“Income from streaming simply isn’t enough to sustain most artists and that 99.9% them face a funding gap”: New app launched that could provide grassroots artists with a much-needed revenue stream

Depressed about the pittance that you make from streaming, and the vice-like grip that certain platforms have over musicians? Well, a new initiative has been launched that could provide artists with an alternative revenue stream via streaming.

It’s an app called Dune. The brainchild of a pair of Manchester-based music entrepreneurs Paul Bowe and Paul Knowles, essentially it allows fans to buy a ‘stake’ in their favourite artists, which then fluctuates in value depending on the amount their music streams.

So the artist gets paid, obviously. But what do the fans get out of it? Well, other than the satisfaction of supporting artists they admire, they get ‘exclusive’ benefits. Plus, of course, they can trade their stakes through the platform. Like the stock market, you might want to sell artist X if you feel they have hit a commercial peak. Or conversely, buy artist Y if they have suffered what you feel is an unwarranted critical backlash.

The other analogy is crowdfunding. Fans are now used to the concept of artists self-funding album projects. But this, it seems, is a step further, in which fans fund the artist’s entire career.

(Of course, you could argue that really it should be Spotify that is responsible for this, by increasing what they pay per stream so that musicians can actually make a decent living.)

In a statement, Paul Knowles said, “Dune acknowledges the fact that income from streaming simply isn’t enough to sustain most artists and that 99.9% of them face a funding gap. Data shows that only 0.1% of artists generate enough revenue from streaming to cover modest monthly outgoings.”

Knowles and Bowe insist that the system they have designed is AI-proof and that any attempt to game the platform won’t benefit the artist concerned. Interestingly, they also say that it could relieve some of the burden of constantly maintaining social media: “What we’ve tried to do with Dune is to remove the legwork from the artist. An artist has got four or five profiles they have to maintain, work with, and content it’s got to provide for. And it’s great for the fan, but it’s a lot of work the artist has to do."

"Our ethos is how can we make it easier for the artist? And the software that we’ve designed in the back end, is that user-friendly that you can do everything with the touch of a button.”

It all sounds very interesting. The Dune app will be launched fully in November this year. Ahead of that artists are encouraged to sign up early. For more information go to the Dune website at www.theduneapp.com.