Cambron Software was set up in 2003 so that I could work on reporting software for schools. Once I became full time in 2006 this expanded to other clients.
I began developing Power Music in 2007 because there was nothing else available at that time to display music digitally instead of on paper.
Power Music
The beginning of Power Music
In the early 2000s I had written Power-Praise for churches to display lyrics on screen for the congregation.
Meanwhile I was organising the music for the praise band in the church and I decided that one day I would write the equivalent software to display music and chord sheets for musicians. It would be called Power Music. In those days the hardware was not available – there were no tablets or thin screens, so I continued to struggle with photocopies, ‘borrowed’ copies disappearing from the master binder, and some band members bringing their own copies leading to different chords. Transposing was a problem, as was page turning.
So Power Music was a dream for years before it was possible to become a reality.
The Launch
I researched the requirements of a music display system with the help of some great musicians and a beta version was launched in 2007 at the Christian Resources Exhibition in Glasgow.
It was then launched more extensively online and through resellers in 2008.
The growth
Power Music is now used by musicians all over the world in over 180 countries.
Here is a summary of the growth and development over the years.
In 2011 Gordon retired from teaching and joined Cambron to help with the marketing of Power Music and the development of hardware.
In September of 2011 our son Colin Cameron joined Cambron as a software developer and created Power Music for the Mac, followed by an iPad app in 2012. He has become a great asset to the company, expanding his skills, and now has extensive experience in web development.
In 2012 we launched Power Music Box – an online platform for music data storage and transfer between different devices.
The music store was also created to sell digital songbooks for download to the software. Our partnership with Spring Harvest along with customer demand prompted this and each year until 2020 Spring Harvest created a new songbook which was converted to Power Music format.
There have been many improvements to the software over the years based on feedback from our users. We continue to develop and maintain Power Music.
In 2013 Cambron Software became a limited company due to the expansion of work and Power Music.
By 2018 Power Music had grown to the extent that we decided to separate it into its own limited company.
Cambron continues to develop custom software, websites and web applications *. We recently launched plan2gether – a rota system for churches. All the development work was done by Colin.
We still work from home and have a couple of offices in the house – one for me and one for the boys. This proved to be invaluable when the Covid pandemic struck in 2020. Colin worked from his own home until late summer 2021, when he returned here.
I have no plans at the moment for retirement, but since May 2022 I have been looking after my grandson Matthew for a couple of days a week so my working hours are now reduced.
*Update: in late 2022 Colin set up his own company Amplify Code and all new development has since been moved from Cambron to Amplify Code. At the end of March 2024 Cambron Software Ltd ceased trading and closed down as a limited company. We continue to support Power Music and the three of us still work together from our home. These decisions will allow us to continue to support and encourage Colin while winding down our own working lives. I still have no plans to retire but have greatly reduced my productive hours. I will stop when my brain stops!
0 Comments