Flattr Enables Social Micropayments For All Content On The Web
Flattr is a new Swedish service enabling easy microtransactions, or social donations, for the whole web. Flattr wants to make it easy for people to share money in addition to content on the web, and thus allow content producers to get income on their work. The service is currently in closed beta, but I got an account to take a closer look.
In practice, every Flattr member needs to pay at least 2 euros per month (you can up to 5/10/20 as well). Then, during each month, you discover content on the web that you really like, be it text, audio, video, or something else, and you want to "flatter" the creator. You then click a small button the content creator has placed on her site. After each month is over, your monthly allowance (e.g., 2 euros) is divided evenly to all of the content creators whose work you have "flattred" during the month. Flattr itself takes 10% cut initially.
Social Music Marketplace gogoyoko Launches in Scandinavia
Icelandic social music marketplace" gogoyoko has expanded their open Beta to cover the whole of Scandinavia. The service now works in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Faroe Islands and Greenland. gogoyoko's tagline is bringing "Fair Play" back into the music business - through the service music fans can purchase music directly from the artists and labels. gogoyoko's service consists of a music store, a social network, and free streaming music player.
http://go.gogoyoko.com/?p=767
For artists and other music right holders gogoyoko offers a platform for creating their online destination and managing the sale, promotion, and distribution of their music. Through the service music fans can interact directly with the artists and purchase music from gogoyoko's music store without middlemen. Artists have full control over the pricing of their music, and get 100% of the profits. Users can access their music collection online or download it to any portable device - there is no DRM used.
gogoyoko also features a free streaming functionality, supported by advertising. Artists get a share of the advertisement revenues based on the streaming of their music. It is possible to use the streaming player also on other web sites.
The social networking features are aimed to encourage the interaction of artists, record labels, music professionals and music fans. All basic SNS features are supported from profiles and status updates to follow functionality. gogoyoko also plans to introduce more features later this year, like interactive music magazine and a worldwide music map providing concert listings and easy access to music and profiles.
I like the look and feel of the service a lot. The attitude is there as well - one cannot help smiling when receiving the account registration email greeting you "Welcome to gogoyoko, Your account creation was a huge success." The site functions pretty well (there are some quite minor layout issues to polish here and there), and streaming seems fast and smooth. For purchasing songs you first need to buy "store credits" between 2 and 100 euros with a credit card (for keeping the transaction costs in control, I presume).
It is of course impossible to avoid comparison with Spotify. However, the big difference is that gogoyoko is targeted as more a grass-roots platform and medium for connecting directly artists and fans. Its focus is in supporting artist self publishing in good and bad - it might become a very good channel outside the record label driven model, though it also forces artists to be responsible for self marketing their music.
Despite the steaming functionality, gogoyoko offers the pay-per-download model for taking the music with you on a portable device. It is interesting to see what happens to that model going forward. Spotify's offline streaming functionality is a big benefit and allows you to enjoy a whole bigger range of music on the go. On the other hand, the pay-per-download model does also provide good way of directly supporting artists you like.
However, I still believe there should be a feature like Richard Stallman's
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman
old idea (in one of his essays) of a easily available "donate" button, which would allow you to send amount of your choice to the artist whose work you are listening. More and more now as digital content can be easily copied with practically no distribution cost, why depend on the old pay-for-download model when it is very much one-off transaction that is also limited to a nominal fixed fee. As a fan, why not send the artist some love each time when you are on a great mood and enjoy a particular song? That would provide artists also much better recurring return on their creativity over time.
Icelandic social music marketplace gogoyoko has expanded their open Beta to cover the whole of Scandinavia. The service now works in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Faroe Islands and Greenland. gogoyoko's tagline is bringing "Fair Play" back into the music business - through the service music fans can purchase music directly from the artists and labels. gogoyoko's service consists of a music store, a social network, and free streaming music player.
