Feedbands is an online music streaming and subscription service that is enabling unsigned artists to distribute and sell their songs and merchandise for Dash, in addition to fiat.
The internet age has brought a mixed bag for independent artists and bands since they are now able to get wider exposure, but also get smaller revenue splits because of digital and streaming services. However, Feedbands is attempting to change that scenario with cryptocurrency and two major revenue structures. First, Feedbands allows artists to upload their music and merchandise onto their website, which can then be bought by listeners with Dash. Since the use of Dash eliminates the need for payment processors, artists and bands can keep up to 99.99% of the revenue. Second, Feedbands offers a subscription service, in fiat, where users pay a monthly fee to vote on their favorite artists/bands. Then at the end of each month, Feedbands sends subscribers, depending on their subscription level, either a vinyl, a t-shirt, or a digital album of the artist/band that got the most amount of votes that month.
The voting enables subscribers to be apart of the curation service that results in the product that they eventually receive, while still discovering new artists/bands. Voting is also continuous and not a strict competition. On their website, Feedbands specifies that they do not pit bands against each other because “[s]ometimes, we go back and offer to press artists who submitted their music a year ago, just because it finally got enough votes to get pressed.” In addition, Feedbands gets the debut album release, but the copyright control remains with the artists/bands.
Graham Langdon, founder and CEO of Feedbands, told Dash Force News that he started Feedbands “in 2012 because I thought all the music on the radio was horrible and the independent music I would hear in coffee shops and on the streets was way better.” So far Feedbands has released nearly 60 pressed vinyls, one each month, and has around 10,000 active listeners and 4,000 active artists on their site. An independent video review of Feedbands embedded on their site discussed the high quality of the vinyls that subscribers receive with the added knowledge that the artists are keeping a significant portion of the proceeds and called it “a no-brainer” in their recommendation to buy.
Dash and Feedbands are in a mutualistic relationship
Langdon told Dash Force News that there are “many similarities between Dash and Feedbands”, since “you can think of each artists’ music as a ‘proposal’, and our subscribers as ‘masternodes’ who vote, and the artist who gets the most votes each month gets their vinyl record created.” In addition, most parts of the project have been funded through Dash proposals.
Feedbands and Dash recently got some large exposure at SXSW; the large film, media, and music festival in Austin, Texas. The company conducted “Feedbands Dashfest”, which was completely powered by Dash.
“To get in, people needed to have a Dash wallet and get it loaded with Dash. Once inside, they could purchase beer, wine and tacos all for 25 cents. There was a line out the door and around the block for three days straight. We signed up approximately 2000 people with dash wallets who then proceeded to transact in Dash all day long.”
If Langdon’s words were not visual enough, numerous pictures of the event were posted to Twitter.
Graham Langdon has been enjoying the whole journey of using Dash to not only help artists get more exposure, help them get more money for their products, and give consumers better variety, but to also be apart of the Dash community.
“It is so exciting to be involved in Dash. A lot of cryptocurrency projects have impressive whitepapers and lots of promises, but Dash is really making a difference in the lives of people around the world on a daily basis. When I look at what they’re doing in Venezuela, and Africa and for musicians, I could not be more proud to be a part of this project.”
Dash is making a difference in people’s lives
As Langdon mentioned, Dash is having a beneficial impact on people’s lives. Venezuelans that suffer from massive inflation have been able to seek financial and monetary refuge in Dash. Dash has been helping set up micro-economies for entrepreneurs to sell their goods and services in Dash along with storing their wealth in Dash. In Africa, many individuals are bank-less leaving them to store their wealth in ineffective, inefficient, or unsafe ways, but Dash has been providing a better alternative in Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, and other countries.
Dash has been spreading very quickly due to its consistently low transaction fees and confirmation times along with its unique governance and treasury system. The unique structure of Dash allows for localized, coordinated, and decentralized outreach and communication campaigns to spread knowledge of Dash, which lowers the switching costs for individuals that do not have the time nor resources to dedicate towards learning about Dash. All these attributes plus other ones not mentioned here are significantly contributing to the rapid adoption of Dash. Dash enables creative solutions to real world problems, such as the solution that Feedbands developed.
