Entries Tagged 'Press' ↓

In the last post where we reviewed SoundUnwound’s use for musicians, we said that it did not seem possible to create a new page for yourself, if you were not already in the SoundUnwound database.

We wrote about this concern to SoundUnwound and they came back to us saying you can actually create new pages. Here’s how to do it, right from the email they sent to us.

You can create a page for your own band. We’ve made SoundUnwound editable for any of our users: simply click the ‘Edit’ tab at the top of the screen
and then you can alter much of the information we already provide. If you can’t find your own band from a search, click on the ‘New Entry’ button at the bottom of the search results and add it from there.

We’d love for you to give it a whirl and let us know what you think

So there we go. I think musicians should really go create a page for themselves on SoundUnwound, and take control of the information on it. After all, it seems like a wikipedia for musicians!

We have released our widget as a Wordpress plugin. A sample is shown on the main page of this blog - just there on the right

The plugin has all the regular features from the widget

1. anonymous one time payments using PayPal or SMS
2. Login to support from your Karmafan account
3. List of fans who have most recently supported the blogger or artist

All you need to do is install the plugin in your wp-content/plugins folder and provide your email address or Karmafan username (if you are already registered) to get the Karmafan widget on your blog.

If you are a new user the plugin auto-magically signs you up and sends you your Karmafan password via email.

Of course the Ajax widget still works for blogger as it did earlier. All you have to do is add a site to your Karmafan account, copy some codes we give you into blogger under Settings -> Template -> Edit HTML section.

Karmafan was discussed on Radio Popolare in Milan today. Thanks to Michele Salvador (check out his paintings at www.michelesalvador.it) for letting us know. We want Karmafan to be accessible to everyone around the world, so it’s good to see that so many people like the idea.

We were mentioned in Jim Carroll’s column in the Ticket today:

Sounds like he really gets the idea:

Instant Karma for new bands

David Barton and Kulpreet Singh believe that every struggling new band out there needs a Karmafan or two.

That’s the name of the new service from the Dublin-based duo aimed at bands interested in seeing if Radiohead’s tip-jar approach to getting fans to pay for music might also work for them.

Karmafan’s free-to-use service allows people to make voluntary payments to bands if they like their music.

Fans can set up accounts with the service, top it up with a credit card or Paypal payment, and then spread the love among acts they like, provided the band in question are sporting a Karmafan button on their website, MySpace or blog.

Barton and Singh won’t take a cent from these micro-payments, believing that the idea of tips also applies to them.

“If an artist believes that Karmafan has helped them, then they can give something back.”

More information from www.karmafan.com

Karmafan was mentioned in today’s Irish Daily Mail.

“MUSICAL KARMA
Radiohead let their fans choose what to pay for their latest album. But can any artist do the same? Dublin-based website Karmafan has now made it easy for fans to give something back. Musicians can accept voluntary payments even by text message, and what’s more — it’s free to use. Find out more at www.karmafan.com”

Karmafan was mentioned in the Irish Mail on Sunday in their review of In Rainbows - the idea of karma really took hold and was repeated throughout the piece, from the headline:

“Thom leaves good karma up to you…”

through to “Radiohead are trusting in karma”.

The reference to Karmafan was a good summary of the idea in a few lines:

“Irish site Karmafan.com may help. Artists can submit work to the site and fans can pay a stipend or one-off fee in admiration and patronage of the work”

It’s not exactly how Karmafan works, but it’s close enough and they did understand that it’s all about patronage.