Music Lovers,
You have been FanFound! Congratulations! FanFound was created for the distinct purpose of supporting music and the musicians who make it. We empower musicians, both new and old, to take control of their music and musical careers through many new, unique and exciting ways. The live music experience plays a significant role within FanFound, as it is our mission to encourage not only the discovery of new artists, but also to help fans discover great venues everywhere to see these artists perform.
By joining, you are becoming part of a movement to help save what has become a scary music industry. We are giving you as a fan, musician, or venue, the ability to take control of your "Music Life," allowing you to listen to, access, create, promote, and live using music in your day to day life. If you are a musician who is passionate about having someone, somewhere, really feel and appreciate your music, if you end up with 5 fans or 500,000 is of no matter to you, and instead the love for music is satisfaction enough for you to continue creating it, I hope that you will not only join us, but you will inspire everyone you come across to also come and take part!
I ask you to: 1) Listen to and see as much live music as possible! 2) When you find a song or musician you love, tell the world! 3) Support the artists and our cause by getting as many people as possible to join us. Since we want to make this service FREE to you, the more people you get to use FanFound means the more advertising dollars we can eventually use to pay the musicians. By spreading the word, you are directly supporting the artists who make this such an amazing place, and allowing them to truly take control of their own destinies.
Enjoy! Your Music Life is about to truly begin!
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FanFound has many unique features for Fans, Artists, and Venues you will not find on other Social Networking or Music Sites! It was created for the distinct purpose of supporting Music (or as we say on the site, Muzic!). You won’t find comedy or the latest “Desperate House Wives” clips on FanFound, but you will find Muzic, and lots of it! That’s what we are here for, to support and help music culture. Using FanFound it’s easy to find music, find concerts, find musicians, promote, and listen to music better than any other sites on the web. Another huge quality that sets us apart from many other music sites is we actually help musicians earn a living! FanFound doesn’t collect 99% of our musician’s cash like other sites, in fact we collect 0%! That’s right! We do not charge musicians to use our site, or to find shows, or to post their music. We make our money by you simply listening too, and supporting the musicians you love. Take some time to look around and check out all the cool things FanFound has to offer.
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FanFound is a strong supporter of the cause brought forth in "Before The Music Dies". We feel it is a truly fantastic movie, and one that will change the way you look at music forever. Please take a minute to view the movie clip below.
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BEFORE THE MUSIC DIES tells the story of American music and how it ended up in this precarious state. Filmmakers Andrew Shapter and Joel Rasmussen traveled the country, hoping to understand why mainstream music seems so packaged and repetitive, and whether corporations really had the power to silence musical innovation. The answers they found on this journey are what makes BEFORE THE MUSIC DIES both riveting and exhilarating. Watch interviews with Dave Matthews, Eric Clapton, Les Paul and many more. You’ll never listen to music the same way again!
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With FanFound, you are finally given the opportunity to directly support the artists you love while at the same time find new music you could fall in love with! FanFound is a music-networking site that lets you connect with artists, venues and other fans. Like many social networking sites, you are able to portray your personality and uniqueness through the music you listen too. There are many ways to find muzic on FanFound. You can find it though your friends, through rankings, or simply by browsing artists yourself using the Artists search located on the top blue bar. Once you find some muzic you like, or you think describes your personality and life experiences, you can post those songs in your Fan Profile (see Fan Profile below), Recommended Songs (songs you recommend other fans listen to) and Tagged Songs (see Song Tags below) All these songs are displayed and shared using your music profiles and MuzicBox (See MuzicBox below). You are also able to express yourself through words, song quotes, favorite albums, favorite artists, and more through your Musical Profile (see Musical Profiles below). Using FanFound you are now able to customize your experience with both the artists and venues you want to “Become A Fan” of (see Become A Fan below). No more signing up for “fan clubs” and receiving tons of emails about stuff you might not care about. You will never be solicited too or sent junk mail from any artist or venue you’re not a fan of. Remember all the cool concerts you have been to in the past? Well, with the FanFound Concert Achieve (see concert archive below) you can view pictures, set lists, stories, and much more on the unique concert You can view the Top 10 artists, discover new artists from your friends profiles, or perform an Artist Search according to hometown, Genre, and many other options. You can customize what information they’d like to receive from them according to how far you’re willing to travel to them play. If out of the distance you provide, you won’t be bothered with the info. Based on this customized information, you can then receive updates Phone Text-Messages (see Text Messages below) and Invites (see Concert Invites below) of when and where your favorite bands are coming to town. For example, say you only want to receive a text message on your phone and not an email when an artist is within a 50 mile radius of playing at your home. This means if the artist is within 39 miles, you will receive a phone text message; however, if they are 75 miles away from your destination, you will receive no notification of the artists’ concert. Of course, like any other social networking site you are always able to change your password, private settings, image, visible information, music profile, nickname, and more in your My Settings (see My Settings below).
Fan Profile
You are given the ability to create profiles to describe yourself and what makes you and your life unique from others. You are also able to describe what makes you different concerning you their music tastes and the Music Life you lead. In fact, with the fan profiles you are actually able to use MUSIC to describe who you are! Is there a song you feel perfectly describes your relationship status? Find it on FanFound and use it to describe what you have going on! You can also tell your friends about things like your first concert, your favorite bands, or the best concert you ever went too. It’s a great way to get to know people and for people to get to know you on a much cooler level than other websites! Click the Help link in the top right hand corner for more information.
Recommended Songs
On FanFound you are able to recommend songs to your friends! Simply find a song you like and click the “add to profile” option underneath your FanFound media player. Once a song is recommended, your friends will be able to view all the songs you recommended to them by clicking on the “recommended songs” on your profile or the profiles of your friends.
Tagged Songs
On FanFound, you are able to Tag Songs according to what that song makes you feel. As an example if you are hearing a song which makes you would love to hear at a party, you are able to tag that song as a “party” song. You are then able to search for songs according to the kind of song that you want to hear. For instance, you just broke up with your girl friend and you want to hear a “break up” song, you can click on the Songs search option located in the top blue bar. You then go to search according to tag and browse all the songs that have been tagged a particular word in the system.
MuzicBox
Using FanFound, you don’t have to worry about your music shutting off every time you click on other pages! Now, you can click as much as you want and still have the music blasting uninterrupted. The Muzic Box was created with the distinct purpose of allowing you to continue listening to music regardless if you are browsing FanFound pages or at work using other programs on your computer. Simply click on the “add to playlist” button on the bottom of the media player and either create a mix to put the song in, or add it to one of your existing mixes. Using your Muzic Box, you are also able to listen to mixes your friends have created. Does one of your friends have a knack for finding great sleeping music? Now you can listen to their sleeping mix anytime you want by clicking on the Online Mixes tab in your Muzic Box, and selecting the friend.
Musical Profile
FanFound like most other social networking sites allows you to create profiles to describe your uniqueness to others. What makes FanFound so much cooler than the other sites is that we are giving you the ability to describe yourself using songs and music rather than just words! Is there a song that you think represents who you are? Insert that song into the “about me” section of your profile. Ever feel like your “relationship status” is just more than words could ever describe? Well, with FanFound you can use a song to help others understand better exactly what your relationships status is! You are also tell other fans about things like your “first concert” or “first album” along with other really cool info.
“Become A Fan”
Becoming a Fan of a musician on FanFound is a much bigger deal than becoming a “friend” on MySpace or any other similar site. When you choose to become a fan of a musician by clicking the link directly underneath their profile picture, you are making a decision to support that musician’s work, and giving that musician an opportunity to not only get more shows in your area, but also to potentially share their music with all your friends and networks. You can personalize exactly how much information you want to receive from a particular artist, allowing you to ease into getting familiar with who they are and their music without having worry about an email box full of information that you are simply not that interested in. When you become a fan, you choose how much, or how little music, invites, and text messages you would like to receive from a musician, group or venue.
Concert Archive
Using FanFound, you are able to keep a detailed history of all the concerts you go to, being able to access pictures, stories, and media from those concerts via concert pages set up by the musicians and venues. Go back and relive your greatest concert memories by visiting a concert page for a concert you have been to in the past. To access your concert archive, simply click on “my concerts” in your left sidebar, or find the date of the show on your calendar and click. You can also view all the concerts your friends have been to in the past by clicking the “view all concerts” directly underneath their calendar schedules. If you are looking for a concert that is from the past yet is not posted under an artists calendar or concert archive, send some FanMail to that artist requesting that they create a concert page for the event.
Phone Text Messages
When you choose to “become a fan” of a particular musician, you are offered the ability to receive text messages on your phone with information about shows that would play in your area, should that artist come to your town or a town near you. You are able to personalize this, for instance choosing that you would like to receive a text message every time that musician plays within 5 miles or your house. For an artist you are more into, and you might be willing to drive farther to go see, choosing to receive text messages every time that artist plays within 50 miles of your house would make more be better, etc. Text messages are a great thing to have, when you are choosing when and from who you are getting them from!
Concert Invites
On FanFound, it’s easy to hear about concerts not only from the musicians you become a fan of, but also your friends! You receive these invitations in your “invites” box located on your left side navigation bar. You are able to customize when and from who you would like to receive invites by editing your artists preferences located underneath their profile picture. If you have an RSVP for an upcoming show, you can also invite your friends who aren’t attending yet by clicking on the “invite friends” link directly under the friends currently attending lists.
My Settings
My Settings allows you as an artist to adjust and edit all your FanFound muzic profile settings. Your My Settings link is located on the left side of your muzic profile page right below the My Demo link. Here you can change your URL address, which is the “http://” link that directs people to your particular muzic profile on FanFound. You can change your Email Settings and what emails you will receive to your email address (login email) that you initially set-up with us. Within Email Settings you can opt-in to receiving emails when you receive New Messages, New Friends, New Concert Invites, New Muzic Mail, and New Shout Outs. Within Information and Password Settings you can change your FanFound login password, profile image, and edit your private and visible information. You can also deactivate your FanFound account, although I don’t know why you’d want to do that.
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With FanFound, you are finally given the opportunity to directly connect with your fans while at the same time securing concerts and growing in your muzic aspirations! FanFound is a music-networking site that lets you connect with fans, venues and other artists. Actually, FanFound is the first site thanking all the hard-working and talented artists out there that rock the stages and inspire their fans with great live muzic. What better way to put proof in the show than by paying YOU…literally, by means of a new and unique Point System (See Point System below) that we set up to compensate you for all your hard work, talent and perseverance. Show the world of fans your muzic by creating a very organized and appealing FanFound muzic profile consisting of all your muzic, news, biography information, performance videos, upcoming concerts and more. Fans are able to create mixes with your songs, tag them on their profile and listen to them on their MuzicBox (see MuzicBox below). Your fans can express themselves through all the muzic on their profile; yeah anything from their mood to worst memory. For example, say one of your fans just got out of a bad relationship and your band has made a song that deals with a devastating break-up, your fan can add your song as his/her relationship status profile song or tag it as anything they want to express how your song makes them feel – wow now that’s going deep into your muzic. As an artist you’re able to post your song lyrics, opt-in to make a song Downloadable (see Downloadable below) to fans, and create FanFound Demo Songs (see FanFound Demo Songs below). Put your best muzic on your FanFound Demo and watch your fans and gigs come. Just go to the FF Demo Songs tab to the right of the media player under your collection of albums you’ve Uploaded (see Upload Songs) to create your demo songs. Often artists, especially new artists nowadays are finding it hard to secure gigs. We are offering you a better way to secure concert events with our online Bidding System (See Bidding System below). Just do a Venues Search (see Venues Search below) to view and find venues in the locations you want to perform. With FanFound, a concert promoter or venue no longer just takes you at your word; they’re given actual proof of how many fans you have and how many are willing to travel to your next concert. So the more fans you have the more confidence you will have in sending a venue a bid to play at their next event. One great thing about FanFound, is you’re also able to organize your own event and propose your organized event right to a venue. This increases your chances of playing at a venue because it takes a huge load of work off their shoulders in setting everything up and marketing it. You can also win over concert gigs by creating a demo that venues will receive. Just go to your My Demo (see My Demo below) page to create your bands demo. Go to any venue page and click on the send demo link located below the venues photo, you can also send them a message if you like. If the venues digging your demo and want you to play at their venue than they’ll send you a bid. You can keep all your bids organized with your Bid Inbox (see Bid Inbox below). Here you’re able to accept, reject or counter-bid any bids you’ve received. Your My Concerts (see My Concerts below) page organizes your upcoming, recent and past concerts. It’s a great way to show all your fans where you’re playing next. With FanFound, an artist’s fans are really their fans. Unlike other Web Sites, FanFound does not allow you to solicit the fan. A fan must seek your muzic out. A fan can be gained by word of mouth, a search of our database, through banners we supply you with (takes fans directly to your FanFound profile), through fan friends, other artist profiles, or live concert events. This process also works the same with venues. Once you start gaining fans, Fan Mail (see Fan Mail below) is a great way to communicate with your fans. With FanFound, you’re given the opportunity to affiliate (associated with other artists) and collaborate with other artists. FanFound is a great place to find that drummer, bass guitarist, vocalist or whatever your band is missing. You’re able to upload not only a few songs…but all your albums. You can also upload album art and post lyrics. All in all, you can organize your muzic profile like never before and make it easy for your fans, venues and fellow artists to listen, download, and keep in touch with your music. Not only that, FanFound offers you the ability to mass-email and text-message your fans on upcoming concerts, and know more about your fans than ever before with Statistics (See Statistics below). This isn’t just a bulletin board or unwanted spam; this is direct communication with fans who want to be kept up-to-date with what’s going on with your muzic. And when it comes to being an artist, communication is very important to building and retaining loyal fans. You can view the Top 10 artists (see Top 10 below) to see if your ranked among the top artists on FanFound and discover new artists to perform and collaborate with by performing an Artist Search (see Artist Search below), Concert Search (see Concert Search below), Genre Search (see Genre below), and many other options. You can also write your own News & Headlines along with other features such as adding photos to your Image Gallery (see Image Gallery below) and making shout outs to fans or other fellow artists. Also, My Settings (see My Settings below) allows you to change your muzic profile’s url address, opt in and out of receiving bids, change your email settings, information and password settings. All in all, FanFound is not just another outlet to reach fans and get gigs; it can possibly be the only resource you need to develop a long-lasting muzic career. FanFound makes this possible without making you sacrifice your creative freedom and first love - your muzic. We try our best to open doors in an industry that has seemed to shut many on so many great artists. Stay tuned for new, cool and exciting benefits and features soon to come!
Point System
FanFound is working on a unique system to compensate musicians!
How does this work? Well, in the coming months we will be throwing a percentage of our advertising revenue in a pool for you to grab. Well sort of. Similar to how artists get paid for having their songs played on the radio, you earn points. You can earn FanFound points by getting your songs played and downloaded.
Point System Summary:
1 Song Play = 1 point
1 Song Download = 5 points
Each point then represents a certain monetary value owed to you at the end of each month. The amount that you earn at the end of the month will then be direct deposited to your checking or savings account that you’ve set up from our secure site. The monetary value of each point varies with how the FanFound economy is doing, and can change on a day to day basis. FanFound computes how much each point is worth in monetary terms based on these two elements:
1) The total plays and downloads from all FanFound artists
2) The money we’re able to distribute to all artists from our advertising revenue
So the more fans we have on our site, obviously, the more money you have potential to make through your fans downloads and song plays. The point value system kind of works like the stock market and can be compared to the NASDAQ in this case. We strongly encourage you to offer free downloads to your fans, whereas the loss money that could have been made from selling downloads will be made up from earning more points on our site, and therefore moving up rankings for now, and soon making money! So start uploading songs now!
*Special Note: Song plays and Downloads on FanFound are unique to each individual fan and are monitored through other non-disclosed methods to promote fairness. So hackers, bots won’t work on our site.
FanFound Demo Songs
FanFound Demo Songs (FF Demo Songs) are your best songs that you’ve chosen to have venues and fans listen to first. These songs appear listed in the FF Demo Songs link under your collection of albums that you’ve uploaded on your FanFound muzic profile. Creating a demo album really works in displaying your best muzic and winning over new fans. To create a FanFound Demo, go to your muzic profile and click on the FF Demo Songs link under your albums and click on the Create FF Demo link located in the right hand corner. Then all you have to do is choose (up to 5 songs) from a drop-box of your songs that you’ve uploaded on FanFound, and there you go, you got yourself a demo. Remember your going to want to put your best muzic on your demo album.
My Demo
My Demo is your very own digital online demo package that you can send to venues to get gigs. Your FanFound demo saves you a lot of time and money by eliminating the paper, ink, car gas, work and CDs you waste sending them to a bunch of venues. Your My Demo link is located on the left side of your muzic profile page right above the My Settings link. Once you click on the My Demo link it will take you to your My Demo page. On the upper-right hand corner of the page you will see the Edit FanFound Demo link. Once you click on the Edit FanFound Demo link you are asked to enter the heading of your demo to appear on your demo page (eg. Greenday Demo) You will then be asked to choose your best 5 songs to appear on the demo (you choose from the songs you’ve already uploaded on FanFound). You able to then copy and paste “embed” code for a video link of your live performance from YouTube, PhotoBucket, DailyMotion, etc., allowing venues to actually see you perform! Finally you can add a catchy message to be viewed by the venues that will be receiving your online digital demo package.
Bid Inbox
Your Bid Inbox is the place where you can view active and deleted bids and accept, reject or counter-bid any bids received from venues. You can also keep track of the messages and demos you sent out to venues. Your Bid Inbox link is located on the left side of your muzic profile page right above the My Demo link. Bid Inbox is a great way to stay organized and in touch with venues.
My Concerts
My Concerts will help you keep organized and let your fans know when and where you’re playing at all times. Your My Concerts link is located on the left side of your muzic profile page right above the Messages link. Once you click on the My Concerts link it will take you to your My Concerts page. Here you will find a list of all your unconfirmed, upcoming, and recent concerts. With your Unconfirmed Concerts you can view any bids that you have not accepted yet and turn them into Upcoming Concerts. You can also post concerts that you have not secured with the FanFound bidding system by clicking on the Post a Concert link under Upcoming Concerts or post past concerts you’ve performed under Recent Concerts. You will also have a calendar of events in which you can add concerts or items to your calendar. For example, say your bands having an album release party and you want fans to show up, just add it as an item to your calendar. You will also notice a Concert Archive on your My Concerts page; this is a unique and fun feature that allows fans to upload pictures and videos from all your past concerts. The more concerts you perform the more of an opportunity fans have to make your Concert Archive fun and exciting for others to see.
Fan Mail
Fan Mail is a great way for your fans to tell you how much they appreciate your music. It’s always fun and motivating as an artist to receive and open up fan mail. Fan Mail allows you the ability to reply back to your fans and thank them for their support. Your Fan Mail link is located on the left side of your muzic profile page right above the Bid Inbox link. Start communicating on a personal level with your fans with FanFound Fan Mail.
Bidding System
FanFound provides a one-on-one communication channel that lets the artists and venues bid on events, organize an event, accept, reject and counter-bid on offers. Venues are talent seekers, so venues might approach artists with bids of their own, so check your “Bid In-Box” to control your bids and stay organized.
After accepting a concert bid, a concert page is created containing all the specific event information. You can post messages, add images, display your song-set for that given concert, and use pre-made HTML concert links that we made for you to post anywhere over the web to promote the event. You also have the huge benefit of being able to mass-email all your fans. This is a great opportunity for you to develop strong relationships with venues and start creating your concert archive (a collection of concert photos and stories).
*Special Note: Mass E-mail to fans can only be done once per event.
Demographic Statistics
FanFound has made it easy for you to view your muzic profile statistics like never before. You can now graphically see how many fans you have by age, sex and location; along with your daily and monthly song plays. You are constantly kept informed of how many of your songs have been downloaded, played, and marked as profile and tagged songs by your fans. You can view how many times your fans have attended your concerts and how many have at least attended one of your events. You can also easily keep track of your FanFound points and see how many points you have earned compared to all other FanFound artists. All the information FanFound provides you with is pertinent and intended to be used to help you establish a strong relationship with your fans and know more about them than ever before.
My Settings
My Settings allows you as an artist to adjust and edit all your FanFound muzic profile settings. Your My Settings link is located on the left side of your muzic profile page right below the My Demo link. Here you can change your URL address, which is the “http://” link that directs people to your particular muzic profile on FanFound. You can change your Email Settings and what emails you will receive to your email address (login email) that you initially set-up with us. Within Email Settings you can opt-in to receiving emails when you receive New Messages, New Fans, Fan Mail, New Bids/Updates, and New Shout Outs. You can opt-out of receiving bids from venues if you’ve gotten to the level where you’re overbooked. Within Information and Password Settings you can change your FanFound login password, profile image, and edit your private and visible information. You can also deactivate your FanFound account, although I don’t know why you’d want to do that because FanFound works to support YOU - the artist, so we always want your input or any ideas you have that will make our site more beneficial and better functional for YOU.
Downloadable
To make a song Downloadable, all you have to do is opt-in to allow the song to be downloaded when you upload or edit songs. We encourage artists to offer free downloads because we compensate you more for downloads and we know fans appreciate free downloads and support the artists that give back to them.
Image Gallery
The Image Gallery is a portfolio of your artist pictures that fans can view and comment on. The purpose of the Image Gallery is to express your bands unique style of muzic. It’s a great thing to have a lot of live concert photos uploaded, especially the ones that capture the emotion and energy of your fans.
Upload Songs
To upload songs just click on the link on the lower-left hand corner of the albums table. Here you’ll be able to create a new album of songs or add songs to an existing album. All songs must be in the .mp3 format. Once you’ve uploaded a song, that song will be sent to your fans that have opted-in to receive Muzic Mail. While you upload new songs your able to send your fans a message about the song describing what it means or means to you. Oh and don’t forget to title the song name and make it downloadable to fans.
Concert Search – This search is located in the blue search bar located on the top of the screen. You can use it to find any concert, for any date in the future or from the past.
Venues Search – Whether you are looking for a small coffee shop, or a huge theater, the venue search can help you find local venues in your area or any area you might be visiting! The venue search is located in the top blue bar.
Artist Search – On FanFound, you can use the artist search to find musicians of many different genres. The artist search is located in the top blue bar. If you can’t find an artist you love, be sure to write them an email asking them to join FanFound!
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We understand how you make money, and that every possible night of the week is important to you! Many times, the risk of having a new artist perform is just too great to give them that opportunity. With FanFound, you as a Venue owner or Booker are given many innovative and unique opportunities. We love live music, and we are going to give you as many tools as possible to increase not only the live music performances at your venue, but the attendance at those performances as well! Now, we understand that nothing can guarantee that a performance will always be a sell out one. Yet, we have developed some innovative ways that you will be able to get a much better gage on who COULD show up than ever before. Using the Demographics (see Demographics below) function you are able to see exactly how many fans a musician really has, and exactly how many of those fans have chosen to receive information should that particular artist play at your venue! Once your venue is signed up, you will be able to receive Digital Demos (see Digital Demo below) in your Demo Inbox from bands interested in playing at your venue. These demos will not only consist of that artist or bands marketing demographics directly in front of you, but also demo songs and video of them actually performing. If you like what you see, you are then able to place a bid using the FanFound Bidding System (see Bidding System below) on that artist, group, or band to come play at your venue. Bidding makes it easy to coordinate schedules with musicians, while at the same time making sure you have good talent bringing in profits every night of the week. Every bid that you submit, or every concert you input into FanFound, a Concert Achieve (see Concert Achieve below) will be made where fans will be able to access, post pictures on, and create wall posts about that individual concert! For each concert booked or created on FanFound, fans are able to add that particular concert to their Concert Archive, being able to post pictures, video, and memories from that particular concert! Your venue will have it’s own concert achieve where fans can come to and interact with other fans who also attended that particular concert. By simply signing up, you are able to create a Venue Profile (see Venue Profile below) where music fans can learn about your venue, see the artists and genres that play there, and sign up to receive notices about concerts and other promotional events. Having a profile also allows music fans to find your venue when they conduct Concert Searches, looking for concerts in their area. How much do you pay for that Yellow Pages subscription? A couple hundred dollars a year? Well, FanFound is FREE and the chances of you finding a new customer, fan, or concert goers are much better here than they ever will be with the Yellow Pages. Not to mention, that having a FanFound account allows you to send Coupons (see coupons below) directly to your fans! That’s right, no need to pay thousands a month in sending direct mailers to peoples houses. Finally, we represent a good cause, we represent your cause! We want Live music to continue to be the back bone of American creativity. We want you to be able to continue being profitable while at the same allowing great musicians to accomplish their dreams.
Demographics
FanFound allows you to see the exact amount of Fans a musicians has, and exactly how many of those fans have chosen to receive information should you book that musician, group, or band to play at your venue! To see the marketing potential your venue could have by booking a particular musical, simply click on the Artists search option located in the top blue bar. Once you find a musician that seems to be a good fit, go to their profile and click on the Demographics tab located in the top right of their profile, next to the Members tab. Demographics gives you as a booker a fair gage on exactly how many fans might show up to a performance should you book that particular artist. Fans customize their experience with every artist on FanFound, and you as a venue booker or owner are able to see exactly how many fans have actually chosen that they would receive information about the show should you book that artists. For instance, I might be a fan who chooses to receive information about a particular artist every time that artist plays within 25 miles of my house. If the venue you work with should be within that 25 mile radius, all of those artists’ fans, along with your own fans within that radius, all will receive text messages or emails about the performance that will take place. There isn’t a better promotional tool on the web currently!
Digital Demos
How many demo discs have you received over the years? FanFound allows you to receive all the demos you will ever need in a concise and easy to navigate manor. Simply check your demo inbox located on your left function side bar and you will be instantly able to see exactly how many fans some of your hopeful musicians have, along with how many of those fans have actually chosen to receive information should that musician play at your venue! Digital demos allow you to not only see the marketing power a particular musician might have, but also allows you to hear the music and actually see the artist perform before you take the risk of booking them to play.
Bidding System
FanFound provides a one-on-one communication channel that lets the you bid on artists for any amount you choose, or no amount at all. Sometimes artists who are just looking to get exposure will accept bids for $0 just to be able to play at your venue. Either way, you will be able to get what you are paying for, and also be able to create a good profit on the musicians you feel confident booking. For every concert what you book using FanFound, a concert page is created containing all the specific event information. You can post messages, add images, display your song-set for that given concert, and use pre-made HTML concert links that we made for you to post anywhere over the web to promote the event. You also have the huge benefit of being able to mass-email all your fans. This is a great opportunity for you to develop strong relationships with artists and their fans, along with helping add to your your concert archive
Concert Achieve
FanFound allows both you and artists to create concert pages where fans are able to keep a history of the concerts they attend! With the concert achieves, a detailed history of text, audio, pictures, and video will be kept for every performance ever to take place at your venue, should you choose to allow it. FanFound offers you the ability to choose which media you approve to be posted, and which you would rather not allow fans to access. Concert Achieves are a fantastic way to promote the history of your venue, while at the same time allowing fans to have constant contact with your venues history
Venue Profile
Using FanFound, you are able to create a profile for your venue which will allow both fans and artists to interact with you! Your venue profile will contain everything from history about the venue, to concert achieves, to simply allowing for current and future fans to find you! Fans are able to customize how much information they would like to receive from your venue, which makes the marketing 100% more potent than simply sending out mailers or other promotional material. To sum it up, having a FanFound profile for your venue allows you to access current a future fans, find good and profitable music, while at the same time offering you much more than you would ever get spending hundreds a year on advertising in the Yellow Pages. By simply creating a venue profile, you will put yourself in a position to be found by thousands of eager fans who are looking to hear live music!
There is no need to worry about spending thousands of dollars a year on mail postage and print for coupons. Using FanFound, you will be able to send those coupons over the internet at a fraction of the cost! Fans are then able to print the coupons you create straight from their computer! The money you will save will be astronomical.
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A lot of breath has been wasted by rock stars like Eddie Vedder and Sheryl Crow and their hipster fans who detest music industry practices. They say four major record ..
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Original Article at Pioneer Local's website
September 27, 2007
By ROBERT ELFINGER Staff Writer
A lot of breath has been wasted by rock stars like Eddie Vedder and Sheryl Crow and their hipster fans who detest music industry practices.
They say four major record label companies -- Universal, Sony BMG, EMI and Warner -- account for 70 percent of music sales worldwide and 85 percent in the U.S. This monopoly allows corporate-types essentially to choose which music is marketed and played on the radio for the general public, such critics say.
 Glenbrook South High School graduate Chris Bauman is shown with his employees from Fanfound.com. |
But Glenbrook South graduate Chris Bauman is taking on the major record labels by giving famous and not-yet famous musicians a vehicle they can use to bypass the industry. He's created an online community that brings fans, musicians, disc jockeys and concert venue owners together at one Web site.
Fanfound.com combines the concept of I-Tunes with successful social networking Web sites like Facebook and Myspace, Bauman said.
CEO, and student
Bauman, 25, is chief executive officer of Chordcraft Music Company, the parent company behind Fanfound.com headquartered in Merrillville, Ind. The Glenview native is working toward a master's degree in business administration from Valparaiso University.
Bauman and staff have been working for two years on Fanfound.com and are hoping the site becomes a beacon of hope for musicians, fans and businesses everywhere that are fed up with the current music industry.
"Fanfound is more than a just another Web site; it's a movement to claim back the music," Bauman said. "In a world where you can't turn on your FM radio without hearing the same songs being played over and over, Fanfound is a breath of fresh air."
On Fanfound, people are able to create a profile that allows them to receive information about their favorite bands, including their upcoming concerts and new songs that can be played, downloaded or burned onto a compact disc.
Music fans also are able to create and share lists of their favorite songs, archive the concerts they've attended, complete with photographs and the music presented, and even create a personal song-based profile that they can share with others.
"We want to have an environment where listeners can download music for free" and where in the near future, the artists they listen to also can get paid, Bauman said.
The Web site is free for everyone and fans can buy compact discs and apparel that feature their favorite bands. Bauman said most of the Web site's revenue comes from advertising, which costs clients 3 cents to 75 cents, depending on if a user clicks on an ad or purchases something.
Ad dollars aim
According to Bauman, Internet advertising swelled to $14 billion last year, making up about 5 percent of national advertising dollars spent. He believes that number will increase dramatically in coming years.
"Once businesses learn how cheap and targeted Web advertising is, they're going to jump into it," Bauman said.
The Web site also helps concert venue operators learn how many fans a band has and where those fans are located.
"A huge problem that venues face is estimating how many fans a musician or band has and getting those fans the information they want to receive about shows and events," Bauman said. "Fanfound gives venues a much better idea of a musicians' fan base and more confidence in booking a new act because they know exactly how many fans will get notified about the performance.
"With the click of a mouse, venues will be able to see exact statistics on how many text messages or e-mails will be sent to fans who specifically have chosen to receive information about the show."
By next year, Bauman hopes to begin sharing a percentage of advertising revenue with musicians, along with other key perks such as recording contracts. Money will be shared according to how many Fanfound users are listening to their songs and how many fans have downloaded their music, among other criteria, he said.
Fan freedom a goal
Bauman's company, Chordcraft Music Co., was started in Chicago by his grandfather in 1964 as a hobby business that published country and barbershop music for local musicians. While growing up, Bauman often went to his grandfather's studio and played various instruments there.
After his grandfather died three years ago, Bauman began thinking of ways to continue the business.
"There's a lot of tradition with this company ... so I'm excited to keep that tradition going," Bauman said.
Ultimately, Bauman said he wants to reform the music industry so fans can discover local musicians, rather than waiting for them to break into the relative handful of artists with big label contracts.
"There is unbelievable talent in every city, big or small. We're going to give fans the ability to stay in touch with the music they love and find new music to fall in love with," Bauman said. "The goal is for fans to directly support the musicians they like, helping these musicians develop while giving them a chance to concentrate more on their music rather than worry about acquiring record label funding."
With the recent successes of other social networking sites, Bauman has reason to be optimistic.
"We are working very hard, day in and day out, to ensure that Fanfound brings to the music industry now the same thunder the radio did when it was first introduced."
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Chris Bauman is interviewed on Z107 and discusses with Don and Bailey how FanFound works, along with it's mission of supporting music everywhere. Click Play to listen. |
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MERRILLVILLE -- The big boys may not know it yet, but there's been a silent revolution at work to make changes in
the music industry, and it is about to make some noise ..
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Article at NWI Times
They say they've got a revolution
BY MELANIE CSEPIGA
Times Correspondent
MERRILLVILLE -- The big boys may not know it
yet, but there's been a silent revolution at work to make changes in the music industry, and it is about to make some noise.
Former Chicago banker and Valparaiso University graduate Christopher Bauman, 25, and his small band of tech-savvy, music-loving
staff at Chordcraft Music Co. in the Purdue Technology Center, have launched FanFound.com.
It's a fan and musical artist-friendly concept that, Bauman says, will revolutionize the music industry, bringing freedom of choice
to fans and a connection for the artists, fans and performance venues.
"We're working very hard, day in and day out, to ensure that FanFound brings to the music industry now, the same thunder the radio
did when it was first introduced," Bauman said, adding, "I am not anti-record label; I am anti-record labels exploiting musicians, and
angry that the major ones are in bed with (companies) to get the same songs played constantly on our FM radio."
Visiting online at www.FanFound.com makes the revolutionary cry clear. "You are becoming part of a movement to claim back the music!"
it states.
Much like what Google provides its employees, Bauman and company have headed to a lakeside retreat for the summer for the
innovative atmosphere it provides. They're creatively addressing the glitches expected with any launching of a Web site, and Bauman is
outlining his vision for the next phase.
On FanFound, people will be able to create a profile, then receive information about their favorite musical artists and connect
with other fans. They'll be able to create playlists of their favorite songs, archive information on concerts they've attended and build
personal profiles based on the songs they love.
At the same time, musicians registered on FanFound will learn how many fans they have and connect with them in a personal way. The fan
base information will give venues data on the popularity of bands and individual artists, too.
All of the fan, musician and venue signups are free.
Bauman said FanFound intends to share revenue with its registered musicians based on how many FanFound users are listening to their songs.
The goal is to give musicians a 20 percent share within the next six months, Bauman said.
"Why not? They should be compensated," he added.
The idea does not stop with FanFound.
"The Internet is just a tool to bring forth Chordcraft's much larger mission of bringing music back," Bauman said. "We are hoping
to do community concerts, educational programs, the whole works; as we grow and start generating revenue."
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Chris Bauman's not after money or he would have stayed a LaSalle banker -- which made him miserable.
He'll graduate in December with a master's in business administration from Valparaiso University, but his passion is music..
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The Article at Post-Tribune's Website
Fans, bands connect
June 22, 2007
By Elizabeth Dilts Post-Tribune staff writer
Chris Bauman's not after money or he would have stayed a LaSalle banker -- which made him miserable.
He'll graduate in December with an master's in business administration from Valparaiso University, but his passion is music.
It's his new Web site www.Fanfound.com.
It works like this: Fans, bands and venues all create profiles. By creating a profile, fans can search other bands participating
in the site and download and listen to their music for free. The band gets points, which translate to money, every time a fan listens
to or downloads a song.
When a user registers as a fan of the band, he or she fills out a profile that sends notifications every time the band plays
in the area. For example, the fan can elect to receive a text message every time the band plays within 20 miles of his or her house.
The fan knows about shows first and the band gets the guarantee that a show is publicized.
The venue option allows venues to profile bands by fans' demographics. For example, a bar-owner wants to book a band
with fans old enough to be in a bar. The venue option allows the bar owner to look at the age and gender statistics of a certain band's
fans as well as how near the fans live to the bar.
If the venue owner finds a band he or she wants to book, the owner can place an online bid to invite the band to play.
Bauman wants the site to revitalize the live music experience by getting fans back in venues and off iTunes.
But whether that can be done through the online music industry is yet to be seen.
Chris Simmons of Music Industry Newswire, an online magazine, is skeptical.
"You get a Web page but so what?" Simmons said. How are you going to get people to go to it to support the millions of
bands that join it?"
In Simmons' 25 years writing about and working in the music recording industry, he's watched the proliferation of social
networking, music-sharing Web sites. Some, like cdbaby.com succeed, and some like mp3.com tank, he said.
Simmons said it's difficult for these sites to offer bands a real return for their advertisement without hiring someone to
promote each band.
But as this month's Rolling Stone predicts the fall of the record label industry, it's hard for Bauman to be anything but
optimistic about online music-sharing.
"We're not just another music Web site," Bauman said. "There's something intrinsic and magical about live music that you can't
get from your iPod. We want to bring people back to live music."
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A student in Valparaiso University's MBA program has created a new
website for musicians, their fans, and music
venues. FanFound.com will be a site for users to listen to music, find information on artists and network with
other fans. Musicians will also be able to register at the site and communicate with fans. Creator Christopher
Bauman has been developing the new site in office space at the Purdue Technology Center of Northwest Indiana in Merrillville.
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Valparaiso University Student Launches New Music Website
The Story at Inside Indiana Business Website
A student in Valparaiso University's MBA program has created a new website for musicians, their fans, and music
venues. FanFound.com will be a site for users to listen to music, find information on artists and network with
other fans. Musicians will also be able to register at the site and communicate with fans. Creator Christopher
Bauman has been developing the new site in office space at the Purdue Technology Center of Northwest Indiana in Merrillville.
Valparaiso, Ind. -- A 25-year-old entrepreneur in Valparaiso University's MBA program is preparing to shake up
the music industry with a new Web site that will help fans discover new music and better connect musicians with their fans.
Christopher Bauman, a former Chicago banker, is launching the music and social networking Web site FanFound.com this month.
"Customization and control over the experience of music is what I'm focusing on in developing FanFound.com,"
Bauman said. "We want to support musicians and level the playing field so that it's easier for people to find new music."
On FanFound, Bauman said people will be able to create a profile that allows them to receive information
about their favorite bands - such as upcoming concerts and new songs that can be played, downloaded or burned onto a CD - and to connect
with
other fans. People will be able to create and share playlists of their favorite songs, build an archive of concerts they have attended
along
with set lists and pictures, and even make a personal profile based on songs.
"We are tapping into the fact that music is so personal," Bauman said. "Most people have particular songs
that are deeply connected to something in their own life, and building a biography of songs can tell other fans a lot
about you. From a musician's perspective, a person who says your song was meaningful in their life provides great exposure."
Musicians registered on FanFound will be able to see how many fans they have, where those fans are located
and keep fans updated with news.
"The biggest problem with venues right now is knowing how many fans a band has," Bauman said. "FanFound
will give venues a much better idea of their fan base and more confidence in booking a new act because their fans will get notified about the performance."
FanFound also plans to share revenue with musicians based on how many FanFound users are listening
to their songs.
Bauman's company - Chordcraft Music Co. - was started by his grandfather in 1964 as a hobby business
that published country and barbershop music. While growing up, Bauman often went to his grandfather's studio
and played various instruments that were kept in the studio.
After his grandfather passed away three years ago, Bauman began thinking of ways to continue the
business.
"There's a lot of tradition with this company and my grandfather starting it more than 40 years ago,
so I'm excited to keep it going," Bauman said.
Through one of his professors in Valparaiso's MBA program, Bauman was connected with Indiana's business
incubator program and received office space for Chordcraft Music at the Purdue Technology Center of Northwest Indiana in Merrillville. Bauman has been working
full-time since last summer to get his business up and running and already has six full-time and 10 part-time employees along with 10 interns - nearly half
of whom are Valparaiso graduates or business students.
"The connections that I've made through Valparaiso's MBA program have helped me move forward a lot
faster than I imagined," said Bauman, who also earned a bachelor's degree in political science and psychology from Valparaiso.
Ultimately, Bauman said he wants to reform the music industry so local musicians can be discovered,
rather than the majority of people listening only to the handful of artists on big labels.
"We're going to give fans the ability to stay in touch with the music they love and find new music
to fall in love with," he said. "The goal is to help fans support the musicians they like and give
musicians a chance to concentrate more on their music without having to worry about record label funding."
Source: Valparaiso University
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Imagine what would happen if two of the Internets most popular websites, Facebook and YouTube, fused together to form one mega-music site.
Valparaiso University graduate student Chris Bauman of Chordcraft Music Company has spent the last year doing just that: imagining what it would take to create the ultimate online music experience. ..[read more]
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NewFound FanFound (Torch Article, Valpo Student Newspaper)
The Torch
Valparaiso Universitys Student Newspaper
January 26, 2007
Front Page
Newfound Fanfound: VU Grad student creates new music website
Sam Ruffin
Imagine what would happen if two of the Internets most popular websites, Facebook and YouTube, fused together to form one mega-music site.
Valparaiso University graduate student Chris Bauman of Chordcraft Music Company has spent the last year doing just that: imagining what it would take to create the ultimate online music experience.
In July 2006, Bauman was given the chance to take his vision and make it a reality. Now, after six months of collaboration with other members of the Indiana Business Incubation Project, a new online music website called, Fanfound, is ready to launch.
Fanfound is going to allow people to find music that they can relate to allow musicians to find people that appreciate what (the musicians) are playing, said Bauman.
Bauman says that as technology has advanced, appreciation for music as an art form has diminished. People do not purchase full CDs any more because they can log onto iTunes or LimeWire and download individual tracks. No one seeks out new talent because everything is online. Fanfound, however, focuses on unknown artists and the importance of live music.
It is a completely different experience to listen to live music, said Bauman. There is a stage presence, so to speak, that you cant get back from an iPod.
This interactive website meets the needs of fans, musicians and venues. All all-encompassing site, Fanfound has ways for people to search musicians by their favorite genre while giving musicians the opportunity to find performance opportunities and express themselves in a more personal way to fans. It also allows venues to post showing s and find artists.
Personally, I am more into mainstream music for concerts. Im not into finding concerts with bands I dont know, said senior Adriano Shultz. As long as the artists music appeals to my genre I will use (Fanfound), but I was under impression that it was more of an alternative (rock) site, and Im more into R&B.
The site is free and anyone can log on and test out its multiple features. Musicians have the ability to create their own pages and the site is employing a verification device that will prevent the creation of false identities and multiple sites for one band. There are 52 different genres available on the site to appeal to a wide-range of music lovers
The site will become available in February, but it will certainly take some time to grow. Bands will need to register; venues will need to check it out and music listeners will need to log on. The sites success will be based on the number of people who sign in.
We are giving (musicians and fans) the playing field; it is up to them to play, Bauman said.
Bauman is currently enrolled in the MBA program at VA and is planning on finishing the program this August. He completed his undergraduate degree a VU in 2004 with majors in political science and psychology and a minor in business.
About two years ago, Baumans grandfather, who founded Chordcraft, passed away. Bauman decided that he wanted to rebuild the company that his grandfather started in 1964.
After about a year of developing his ideas, Bauman took his thoughts to Thomas Boyt, dean of the College of Business Administration. Boyt helped Bauman meet up with people from the Indiana Business Incubation Program.
The program, co-founded by Purdue University and the state of Indiana, takes small businesses and allows them to launch large projects with the aid of state and university resources.
In July, after revising his outline, Bauman presented his ideas to the Incubation Program committee and was granted a slot.
Once he was given the go ahead, Bauman was able to hire three full-time employees, four part-time employees and 12 paid interns.
The team has spent the past six months developing the company and preparing to release their products into the market.
According to Bauman, todays cut throat music industry is monopolized by four major record labels which have managed to drive the average musician into the ground.
In order to make a living, Bauman says most musicians have to work two or three jobs.
Chordcrafts goal is to level the playing field for the average musician by making it affordable for musicians to use recording technology and other promotion tools.
Currently, Bauman is working with student union staff to set up a music festival for the student body.
The idea is to bring in bands every night for a week, which has been tentatively scheduled for sometime this spring.
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