F*CK SOUNDCLOUD. Just kidding, this isn’t one of those.
The online BitCoin gifting company ChangeTip has recently added its services to the popular streaming site, granting users the ability to transfer small sums of money to each other in the form of “tips”. Whether it’s compensation for a new track, live events, or promotion for their social channels, fans and listeners can now show their support in a completely new way.
It’s easier than ever to support local talent, instantly delivering your donations into their account. Tweet a beer to the artist at a live event, send money direct to the artist’s tip.me page, deliver private messages on Facebook, or comment on their SoundCloud song.
For the time being, the service has refrained from taking a cut of the transactions. While neither ChangeTip nor Soundcloud are earning revenue from their partnership, they are accumulating another form of currency that may prove lucrative down the line. Because ChangeTip has started to integrate itself onto many popular websites and social networking platforms, it’s very likely that the general spending trends and activity of its users will be monitored. This information can then be stored for later use, a.k.a. when ChangeTip decides that they’d like their net worth to be more than $60,000. By selling this information to outside organizations, ChangeTip will effectively save the business that, at this point, seems to be failing in its mission to make a profit.
Until then, small artists will now have the potential to earn a few cents here and there from generous listeners. This partnership has left us wondering, though: if artists are looking to make a modest revenue from the release of their music (without having their online information stored for later use by scary organizations), why not just use Bandcamp instead?
Source/Photo: NewsBTC
