Will fans give something back? (1 Viewer)

[Karmafan]

The recent discussion about Radiohead made me wonder what Thumped readers would make of Karmafan. I started working on it with a friend about a year ago. We're based in Dublin. Released about two weeks ago so we're only starting to publicise the site.

Karmafan is based on the idea of patronage. Fans can give to artists using any payment system (as of next week we'll be able to accept payments globally using mobiles, Google Checkout, credit cards - it's just PayPal at the moment). Fans can also invite friends to support artists they like, even invite an artist to join.

Artists can embed a widget on their site or MySpace page to let fans give whatever they like without leaving the page, or just add a small badge to get support.

Karmafan doesn't take a cut - we're going to try and exist in the same way that we think artists can - through voluntary patronage. If an artist has a good month they can give us something. The only fees are the ones charged by the various payment gateways.

We don't want any control over how musicians distribute - that's up to them. The idea is just to make it easy for fans to give something back to an artist regardless of how they came across the music. Maybe they bought the album second-hand, got it from a friend, downloaded it from the artist's site or even just heard it on the radio. We just want to make it easy for fans who want to give support, not replace other methods of distribution or sales.

It would be great to get some feedback on the idea. Hope to hear from some of you.

Dave

 

[theoootini]

interesting. really though, how is this different to an artist putting up a paypal donate link on their site?

without leaving the page

this is the only thing i can see that is different to paypal. and it's a pretty small difference.

could you not just go out and buy a cd?

might be cool to adapt it for homeless people. that way when you saw a cute one you could give them a couple of pence without having to get near them.

 

[lympog]

interesting. really though, how is this different to an artist putting up a paypal donate link on their site?



this is the only thing i can see that is different to paypal. and it's a pretty small difference.

could you not just go out and buy a cd?

might be cool to adapt it for homeless people. that way when you saw a cute one you could give them a couple of pence without having to get near them.

yes.
yeah.
hit him oootini
kick him when he's down and then spit on him
YEAH
YEAH
YEAH
!ninjaaaa

 

[theoootini]

actually no. it's brilliant

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

interesting. really though, how is this different to an artist putting up a paypal donate link on their site?

might be cool to adapt it for homeless people. that way when you saw a cute one you could give them a couple of pence without having to get near them.

heh. i've been thinking about it this week, i think its a good idea, i was gonna suggest to the lads that we could put a donate button on our site for people to donate if they felt so inclined - like if they downloaded something from soulseek or something - not that i would like people to feel it was expected of them or obligatory (i see it as a good thing if music is being shared like that - its taken on a life of its own...) just seems like a sensible way of doing things. i would probably pay that way for certain things. that said, im not sure why i'd need to sign up to that site though, maybe it would suit some people so fair enough. i think the general idea will get more popular....

 

[lympog]

i like it
- leigh

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

actually no. it's brilliant

i like it
- leigh

 

[theoootini]

i dunno. just seems like an unnecessary extra link to go through when a paypal button would suffice.

 

[pete]

paypal takes a cut

 

[theoootini]

paypal takes a cut

this uses paypal does it not?

 

[Karmafan]

I see your point, but the thing which makes it different is that PayPal takes a certain cut regardless of the amount, so we're hoping to allow fans to give less more often. It's less of a commitment to give 40 cents or something when you're listening to a song on someone's MySpace page than to go to PayPal and give them a fiver. And using a mobile to give a little to a band is even more painless. Not to mention Google Checkout, credit cards, etc.

There's also the social network element to it, in that fans get a badge showing the artists they have supported (that can be placed on forums and will update as they give support) and they can also invite friends to check out some new music. Each fan (and artists, too) has a profile page showing their support history, which we can use to help keep charts of how artists are doing.

This is what the badge looks like at the moment. Needs a little work but you get the idea.

It's just PayPal at the moment. We're adding mobile payments from anywhere in the world and lots of other payment gateways as of next week.

 

[pete]

this uses paypal does it not?

for now, yes, but they're bringing more payment processors on board soon.

when you're a small operation using paypal is pretty much the only game in town for accepting cash online, but if you get access to multiple payment processors for no fees then this site is a more economical option.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

cool.

 

[São Paulo Punk]

YES! No more of this on Saturday afternoons in town!

[/IMG]

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

how is this yoke doing?

 

[Goodbye]

Bloody good idea.

My band put out an "indie" album a couple of years ago.

Since then, the amount of times I've come across that album on peoples iPods and the like, far outways the amount of copies sold.

 

[aoboa]

Since then, the amount of times I've come across that album on peoples iPods and the like, far outways the amount of copies sold.

So you've been checking peoples ipods - creepy dude!

 

[Goodbye]

So you've been checking peoples ipods - creepy dude!

It as creepy as people flicking through your cd's when they come and visit...

Seriously though, somebody uploaded the album onto NCAD's server, it was checked out and turns out it was downloaded almost a thousand times. Thats a hit record in indie land!

 

[lympog]

the first two weeks peaked at £4.78, but now has passed to around £2.70 - which johnny greenwood said is still more than what they would've got from a record company
thing is, radiohead are only one of very few bands who could actually pull this off

- leigh

 

[Goodbye]

Even if indie bands get as little as 10c
I'm not going to say no to a thousand ten cent's...

I thiink the karma site is a good idea

- Ian