What is Karmafan?
Karmafan is a way for artists to gather support in the form of voluntary payments from their fans.
What is an "artist"?
An artist is anyone who creates something for others to enjoy. This includes music, art, software, writing.
What is a "fan"?
A fan is anyone who enjoys the work of an artist.
How can artists use Karmafan?
Distribute your work in whatever way you like - free downloads, concerts, online streaming video, a blog. Put a Karmafan widget or link on your website asking anyone who likes your creations to support you. See the small amounts from your fans add up, leaving you free to create.
How can fans use Karmafan?
Register, top up your Karmafan account, and show your appreciation for artists you like. Whenever you give cash to an artist, you boost their rankings on Karmafan and give them the peace of mind to create more of what you like.
How much can I give?
As little as you like - one cent - or as much as you like, as often as you like.
What does it cost?
Karmafan is FREE.
What does Karmafan get out of this?
Artists can voluntarily give Karmafan a percentage of the money they have raised. It can be as low as 0%. We're going to try and exist in the same way that we believe is possible for artists.
No fees?
The only fees are the ones charged by PayPal or by mobile phone operators for the top-up. This means that when you top up your account by $10, they might take 59 cents. But you'll see the full $10 in your account. This fee is deducted from the artist when we send them the support they've collected from lots of fans.
Why not just send the money straight to the artist?
This way you can give smaller amounts more often. So if you find you're really enjoying a song or a blog post you can send 10 cents quickly and easily from the widget on the artist's own page with no need to go to another site or log into PayPal.
What do fans get out of it?
Good Karma. They also show their appreciation and support the future work of artists they like.
Is that all fans get out of it?
• You get a Karmafan badge which shows the artists you have supported. The image updates as you support so it reflects the artists you like in real-time. You can use this on your blog, MySpace page, forum posts - anywhere you can put HTML.
• When you support an artist your Karmafan user name appears immediately on the list of fans embedded in the widget.
• You can send a short message with your support, which the artist will see when they check their account.
• We also track how much each artist is collecting so we can really measure their popularity, which means you can find sensational new work as the artist gains new fans.
Why is Karmafan necessary?
It's easy for artists to distribute their work online. Sometimes it's even easier for their work to distibute itself online without their control. But there's no simple mechanism - which doesn't depend on purchasing a product - for artists to collect money from fans, or for fans to support the future work of artists. Karmafan creates a direct connection between artists and fans which is based on pure enjoyment of the work of the artist.