Signups from international artists meant we had to go international & open all doors. Which also means subscribers can now enjoy music, movies, & books from artists anywhere around the world!
UI Changed!
We’ve tweaked & rearranged & redesigned our website! Making it all the more easier for you to know exactly what we’re doing & how we plan to do it!
Artists acquired!
There’s nothing more inspiring that artists coming forward to support us & let us know that they believe in us!
We have onboard:
Will Sid Smith - A 17 year old singer/songwriter from UK!
Head over to our “Moshlist” a.k.a Artist feature page from more info & links on these amazing artists! You’re also welcome to comment & rate these artists!
If you are an artist (be it a musician, a filmmaker, or a writer) in this digital age, then you’ve most definitely used services from Amazon, iTunes, Spotify, and Youtube to release your new work, reach out to fans, & earn your living. A lot of your success on these platforms depends on pure appeal. A slick cover image, an eyeball grabbing title, a good network of followers, & healthy reviews are basic.
The competiton too is stiff. You’re up against many who’re trying hard equally to garner more fans & make enough money. Now let’s talk about the pricing. Too high & the buyers think twice. Too low & the buyers think it’s cheap or of low quality.
To top it all, you also have to agree to forego 30%of your earnings to each service provider (Amazon, ITunes, etc) on every download/sale you can acheive. As for options for making side-money, you can forget about the ad profit sharingdream (youtube) unless your super popular to the power of 3. The streaming business is akin to taking all of your hard work & sharing it on the world-wide web for free. Read this interesting article on business insider if you don’t believe me.
Some additionalfans & give or take a few dollars is what you’ll end up with. Nothing gratifying & an effort, you’ll agree, was just not worth it. You might have come to quietly accept this reality that artists today cannot making a decent living.
This is why we’ve decided to stepped in.
“To help Independent artists get together, get paid, & get noticed - fair & square”
Presenting MOSHBAG!…
Moshbag is a platform for Independent artists to upload only their new, original, & unreleased work, on the go, as & when it’s ready (oven fresh). No waiting for an whole album release/publishing gigs/film festivals/movie screenings. The only catch is that you can upload just ONE new single, movie, or book per month.
This is to ensure quality (gives you time to release your best work each month) and quantity (subscribers cannot consume too many singles, movies, & books every month)
Visitors to our website (music addicts, movie buffs, & books lovers) will have the opportunity to preview all newly releasing music, movies, & books from various artists in a given month. Existing subscribers will have weekly sneak peeks. And if they wish they can download everything (all uploads, yes everything) at the end of that month for a $10 minimum subscription fee.
Moshbag distributes 90% of the entire subscription money collected to all artists who’ve released their work in the given month equally and keeps just 10% of it. Why equally? ‘Cause we beleive that this way the artist community can help itself. Popular artists with more followers can help other less known artists get a wider reach. How? By the power of collaborative campaigning!
Moshbag is the entire package where subscribers pay to download new releases from all artists collectively. In effect, the whole artists community is now one BIG TEAM blasting out new releases & reaching out to fans of one another. And truly, thewhole is greater than the sum of parts & we’re not kidding. An artist(s) who generally could gain about 1000 followers on his own can now join hands with other artists on Moshbag and garner more followers (subscribers) than he can ever imagine. This videowill help you better understand this.
More the number of subscribers, more the revenue & more money distributed per artist. To put it plainly, an artist can earn a lot more money on each new song/movie/book that he uploads on Moshbag than on any other platform that currently exists. Here’s an hypothetical case study to prove this.
That’s everything there is to Moshbag, our new venture, and your new ally.
We hope that, in the coming years, artists from all genres will viewMoshbag as their first go-to place to launch their new & upcoming releases.
We also hope music addicts, movie buffs, & book lovers from around the world discover great music, movies, & books from an eclectic blend of independent artists.
P.S. This post is up on Hacker News. If you liked it, please comment & upvote this.
September 3, 2012 at 4:18am
Artists…here is YOUR money!
This post will help artists understand on how they stand to make more money on Moshbag.
A heads up before we get into the math:
Moshbaglets independent artists launch ONLY their new, original, & unreleased work every month.
Each artist can upload ONLY one song/movie/book per month. This is to ensure both quality & quantity.
Subscribers are charged $10 to download all content (including books, movies, & songs) at the end of each month.
The hypothetical case study:
Scenario 1
Lets assume we have 5 writers, 5 musicians, and 5 filmmakers releasing their new books, new singles, & new movies on Moshbag respectively in the month of November
Lets assume each artist of the 15 is able to get at least 50 subscribers in that month through their regular marketing channels (fb, twitter, etc) & collective campaigning on Moshbag.
So we now have a total of 750 subscribers who are willing to pay $10 each to download the entire package (new books, singles, & movies from all 15 artists).
On successful completion of the month, the subscription fee is deducted & subscribers get to download/access all newly releasing material from all 15 artists.
That corresponds to a total of $7500 subscription fee collected.
Now Moshbag distributes 90% of the entire subscription money to all artists. So that leaves us $6750 to distribute to all artists equally. That corresponds to each artist being paid at least $450 per song/book/movie uploaded on Moshbag in November.
Scenario 2
Consider this scenario where each artist of the 15 instead decided to put up their new book/song/movie for sale on existing platforms like iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Netflix, and so forth. Their earnings would therefore be limited to only their marketing reach. In addition to this, they have to forego 30% of their earnings per sale on most platforms.
Let’s say they’ve each priced their work at $10 (very unlikely, phenomenally high, & may put off buyers). With the 30% cut, they stand to get just $7 per sale. So if 50 is the maximum number of buyers each artist could reach (as assumed in Scenario 1), their total earning would then be just $350.
Comparison & Conclusion
The deductions are straight-forward.
An artist on his own - $350 per song/movie/book.
Together with other artists on Moshbag - $450 per song/movie/book.
Now some might argue of a 3rd Scenario wherein a new single/movie/book from an individual artist might become an overnight success and rake in a lot more than it could on Moshbag & directly benefit the talented artist in question.
But popularity as you know is a function of time, money, & people. The thing to also consider is that the money earned through Moshbag is for the very first month of a new release. Beyond that, the artists are free to continue selling their work on other existing platforms like iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Netflix, & so forth.
So if a new single/movie/book is destined for greatness, it can jump off the Moshbag platform with enough money into a pool of other services & sell as much as it truly deserves. Thus benefiting the artist even more.
(Psst…What if we told you, that we’re also plotting to help you push your new releases into other services à la Graphiclyonce it’s released to our subscribers in the first month of it’s launch? Sounds foolproof!)
Now, if you’re ready to trust us & your intuition, then do us the honor of signing up! http://moshbag.in/artists
Cheers!
Comet
Founder, Moshbag
August 21, 2012 at 5:19am
We are giving birth. Literally.
“Beta” literally translates to “son” in Hindi language. So yes, we’re inlabor trying to give birth to our one ‘n only and our much awaited “son” - Moshbag beta. The only question is when?
Now I have to admit, we had initially planned to launch Moshbag in July to coincide with our birthdays (Yes, both founders are July borns!). But we both knew that it was far fetched. There are 2 reasons for this: first, we started work on Moshbag only in June this year & second, we have day jobs (this is of course to fund this project. We don’t intend to meet any Angels at this juncture & would instead prefer to meet Bootstrap Bill!)
We have a ridiculously shortgestation period, going by the principles of Lean. So, we’ve compromised on a fancy UI & you won’t find a zillion features to begin with. Just the basics - artists will be able to upload their new stuff on Moshbag & subscribers will be able to signup & stay updated. That’s it!
I’m also not embarrassed at all to reveal that the entire UI was built using Weebly! It has allowed us to mock-up a quick website with limited coding skills. But don’t worry, we’ll be working on our Moshbag Baap version once we celebrate our baby shower & set things rolling. Oh, and btw, “Baap” literally translates to “father” in Hindi!
I still haven’t given out our launch date, have I? The doctors say we’re due sometime in the first week of next month, i.e. September, 2012. So here’s hoping that all goes well & we have a healthy happy Beta arriving!
You can have a look at him once we’ve confirmed the delivery. Till then, I thank you for your patience, support, & encouragement!
Cheers!
Comet
Founder, Moshbag
August 7, 2012 at 2:05am
More artists mean more subscribers on Moshbag! Here’s how:
June 14, 2012 at 11:16pm
Yes, we understand. You will receive your paychecks soon!
