Think stock market for music meets Kickstarter. As you mentioned, most musicians are strapped for cash. Most also have plans for bigger and better things, need new equipment, and want to get the word out about their music.
Let each musician set a value on their musical worth (market cap). Let friends, family, and fans contribute to the musician for a percentage stake in that musician's future/company. You take a cut of the money contributed sort of like a brokerage/transaction fee. They own a share of that musician. If I own 10 percent of John Doe and John gets a record deal for 1M, then I earn $100,000. Sure most people never make it, but it could be a fun way to spice up interest in a musician and help out at the same time. Plus the added bonus if that person really does make it big.
I have thought about this one for awhile but don't have the technical expertise to put it together yet. I might end up kicking myself for putting it out there, but if it worked, it could be really cool. Good luck.
I don't think this is at all out there. As a matter of fact, I'm working on something similar, but for a different vertical (which is why I don't think it's out there). Are you familiar with any other equity or revenue-futures markets of this nature? CrowdCube in the UK is the only thing that I've been able to come up with. Slated out of LA is similar, but it's not a real market, just an introduction and tracking service, like AngelList.
I had not previously checked out CrowdCube or Slated but these do seem to be promising models that could certainly be replicated in other realms. If you feel like chatting more, I'd love to hear more about what you have in the works and would be glad to share some more ideas in private. Feel free to shoot me an email.
I think that Mr. Pud is in a great position to do something like this. It requires intricate, thorough exploration and thought and likely a lot of legal help, but it's interesting how often I hear an indie musician and think, "God if I could buy stock in that musician, because he/she's going to the top..." and sometimes they do.
That would've been totally illegal except that the JOBS Act just passed into law. Now...maybe.
There's a pretty good recent scifi book about this sort of thing, called The Unincorporated Man. Basic premise was that everybody is partly owned by other people. Own 10% of someone's shares and you get 10% of their income. Everybody's ambition is to get hold of 51% of their own shares.
Think stock market for music meets Kickstarter. As you mentioned, most musicians are strapped for cash. Most also have plans for bigger and better things, need new equipment, and want to get the word out about their music.
Let each musician set a value on their musical worth (market cap). Let friends, family, and fans contribute to the musician for a percentage stake in that musician's future/company. You take a cut of the money contributed sort of like a brokerage/transaction fee. They own a share of that musician. If I own 10 percent of John Doe and John gets a record deal for 1M, then I earn $100,000. Sure most people never make it, but it could be a fun way to spice up interest in a musician and help out at the same time. Plus the added bonus if that person really does make it big.
I have thought about this one for awhile but don't have the technical expertise to put it together yet. I might end up kicking myself for putting it out there, but if it worked, it could be really cool. Good luck.