Resonate is a really cool co-op and they could really use some volunteers & users.

I've been looking for a more ethical music streaming service since I discovered Spotify and other streaming platforms are terrible for small artists. Only the top 3% of artists make $1000/yr and only the top 1% make more than $5000/yr. You'd have to be in the top 0.2% to actually earn a living of $50,000/yr on Spotify.

Resonate is the only platform I've found that's doing something radically different. They have a stream to own model in which listeners pay artists directly about 1/4 of one cent for their first stream then the price increases exponentially with each stream until the 9th stream at which point the listener has paid ~$1.50usd. At that point the user can download the song for offline listening and never has to pay to stream that song again.

Perhaps the coolest part is they are a co-op, 45% of governance weight is reserved for artist shares, 35% for listener shares, and only 20% for staff.

Resonate is a small project that could use all the help it can get. If anyone knows of any other cool music platforms, I'd love to know about them, too!

https://github.com/resonatecoop/stream

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[–] Cloak@lemmy.ml 6 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (2 children)

Yes! I think for me it is better than bandcamp, the perfect combination between streaming and ownership. I joined the coop, (5$ membership + some shares). I hope extra funding can help them market themselves and get their service on the streaming service lists that publishers/indie artists use to launch the album on many platforms, because at the moment there is not much of my style of music.

I have conflicting feelings though, I like the spotlight on indie, but I am not sure how well it will work for the platform's growth to only have artists no one has heard of. I think ideally we have an indie only section and then the hybrid section with a bit of everything

Edit: Bandcamp is closed source!

[–] Jeffrey@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 years ago (1 children)

If you're interested in helping get more content onto Resonate consider joining the upload crew, and you can reach out to artists directly to encourage / help them put their music on Resonate. Most artists I've met love to hear from their fans, and are eager to share their music pretty much anywhere if they know someone is listening there.

Right now resonate is in the middle of a full-stack rebuild. It is currently pretty labor intensive for new music to be added to the platform (about 10 min per track/album) and uploading is done entirely by volunteers. When Resonate's new platform is rolled out it is supposed to be significantly easier and faster to add new content.

Resonate is open to hosting music from big labels, but it is uncertain if labels will be interested in working with Resonate. Hypothetically, even if a big label wanted their music on Resonate right now the co-op is limited by its IT stack; it would take tens of thousands of volunteer hours to get all that music uploaded with the current workflow. My understanding is that once the full-stack rebuild is complete then the focus will shift to growth. In the meantime growth is still good especially if new listeners contribute funds and choose to volunteer!

[–] Cloak@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 years ago

Thank you Jeffrey, I will look into the upload crew!

[–] pereputty@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 years ago

The ownership part sounds exciting to me as well, this is the first time I've heard about a coop. You also raise a valid point about it being open source. I just don't really see it becoming as popular as bandcamp or Spotify, since for a regular consumer (who doesn't like to hop platforms) I don't think the features could be warranting a switch. I'll definitely will keep an eye on this project though, I hope it takes off!