Frequently Asked Questions

• What is BuskerLabel?
  
  • BuskerLabel is an online comunity where fans can discover new music, sponsor their favourite artist and get early and exclusive access to unreleased albums.
• What does BuskerLabel offer?
  
  • BuskerLabel offers passionate music fans a clear and safe place to collectively sponsor and enjoy the music they love.
  • BuskerLabel offers artist a fair reward for their work.
  • BuskerLabel offers everybody the possibility to listen to and download free music sponsored by fans.
• What's the idea behind BuskerLabel?
  
  • The idea is to bring together a number of fans willing to sponsor a digital work so that it can be released and the artist can be payed.
• How does BuskerLabel work?
  
  • The artist uploads audio files of his own new and not yet published album.
  • The Artist fixes the date when to release the whole album to the community.
  • Fans listen to some promo tracks.
  • Fans sponsor the album with some Koin (each Koin is equivalent to 1 €) each.
  • Fan immediatelly gain access to playback whole album.
  • When releasing deadline is achieved fans will be able to download all tracks in loss-less audio formats such as "Wav" or "Flac"
  • The collected money is shared between the Artist (80%) and BuskerLabel (20%).
  • All the Community (non only sponsoring fans) can listen and download (in lossy audio formats such as "Mp3" or "Ogg") for free the whole album at the end of sponsoring period.
• How does the fans benefit from BuskerLabel?
  
  • The fans enjoys the music they has sponsored before anyone else.
  • The fans can download and share the music both in compressed and original formats.
  • The fans have their photo and name in the sponsored album credits.
  • The fans are recognized as true fan of the sponsored artist.
  • The fans are considered a fair music supporters within the community.
  • The fans support and promote the production of new and free music.
• How does the artist benefit from BuskerLabel?
  
  • The artist has a really way to monetize his work using a free music licensing model based on Creative Commons.
  • The artist increases his popularity in the web allowing to download his music freely for personal and non commercial use.
  • The artist is able to establish a better relationship with their true fans.
• How does the whole web community benefit from BuskerLabel?
  
  • The web community will have new, free and legal music at the end of each album sponsoring period.
• How does BuskerLabel live?
  
  • BuskerLabel receives the 20% of each album fund raising.
• What are Creative Commons licences?
  
  • Creative Commons are licenses that enable artist to release their music for free while protecting their rights. They are easy to use and compatible with internet standards, and allow rights holders to authorize (or not) certain uses of their music, such as commercial uses and derived. For more informations, visit Creative Commons.
• What are Koins?
  
  • The Koin is the virtual currency used to sponsor albums and pay artists.
  • 1 Koin is equivalent to 1 Euro.
  • Fans can easly buy Koins from BuskerLabel using PayPal.
  • Fans can decide to retrun their Koins to BuskerLabel in any moment.

I'm a Fan. Tell me more about sponsoring albums on BuskerLabel.

• What happens if I don't like the music I've sponsored?
  
  • You will be able to get back the money you've sponsored during the last five days before relaesing date.
• Can I wait for other fans to sponsor an album and then download it for free?
  
  • Yes you can, but this means your name will not be on the album, you will listen to the music later and you have not access to loss-less audio format download.
  • Artist you like won't receive your support.
• Can I copy and legally share BuskerLabel music?
  
  • You certainly can! Creative Commons licenses allow any copy and sharing of music for personal and non commercial use. The artists are authorizing you!

I'm an Artist. Tell me more about relasing albums on BuskerLabel.

• When is an album considered unreleased?
  
  • When it hasn't been phisically distributed, neither released in digtial format through the web (websites, mySpace, P2P, etc.).
• Why should my album be unreleased?
  
  • Because fans are interested in sponsoring and listening to new music that is not yet available throughout the web.
  • If the music is already available in the web, than fan can satisfy the need to enjoy your new music in other ways. So fund raising would be low.
• Do I have to give BuskerLabel exclusive rights of my album?
  
  • No! You always hold commercial rights on your own music. But you should not release your album on the web before the end of BuskerLabel fund rising period.
• How long should the sponsoring time be?
  
  • All artists are free to decide the length of time, it will depend on how many fans will participate and how much time it will take them to sponsor the album.
• How much money will I be able to make?
  
  • It will depend on the number of fans that sponsor your work. It also depends on the number of fans that decide to withdraw their sponsorship during the evaluation period.
• Which is the lowest and the highest amount a fan can sponsor?
  
  • The lowest share for a fan sponsorship is 1 Koin.
  • There is no maximum limit to each fan contribution.
• What happens if all fans withdraw their sponsorship?
  
  • This is quite unlikely to happen! But if it does BuskerLabel invites fans to comment on the new released music, giving you the opportunity of direct feedback from your fans.
  • You (and BuskerLabel too!) will not however receive any money compensation, but your music will be however rleased under Creative Commons license.
• Can register the same music I publish with BuskerLabel in any collective rights society (MCPS, ASCAP, SOCAN, BMI, BUMA, JASRAC, Siae, Sacem, Sabam, Gema, etc.)?
  
  • No. It will be possible only when these societies will allow to manage separately commercial rights from free personal and non-commercial rights.
  • Creative Commons license is however a valid and consolidated alternative that allows to preserve all commercial rights while freeing those for personal and non-commercial use.
• How do I get to be payed?
  
  • After publish your album, BuskerLabel will credit you the 80% of the Koins gathered during the fund raising.
  • In any moment you will be able to request Koins settlment on your PayPal account.
• In which format do I have to upload my music?
  
  • You have to use a not compressed format, BuskerLabel accepts both Wav and Flac formats.
  • You can not upload lossy formats in order to offer the best possible quality to your true fans.