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FanSociety

Patronage for musicians and fans

A novel crowdfunding solution that works the way you'd expect. Unapologetically anti-subscription.

Think different

Step outside the box with us

Subscriptions aren't a good fit for fandom. The moment you stop paying, you're out of the fan club. Your previous patronage is no longer valuable. This isn't really how the music world works in the minds of music junkies. Discovering new music is the real social currency.

FanSociety replaces the recurring charge with a one-time donation that leaves a permanent on-chain receipt — a FanPin. A FanPin solves two issues at once. One, it timestamps when a fan discovered, started following, and supported an artist. Two, it consolidates months of subscription patronage into one large gift right now, turning a slow drip of funding into a substantial amount to bootstrap an artist's carrer.

MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION PATREON-SHAPED $36 — ARRIVING $3 AT A TIME, OVER ONE YEAR $3 EACH ACCESS — ONLY WHILE THE PAYMENTS KEEP COMING PAYMENTS STOP. ACCESS STOPS. THE 12 ALREADY PAID COUNT FOR NOTHING ONE-TIME PATRONAGE FANSOCIETY $36 — ALL OF IT, ON DAY ONE A YEAR OF MONTHLY PAYMENTS, CONSOLIDATED INTO THE PRESENT $36 ACCESS — FANPIN MINTED, GENERATION 1. MEMBERSHIP DOESN'T LAPSE. ONE PAYMENT. THE TIMESTAMP IS THE MEMBERSHIP. NOW3 MO6 MO9 MO12 MO LATER BOTH ROWS TOTAL THE SAME $36. ONLY THE TIMING AND THE EXPIRY DIFFER. ONE MONTH, ONE HUNDRED PATRONS AGGREGATE 100 PATRONS, EACH GIVING $36 ONCE 1 = 1 PATRON $3,600 — IN A SINGLE MONTH SEED CAPITAL A RECORD DEAL USED TO PROVIDE
one-time patronage vs monthly subscription — illustrative amounts

research and development

Finding the perfect fit

Most patronage models sort fans by how much they paid or how fast they clicked. We wanted one that sorts by when someone showed up, at a resolution an artist can actually manage.

A COLLECTION OF HISTORICAL AND THEORETICAL PATRONAGE MODELS MODEL SORTS FANS BY TIERED SUPPORT $5, $25, $100 A MONTH $5$25$100 WALLET SIZE PAYING MORE MEANS YOU'RE A BETTER ORBIGGER FAN, POPPYCOCK. LIMITED-SUPPLY NFT 500 MINTED, THEN CLOSED NOBODY ELSE, EVER MONEY AND ARTIFICIAL SCARCITY YOU'RE EITHER IN OR YOU'RE OUT. EVERYONE EQUAL NO DISTINCTION AT ALL ONE UNDIVIDED GROUP NOTHING DAY ONE AND LAST TUESDAY LOOK THE SAME.THE ONE DISTINCTION FANS ALREADY MAKE,THROWN AWAY. RANKED FANS FAN #1, FAN #2, FAN #3 #1#2#3#4#5 ... #4102 ARRIVAL — ONE FAN AT A TIME THE RIGHT THING TO SORT BY, AT ARESOLUTION NOBODY CAN ADMINISTER. GENERATIONS FANPINS, BY COHORT GEN 1GEN 2GEN 3 ARRIVAL — IN COHORTS WHEN A FAN SHOWED UP, AT A RESOLUTIONTHE ARTIST CHOOSES. WHAT THEY PAID DOESNOT ENTER INTO IT.
why generations — four models considered, one kept

The mechanism

How a generation works

Everything about the model is taken from existing social contracts. FanSociety uses a cohorts model that is manageable for artists and fair for fans.

FANPIN GENERATIONS FANSOCIETY GEN 1 OPENSGEN 2 OPENS — GEN 1 CLOSESGEN 3 OPENS — GEN 2 CLOSES GEN 1 — THE FIRST FANS. LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP. CREATE NEW GEN ANYTIME, ON THE FLY GEN 2 GEN 2 LOCKED IN GEN 3 1 = 1 PIN NOW3 MO6 MO9 MO12 MO15 MO18 MO A GENERATION OPENS WHEN THE ARTIST SAYS SO. THERE IS NO SCHEDULE AND NO SET NUMBER OF THEM.OPENING A NEW GENERATION CLOSES THE LAST ONE. NO MORE OF THOSE PINS CAN EVER BE MINTED.NOTHING CLOSES A PIN ITSELF. IT RECORDS WHEN A FAN ARRIVED, AND THAT DOESN'T CHANGE.ARTISTS GRANT CATALOG ACCESS BY GENERATION. THAT CHOICE IS THEIRS TOO.
fanpin generations — boundaries are illustrative

While a generation is open, any number of fans can mint into it at or above your token fee. When you create the next one, the previous closes — permanently. Nobody joins Generation 1 in year four.

That single rule is what turns a fan club into a record. Over a career you accumulate cohorts, each one stamped with the period it belonged to, and the ordering can never be rewritten because it was never stored anywhere you or we could edit.

Access

What a FanPin actually opens

FanPins can be used by fans to flex on their friends, but more interestingly, artists can give privileged access to content based on FanPin holders. This works natively with Station on day one and we see growing number of features that can take advantage of the FanPin model.

FanPins with Station are flexible. Artists can do early releases based on FanPin generations. Tracks and albums can even be gated for fan club members only. Station makes this all possible, but doesn't tell artists exactly how they can and can't use it.

Setting it up

Four steps, from the dashboard

  1. Deploy the contract

    Connect a wallet, choose where revenue is paid — your wallet or your Treasury — and deploy. One on-chain transaction plus gas. If you want revenue pooling in a treasury, deploy that first: the payee choice is permanent.

  2. Open a generation

    Set a token fee, which is the minimum donation. Add the FanPin artwork, up to 10 MB, and a description saying whatever you want it to say — or nothing. It goes live as your active generation.

  3. Point your catalog at it

    In the Catalog, grant that generation access to an album or a single track: a date it opens, and whether streaming is free or paid for them. Stack groups to stagger a release across cohorts.

  4. Close it when you are ready

    Creating the next generation closes the last one. That cohort is now sealed, permanently and publicly, and can never be joined again.

FanSociety is its own protocol, and there's more about it at fansociety.xyz.