D.I.Y.

Rabbl Expands Concert Crowdfunding Service With New Fan Rabbls

Rabbl-logoThe concert crowdfunding space continues to inch along. Rabbl's one of the few staying the course and yesterday they announced a new feature called Fan Rabbls. Fan Rabbls allow fans to propose campaigns for Rabbl while giving the service a boost on Facebook. Though it's not the innovation claimed in their official announcement, it is an important addition to one of the few companies trying to figure out how to make concert crowdfunding work.

I've written about most of the leading attempts at concert crowdfunding though not all. For example, I haven't yet gotten to Muziko which is a fairly new entrant in the field.

To be honest if this wasn't an emerging space with a lot of potential, I probably wouldn't be talking about most of these companies. The user numbers and success seems relatively small. At this point Songkick Detour seems to be the leader but, as I understand it, Detour is still an experiment with the power of Songkick behind it so it's a unique case.

Though Rabbl seems to be growing quite slowly, they did get $775k in funding which gives them a shot at staying the distance. And that makes a new feature worth considering at this stage.

Rabbl's New Fan Rabbls

Rabbl's announcement states:

"Before RABBL, fans were only able to request a band play their hometown by commenting on the band's Facebook page, or through similar social media interactions, though such comments are unspecific as to dates and not backed by financial commitment."

Given that they were preceded by multiple companies one is reminded that claiming first isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Rabble-facebook-app

Rabbl's Facebook App After Initial Install

That said here's what how they describe their Fan Rabbls:

"In order to create a Fan Rabbl, users can easily install the free Facebook App direct from RABBL.com by clicking the blue 'Sign in with Facebook' button at the top right corner of the page. Once installed, the 'My Account' link in the header brings up the application, allowing fans to create a Fan Rabbl by simply inviting the artist. The fan simply needs to list the city and date for the show, the name of the artist, and—if the artist isn't already using RABBL—the artist's booking or management email address."

"The rest is handled by RABBL. Using proprietary technology, RABBL calculates what that artist would typically earn, and then sends an invitation to the artist on behalf of the fan, giving the artist the chance to approve, ignore or edit the Fan Rabbl. If the artist approves, the rabbl is published and fans can vote by reserving tickets. If enough tickets are reserved to meet the artist's goal, the show can be booked. If the show happens, RABBL adds a small service fee on tickets to cover credit card processing, and the fan that created the Fan Rabbl gets two free tickets."

Up till now Rabble only allowed bands to start crowdfunding campaigns. Now they let fans request campaigns but you have to do so from the Facebook app.

It feels a bit like a growth hacking technique since it's just a request that they ask the band to consider but you have to take this extra step that publicizes Rabbl. However it's not a huge demand, though a possible roadblock for some, and it will be interesting to see if this becomes a growth driver.

I don't have any ties to Rabbl but I hope they do well. Concert crowdfunding could become a powerful tool for musicians but it's still in the wait and see stage with the most successful campaigns to date likely to be found on sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo.

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Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch) posts music crowdfunding news @CrowdfundingM. To suggest topics about music tech, DIY music biz or music marketing for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.

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