BuskerLabel

Crowdfunding for music releases.

BuskerLabel is a crowdfunding platform to finance and distribute free music under Creative Commons license. BuskerLabel innovates the music business focusing on the excitement during the period preceding an album's release. Once tracks are out, nobody can stop the digital media from being copied and shared, but before the release date getting access to music is a privilege of great value. As most of the major labels complain, releasing music in digital form is a critical moment since it starts a huge wave of downloading and sharing activity. Licensing under Creative Commons allows music lovers to share tracks legally, while giving money to get early access to music gives them the status of co-producers and satisfies their curiosity. BuskerLabel blends these two factors aiming to turn former copyright violators—so called 'pirates'—into True Fans. The model goes beyond simple donations for music that is already available for free; it also excludes the launch of project funding before going in the recording studio. Music lovers visiting BuskerLabel listen to promo tracks and then, acting as talent scouts, satisfy their curiosity by paying a few Koins to get early access to the new album in its entirety. The Koin is the currency internal to BuskerLabel with a value of 1 Euro each, and can be purchased conveniently using PayPal or a credit card. BuskerLabel passes on to the artists 80% of the collected money right after the release date! Any artist is now able to quickly get money from their True Fans, with the simple action of uploading tracks, choosing a release date, and starting the collecting phase. Listening to the freely available promo tracks, fans choose if it is worth to pay one or more Koins, and if they do, they can immediately play back the entire album, and recommend it to friends through their usual social networks. After the chosen date, the album is released under a Creative Commons license allowing all Internet users to freely download and share tracks for personal use. Creative Commons licenses allow to maximize the legal music diffusion by bringing more and more fans to the artist for subsequent releases and, most importantly, for live tours that depend mostly on the “brand awareness” of the artist's name.