171–180 of 198 posts
Disclaimer: this one's out there. Think stock market for music meets Kickstarter. As you mentioned, most musicians are strapped for cash. Most also have plans for bigger and better things, need new equipment, and want to get the word out about their music. Let each musician set a value on their musical worth (market cap). Let friends, family, and fans contribute to the musician for a percentage stake in that musician…
You already have a nice platform for musicians. How about connecting those musicians to help them form bands? As a drummer, I'm constantly looking for new people to jam with and would love to find a kick ass lead singer. It's really hard to find people outside of your social circle, and that enjoy the same music as you. Your site seems like it could really solve this pain point.
I'd love to be able to create a profile where I can tell people "Hey, I drum, I like metal, I can jam these days, I live in this city, lets play some music". Metallica was created when Lars / James put an ad in the newspaper, the other answered, and the rest is history. Now imagine, this sort of connection on Fandalism.
In terms of monetizing, I think you could use a sort of 'first look' approach like American Idol. If a band forms via your site and continues to use your platform, you could offer to sign them to your label, and give them more exposure on your site.
Another platform that comes to mind, is online Karaoke. American Idol, in essence, is a giant Karaoke fest. Nobody's singing their own songs. If you could create a platform where singers choose a song, and have the lyrics stream across the screen while they sing, you might be able to find some great new talent.
Pud - when I look at your site, I see a marketplace for video music lessons. A tonne of people would pay $1.99 to learn a Radiohead song on piano, or get that perfect 'wub wub' sound in Reason. There's similar stuff on YouTube, but it's low quality and unreliable, and discovery is hard. Create a marketplace and you'll attract the best of the best. Prerecorded video would be perfect at first, but you could happily exp…
With 400k users, you have the community to turn this into a Stack Overflow for musicians.
http://stackexchange.com/about
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/04/16.html [the idea]
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/09/15.html [v1.0]
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2011/01/24.html [traction]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stack_Exchange_Network
Also check out how Philip Greenspun's old photography community presents itself to advertisers:
Just like all those "indie game and app bundle" sites, but you source the goodies from your musical userbase. It could be anything, but enough to be of "value" for say 10 bucks, or $25, or $50 or whatever, i.e. 10 mp3s, 2 cds, 1 t-shirt, 25 stickers -- whatever, just start small and built it up in future bundle "events".
edit: and of course, you take a cut.
You could sell the site on http://flippa.com
Imagine: You have a growing successful website and you wonder what to do with it, would your answer be: I should sell it on flippa? I think this is a poor advice, especially in an entrepreneur community.
Given the huge size of fandalism, Phil would probably be better of hiring an investment banker or business broker to sell the it (not that it's his goal here)... Flippa's specialty is under $250K, once you start approaching 7-figures, the transaction gets more complex, the buyers get bigger, and it makes sense to have a professional involved.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Imagine: You have a growing successful website and you wonder what to do with it, would your answer be: I should sell it on flippa? I think this is a poor advice, especially in an entrepreneur community.
It may be poor advice but it is an option nevertheless. pud asked for what to do next and selling the site is a potential road to take. I'm disappointed that some people have down voted this to death. I am following the rules of the site. I feel bullied after expressing an opinion.
Maybe I have misused downvoting here. Can't downvoting be used to express disagreement instead of just reporting a misbehaviour?
Musicians typically don't have a lot of money, so I wouldn't introduce premium features. You do have a very niche market, so targeted advertising should work nicely. That said, you know your market best. Your question is a bit like asking us what kind of pants you should buy. How the heck should we know? If you've got a fat butt, go with cargo pants. You know best.
Disclaimer: this one's out there. Think stock market for music meets Kickstarter. As you mentioned, most musicians are strapped for cash. Most also have plans for bigger and better things, need new equipment, and want to get the word out about their music. Let each musician set a value on their musical worth (market cap). Let friends, family, and fans contribute to the musician for a percentage stake in that musician…
I hope that do you it, or if you don't, I hope someone steals your idea.
Disclaimer: this one's out there. Think stock market for music meets Kickstarter. As you mentioned, most musicians are strapped for cash. Most also have plans for bigger and better things, need new equipment, and want to get the word out about their music. Let each musician set a value on their musical worth (market cap). Let friends, family, and fans contribute to the musician for a percentage stake in that musician…
There's a pretty good recent scifi book about this sort of thing, called The Unincorporated Man. Basic premise was that everybody is partly owned by other people. Own 10% of someone's shares and you get 10% of their income. Everybody's ambition is to get hold of 51% of their own shares.
This is an example of something similar facilitated by a pro: http://www.gratefulweb.com/articles/first-otis-taylor-trance...