reKiosk Allows Tastemakers To Cash In On Music Recommendations

Incentivizing fans with offers to spread the word about their
favorite artist is good way to drive and track engagements, but what about
those looking to spread the word about just good content? Should they be
incentivized as well? The founders of reKiosk seem to think so, and have
created a way for independent artists to distribute their work while crediting (and
awarding) those who have helped them raise the awareness.

reKiosk is an interesting concept of selling music directly to
fans, but more focus is placed on having them sell for you. The Brooklyn-based company has essentially created a
curator-driven marketplace that delivers the majority of any sale to the
content’s creator and the curator. The idea is that bloggers, influencers and
tastemakers can direct people to his or her reKisok store rather than iTunes, where
they can receive 25% of any sale. reKiosk takes 5%, while the content creator gets
the remaining 70%.

“reKiosk is a website, built from the ground-up, for people who
love independent media,” reKiosk’s CEO Aziz Isham told Hypebot. “We provide a
sleek and easy system for digital sales, and allow other people to act as your
distributor – receiving a share of your sales in exchange for selling and
promoting your media. Bloggers, publishers, major labels and independent
musicians all exist on the same platform, governed by the same set of rules.
reKiosk is like a thousand small, indie record shops under one giant digital
tent.”

reKiosk uses Dwolla to process payments (rather than PayPal) and
administers them once a month to avoid fees related to per-song micropayments.
The company works with independent publishers in both music and literature has
plans of offering a freemium model for power users to list more items. The
company, still in beta, will take down its registration wall later this month.

“We believe in curated
search — and in trying to recapture the feel of the corner record stores that
have, unfortunately, been victim to e-commerce and big box stores,” Isham added.
“To that end, music on reKiosk is discovered by checking out lots of small,
independent, digital kiosks — each one curated by a person, not an algorithm.”  

Early feedback for
reKiosk has been said to be positive, having been called "an amazingly
powerful tool for the 21st century music industry” by Pledge Music CEO Benji
Rogers and "the biggest thing in retail since Jeff Bezos left Wall Street
for Seattle” by OR Books publisher Colin Robertson.

It’s tough to gauge
how receptive musicians would be to a service like this though, and it really depends
on what their primary goals are –
driving awareness, or earning money from recorded music sales. Obviously both can
be achieved with reKiosk, but this product is seemingly a bigger win for
tastemakers and influencers rather than musicians. 70% is a fair cut
considering the layers at work here, but the experience could be nothing more than disposable
transaction for the artist.

We will follow up with
reKiosk again later down the road once they are out of beta and get a sense of just
how influential they’ve been to the bottom line and awareness levels of
musicians.

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