little Leaf) in 2013 and soon launched The ONE smart piano. At that time, "smart piano" was a name that had never appeared before. Over eleven years, Ye Bin explored many directions on the path of piano education — from smart pianos to offline piano classrooms to AI practice partners — until the opportunity for playing and singing arrived, bringing what he calls "the most satisfying piano product in ten years." "How to balance something toy-like with serious instruction has been the challenge we've always faced," and this long-term challenge seems to have a clearer answer today.
This episode features Ye Bin, founder and CEO of Xiaoyezi. Listen for his answers under the new wave of smart hardware and AI opportunities, as well as his reflections on Xiaoyezi's ongoing exploration toward better paths in music education. In this episode, you'll hear the journey of an entrepreneur who started in China's early internet era and lived through the golden decade. Subscribe and tune in~
The "Smart" in Music Education
Guest Bio
Ye Bin: Founder and CEO of Xiaoyezi
Timeline
From Liberlive smart guitar to how the industry has changed over the past decade
01:59 Not an intelligence tax, but innovative product design that balances musical performance through playing and singing
03:52 Making a toy is great! But The ONE's mission and vision lean more toward music education
04:48 Eleven years since founding, The ONE opened up the smart instrument hardware market
07:38 Who doesn't love music? The emergence of smart pianos brought new growth to the market over the past decade
What The ONE, still #1 after ten years, got right
09:28 A typical engineering guy who found learning piano painful, approached it from a new angle and made a smart digital piano
13:58 From mobile internet to AI, what matters most for tech entrepreneurs is grounding yourself in user needs rather than technology
15:59 The breakout logic for surviving and thriving: precise grasp of user needs, finding the pain points and delights of learning music
Facing the unavoidable balancing act in music education: serious instruction vs. quick interest
21:04 Smart pianos face much skepticism and challenge from traditional piano learning mindsets, but The ONE never aimed to be a toy
27:33 After ten years of exploration along this thread of balancing serious education with quick interest, The ONE has arrived at its most satisfying product
30:01 Multi-directional exploration: expanding into offline smart piano classrooms and AI practice partner services
36:35 Adult users represented by playing and singing will continue to grow; playing and singing is the right entry point for music education
38:09 Noticed the playing-and-singing approach back in 2019, but a smart piano built on short-video-era product logic needs to get users actually playing
How technology can help music education become more "intelligent"
47:05 The ultimate goal of "smart" is to let technology better solve the hard parts, eventually leading to artistic, emotional expression
52:34 "Traditional piano learning is like Chinese people learning English"
56:16 A better path to music education through The ONE: learning through music and interest
59:31 Using AIGC to spark users' motivation to keep "playing" with piano learning
Surviving the "golden decade" of internet entrepreneurship
01:02:57 Personal entrepreneurial journey: lessons from serial entrepreneurship and cross-domain ventures
01:04:48 Perspectives and help gained from experience as a venture capitalist
01:08:19 Didn't build a bigger business during the golden decade of entrepreneurship, but staying true to passion and refining products brought good mindset and sense of value
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