June 8, 2010 WebCeleb Thinks Fans Should be Paid to Listen to Music They Like
WebCeleb is a social music marketplace with a great business model for music fans.
If you’re a musician…not so much.
For every song purchased on WebCeleb, 50% of the money goes to the artist, 10% to the company, and 40% is split equally among the fans that bought that song.
According to WebCeleb’s promotional video, musicians should be super excited because “For the first time (they) can give back to (their) fans thanking them for their support.”
Wow! Finally! As a musician it’s been so frustrating to suffer through all these years of giving nothing back to fans. Nothing, except of course MUSIC THAT THEY ENJOY LISTENING TO!
Is this what we’ve come to? Music has been de-valued to the point where musicians should engage in profit sharing with their fans? Really!? The WebCeleb business model actually suggests that music is worth less than nothing to the consumer. You need to PAY PEOPLE TO LISTEN TO IT?!
Personally, I’d rather give songs away for free, or even have people download them illegally than pay fans to check out my music.
As if this wasn’t reason enough for musicians to be pissed off, WebCeleb is also hosting a Best of Local Music Showcase, in which fans purchase tickets for the showcase on the site, and the artists that sell the most tickets will get to perform. Folks who bought tickets for artists who don’t make the cut get reimbursed, and of course the fans get 40% of the ticket sales.
Playing for an audience that was essentially paid to be there sounds pretty weird and awful, unless you’re the type of artist who likes to berate fans. If that’s the case, now you can finally yell, “Shut the hell up and listen! We paid you good money to be here!”
I’m not delusional. I didn’t become a musician to rake in the cash. Even if I’m not making a dime, I’m still gonna make music. It’s something that I love to do. That doesn’t mean I want to give people who dig my music a cut of whatever money it brings me. That’s just stupid.
Do authors give part of their publishing royalties to people who read their books? Do artists dole out cash so someone will hang their work on the wall? Would an architect cut a check to see his building get made? No, no and no. Why on earth should a musician split the money they get selling their music with their fans?
If we have reached a point where this is something fans, start-up companies, and (God help us) MUSICIANS, think is okay, it’s time to seriously re-evaluate what music means to our society.
Reader Comments (4)
Hear, hear!
I've read propositions of this kind a while back (possibly even on this site) and laughed heartily. I see that someone's actually gone and done it. Good job, WebCeleb!
We should've seen it coming: apparently the musician owes the whole world a living. There was always some a-hole who claimed that the artist should be screwed over, because that way they can make the music they love. Now we're striving to populate the entire market with a-holes - the folks formerly known as fans.
My suggestion to all musicians out there is to give WebCeleb the finger and encourage their music making friends to do the same.
The cheek of 'em!
I wanted to address a few bits of misinformation.
* No-one is paid to listen to music. We strongly believe all music should be free to listen to and enjoy. We want artists everywhere to be able to communicate their message to the masses. However, when people decide they want to download music and add it to their mobile lifestyle, we believe there should still be a cost. And it's those people Webceleb rewards. The people who make money are the artists, and the fans who actually purchase music.
* Webceleb rewards fans for purchasing music. We strongly believe that musicians can build vested marketing teams comprised of new and existing fans. Every fan to purchase something receives "Slices." They are rewarded for legally downloading music and supporting their favorite independent artists.
* Additionally, we're noticing that fans are then spending their earnings within the Webceleb ecosystem. We're literally trying to build an economy centered around music, marketing, and discovery. So far, it's working and people are continuing to spend their earnings, which actually helps artists sell more music.
* Phillaf is 100% correct. That's exactly why we designed our system. We believe fans are a musicians hard earned lifeline and this reward is simply another way to thank them for helping spread the word.
* For our Events feature, rather than paying people to attend, fans receive cash back when they buy tickets to see their favorite artists perform on stage.
* Here's why we developed Events. We want to remove the booking hassle that musicians experience. Venues everywhere want to support local music. They simply don't know how. They're finding it increasingly difficult to promote local artists. That's where Webceleb steps in. We believe every artist with a fan base deserves the right to take the stage. And if that's the case, why not let their fans decide? Musicians get booked through fan support. No more having to pitch the venue, await a phone call, and constantly send follow up emails with EPKs, etc. We will be in Austin, LA, Vegas, OK City, San Diego, (and 15 other cities that I don't want to give away just yet in the next couple months).
-Scott
www.webceleb.com
"Venues everywhere want to support local music. They simply don't know how."
It appears you're creating solutions for problems that don't exist...
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