Flattr Expands Options For Fan Support Via Twitter, Soundcloud, Instragram & More
Flattr, a unique micropayments system that rewards musicians and other creators, has expanded its offering to include direct fan-to-creator payments from within Soundcloud, Twitter, Instagram and other popular sites and services. Flatrr works on official, mobile and third party clients.
After sign-up and funding an account (small or large), Flattr tracks fan activity across supported sites and divides the budget into equal parts based on the
number of clicks (Likes, favorites and stars) throughout the month. The company says they'll be adding more soon, but as of today, Flattr can connect to:
- Instagram
- Soundcloud
- Github
- Flickr
- Vimeo
- 500px
- App.net
How Musicians Can Get Invloved
To participate, artists need to sign up and connect their Twitter, Soundcloud and other accounts with Flattr. On the 10th of the following month, 90% of the money is sent to the
creators based on activity.
Until artists sign up, flattrs given to them are unclaimed and
not taken from a supporters "budget" until the month the artist signs up and claims their
account. Here is a list of unclaimed Flatrr funds via Soundcloud.
"With
this expansion, supporting creators now becomes a natural part of being
online," Martin Thörnkvist co-founder of Flatter told Hypebot. "Just as Kickstarter revolutionized the way we pay creators before
something is created, we’ve now made it easy and natural to support and
back someone after and because of what they’ve already created – right
when it’s being consumed."
Micropayments, no matter how ubiquitous and easy to use, are unlikely to "save" the music industry or even fully support a single artist. But Flattr's approach is creative, and one can imagine it becoming a real revenue stream for those artists who are most actively sharing their music and the rest of their lives with fans.
