Fandalism, a social network for musicians first came to our attention back in April, but recently the company has added a new feature that should cause a headache for digital distributors. Fandalism is now offering one of the cheapest options to digitally distribute your music. You get one song completely free, if you want more it’s $20/year and you can upload an UNLIMITED number of tracks….
..Founder Philip Kaplan is offering a free song upload to iTunes, and unlimited uploads to iTunes, Spotify, and Google Play for $19.99 per year. That’s significantly cheaper than most other services….
He doesn’t see it as a serious moneymaker for Fandalism, but instead as a way to attract new members for social network (you need to be a member to participate in the music distribution program), which he described as “my true business.” Plus, he said he likes the idea of “causing trouble” for an existing industry. In fact, the main reason he’s charging anything at all is just to convince musicians that it isn’t a scam.
So how is the business side of Fandalism going? Well, aside from the distribution feature, Kaplan isn’t actually making money yet. Instead, he’s focused on building “a database of every musician on the planet.”
At some point, Fandalism will probably become a large enough that it will be valuable to advertisers like instrument manufacturers: “I’m not sure what that point is, but we’re not there yet,” Kaplan said.
He plans to start allowing uploads in the next day or so. In the meantime, musicians can sign up for the wait list here. (via TechCrunch)
Sounds Interesting and if your looking to go even more digital with your music collection turn that old pile of CDs into cash with a great website called musicMagpie. In fact, first sell your discs to musicMagpie then you can afford to release even more music via Fandalism. Win win!
Music Consciousness
Voyno
5 Comments
No… just head over to http://routenote.com
Nice Article.
I agree with both of you. Services like this can reduce the burden of cost for artists who cannot afford services like Tunecore. That is the price to pay for using a free service Normandie, otherwise they will not make their money. It’s a question of give and take.
We will recommend this service in our blog at http://phatmastering.com/ Some people will find it very interesting.
Here is the reason why no musicians should do this: “At some point, Fandalism will probably become a large enough that it will be valuable to advertisers like instrument manufacturers:”
You’re distributing your songs for free, or a lower-cost than legitimate distributors like TuneCore or CD Baby, to become a part of the great social media marketing machine. Musicians who do this will opt themselves in to be the products, instead of buying a product.
If you’re not paying for a product or service, then you are the product. I hope that musicians consider this when signing up for a service like this. Especially since TuneCore just dropped their prices and is a company dedicated to doing amazing things for musicians. Just my two cents.
I like that. A website for musicians to get to know other musicians!!!!! Love that idea. I’ve never heard of a social network where musos can get to know each other.
Great idea, and thanks for sharing the find.
RouteNote is “cheaper.” They’ll do it for free. I’ve been using them since last year. Google Play isn’t one of their partners. They list iTunes, Amazon, emusic, Spotify, rdio, and Deezer, but have said that more are coming. Worth checking out.