August 13, 2007

Strayform Tries New Indie Music Model

Michael Arrington

16 comments »

Strayform is a Texas startup that, like SellaBand and the recently funded Amie Street, is giving unsigned artists a way to promote and sell their music.

Like SellaBand, artists sign up, upload some of their music and then create proposals for new music they want to create. Fans can listen to and download the music (DRM free), and donate directly to proposals they like. The proposals are all different. One artist, for example, says he will mention the name of person who pledges the most in the song itself.

The service is more like SellaBand than Amie Street. SellaBand also lets artists upload music and takes donations. If donations get to $50k, as they have for several artists already, The artist gets a contract with a label. Amie Street, by contrast, simply lets artists sell their music on the site. Downloads starts at free and the price increases steadily as more downloads occur.

Strayform has had little press, but, inexplicably were covered by Fox News in a 3 minute segment. The video is available on their home page. I like the service, but the site sure could use a redesign.

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Trackbacks/Pings (Trackback URL)

  1. Artists Funded by Fans at Strayform.com - InsidePunk
  2. Our Techno Lyrics » Blog Archive » Amazon Helping To Change The Business Of Music

Comments

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  1. Colin Klinkert

    I Really Like Sites like this and this concept. I think I might register a good domain name and wait until I have the time and finances to set something along these lines up!

  2. Zach

    Can’t you guys afford a copy editor by now? I see more mistakes on TechCrunch than almost any other blog I read.

  3. Colin Klinkert

    Well, I did it :D

    Registered these two domains at $70 a pop:

    MASHUPS.FM

    This one is for songs that mix 2 or more songs together (not sure legal implications)

    NEWTALENT.FM

    This one is for New Bands, targeted at trend setters who want to hear new music first and vote on what is hot and what is not.

  4. Jimmy Huen

    I also love a market driven model that let the market settles the ultimate value of something. There are some similarities to these models and my own, and I have briefly blog about it a few months ago.

    http://founderscafe.com/2007/0.....ilarities/

  5. Ally macbeal

    when your done destroying this sitend these people the somethnig thye problaby everything they got into, then we will site down with you and your people for coffee

  6. Browse

    Why did this appear below the diettv one? Some quirky time glitch?

  7. troy

    Well, this sites are just popping up, just like http://www.nomajors.com which opened its doors (very) silently a few months ago (i heard about it through some friends).

  8. Joe T.

    How can Sellaband guarantee artists a contract with a label just by raising $50K in donations? Do they have a deal with a label somewhere whereby a contract is guaranteed to any band that can raise $50K, sight unseen? Or, in essence, are they paying off the labels?

    If so, this is not payola, but you could call it a kind of “pre-payola”. Instead of paying DJs to play certain bands, are they paying labels to sign them?

  9. Magnus

    Joe T., Sellaband *is* the label.

  10. Magnus

    Sorry, Joe, I noticed that the mistake was Michael’s, not yours.

  11. David8

    Ths article in your headline should be “an” and not “a.” In other words: Strayform Tries AN Indie New Music Model.

  12. Brandt

    Thank you TechCrunch for the coverage, but the model is a little different than described.

    The system is not one for donations. Its like you and some friends pitching together to buy a $10 CD. Each person may put in a different amount, some may put in none at all, but if the $10 is reached the CD can be purchased.

    Since the creator has been paid up front, piracy is no longer an issue. So we allow it to be distributed openly under a Creative Commons license, maximizing artist name recognition and minimizing distribution costs.

    Additionally, since payments are made at the time of creation consumers have a chance to be a part of the process; watch the work grow, influence its design.

    This proposal is a good example: http://www.strayform.com/Propo.....tml?id=10. You can see progress until completion and you can see the final product was dramatically influenced by the pledger (in this case me).

    Also the system is not strictly for music. Any digital creator can get involved, music, movies, paintings, texts, games, software. Eliminate DRM and the model can work across the board.

    I am always being told that the front page is ugly; I am a big believer in substance over style. But if Michael Arrington says its so I guess I better do something about it.

  13. Shot Or Not Chairman: Rich Martin

    Hey guys I might know of another site much like those mentioned only a little sexier perhaps! {Watch out here we come!}

  14. Shot Or Not Chairman: Rich Martin

    It’s all in a name…