early.fans is an exciting new platform, which aims to help independent artists earn a living from their music by allowing music fans, like you and me, to invest in musicians, early in their careers, and then be rewarded from their future success - but more on that later.
Addressing Music lovers
Have you ever found a new underground band, rapper, or soul singer, who you just love? who you keep telling your friends about, who you buy tickets to see, who you followed when they had just a few hundred or thousand followers? You were certain they were going to be huge, and you really want to be there and support them in these early days, when hardly anyone else is listening.
How many of you can also relate to those artists becoming huge, with millions of followers, more expensive shows, and everyone around you being their biggest fan? We’ve all said it before “I knew them when they had 100 followers!” I was listening to her when she used to perform around the corner and at parties in my area”. Maybe you said it to friends, maybe you even said it to them, but don’t you wish you could prove it, don’t you wish you had more to show for your patronage?
Hold that thought.
Addressing Artists
Have you ever felt frustrated by how expensive music can be? Do you ever feel torn about staying independent and wish you could be secure enough such that you can just make & put out music all day and connect with your listeners? Do you wish you could appreciate and keep track of your biggest supporters, the ones who know all your lyrics, show up to all your shows, tell all their friends about you, and support you buy buying merch?
Well, this is where EF comes in.
At early.fans we help independent musicians make music for a living by helping fans make a living (and reputation) of supporting their music.
With us fans can turn their playlist into a portfolio, supporting their favourite artist in new ways, ways which they probably would like to do if they knew how etc (backing a single, backing a new project, collecting unique digital memorabilia). This means that as the artist succeeds the fans succeed too.
By allowing for better economics between fan and artist, we allow for more & better music, experiences, and equity amongst fans and musicians.
As it stands, smaller artists especially are unable to create music at the quality it needs to be, or even at all because they haven’t the finances. Fans spend £1000s of pounds a year on supporting their favourite artist, helping build the artist career and generating wealth, only to have nothing to show for it, in the end.
We’re helping artists get around that problem by incentivising fans to back their music in exchange for ownership and exclusive access to artist communities. This community-powered music model means that fans and artists form a union, paying value forward to each other.
This also is great for established artists who have label funding, as they can partner with EF to provide unique experiences and rewards through NFTs for their fans or allow their fans to own a piece of their music, cover art, or unreleased material.
We think what makes us special is our mission for fans and artists, not just one, and bridge the gap between web2 & web3. It's not about the tech, it's about what it can do for you.
How are we building this?
The short answer is with fans, with artists.
We didn’t just wake up and start saying this. At EF we have been speaking with independent artists day in and out, to understand their struggles, their stories, and what could be done to help them continue to keep doing the great things that they do and do it better. When we go to gigs and shows we speak to people we meet there, fans and musicians alike and try to understand what their needs are.
We have a talented team, who have worked for companies such as Google, Barclays, Net-a-porter, Immersive Labs
What problem are we solving?
The problem is multivariate, but the core issue is independent musicians struggling to make music, primarily due to a lack of resources. If you ask independent artists today, they will tell you that music is expensive. What’s surprising is that even talented artists struggle, even ones with strong communities around their music often struggle to monetise.
As such, many hit songs don’t get made, many great projects don't get finished. This puts pressure on independent artists to hastily sign to a label that might not have their best interests in mind. This means that artists feel like they have to trade creative control for money - but what’s the point of having the money to make music, when you can’t make the music that you want to make?
Besides that, a lot of fans today want to connect with the artists, to feel seen, to feel that they know and have a relationship with the artist on a personal level - that they’re part of the journey.
Musicians also understand that it’s important to have a relationship with fans outside of music and find that it’s hard to create and maintain that connection with their true supporters as time passes, and the artist grows.
We believe that without fans, there would be no music. Loyal fans are artists’ investors, marketers, and PR spokespersons, and thus contribute a lot to an artist's success. It’s about time that we have a music model which puts fans and artists together at the centre of all.
Where can you find us?