Quick Pitch: FanTrail is an app that allows fans to connect with their favorite artists, reaping rewards for their devotion and interaction. Artists, in turn, can easily reach fans and create stronger ties with their following.
Genius Idea: So you’ve got fans? Rad. You’re already one step above that dude in his basement, uploading sad, sad GarageBand-fashioned songs to BandCamp, where they will never be heard by anyone but his mother. Now, the question becomes: How do you leverage said fans? How do you reach out to them in a way that’s not spammy, annoying or irrelevant? Startup FanTrail thinks that it has the answer.
FanTrail, which launched this month in preparation for SXSW, was founded by Joshua McClure, who used to work for an iOS development firm and built apps for bands, and Joel Rasmussen, who produced and co-wrote the documentary Before the Music Dies (a film about the ills of the music industry). The two decided to merge their expertises and create an app that would be helpful to musicians and fans alike.
Enter FanTrail. The service is basically a method by which artists can easily create an iPhone app (Android is on the way) for their fans — for free. Every app has the same elements, which let fans garner rewards for their devotion.
Artists simply sign up for the service via the website (provided they have an Apple ID), after which it creates an app that is placed in the App Store. In the app, artists are outfitted with a dashboard that they can use to post news and events, update Twitter, Facebook, etc. all at once, push announcements, see where fans are located on a map using geolocation and send personally recorded messages to followers. Right now, one must do all of this within the app, as there will be no web version until the next iteration of the service.
Artists can also earn revenue through the app. When fans buy music using FanTrail, artists receive their usual royalties, and even additional cash from the service itself via what’s called Artist Incentives. All artists receive a FanTrail Score, which is tabulated based on how many fans have downloaded the app and those fans’ average LoveScore (which is basically a loyalty score). That score determines how much money FanTrail will pay the artist out of its total profits.
FanTrail makes money via co-marketing agreements, sponsorship and mobile payment fees.
Fans, in turn, can reap benefits from their LoveScore, which grows every time they check in at a show, buy music through iTunes and Amazon, and send artists cash through a feature called “LovePay” (said cash can be used for any charity the artist chooses). Every action that offers an artist support garners the fan “Love” on a “LoveMeter” featured within the app. That way, artists can see which fans are most loyal and reward them via recorded messages or any other offer they may choose.
The FanTrail team especially highlights the app’s “Love Mail” feature, which allows artists to record messages and send them to all of their fans, fans chosen by location, or one, special fan.
To leverage its platform, Fan Trail is launching a contest called the Sweetwater Indie Cup at SXSW for all showcase artists. Each band is encouraged to build a FanTrail app, and the artist that gets the most fans will score $40,000 worth of recording equipment and recording time at Sweetwater Studios in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Artists like Erykah Badu and The Roots already have apps via FanTrail, and the team says they’ve seen more than 500 signups this month.
Granted, this isn’t the only platform for artist app creation out there — Mobile Roadie has been around for a while, and there are a ton of startups like Flowd and Mobile Backstage cropping up overseas to offer artists an easy way to connect with fans.
Moreover, the you-scratch-my-back, etc., etc., trend among artists and fans is seriously on the rise, what with crowdfunded record labels, crowdsourced A&R sites and services that let fans make album decisions launching every day.
The concept of letting fans — Super Fans, really — take the reins seems to be extremely popular of late. It just remains to be seen if those fans will actually take the initiative to pick up where the music industry left/is leaving off.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Bliz
No comments:
Post a Comment