Fan club platform FanCircles has expanded its ranks by securing partnerships with Paloma Faith, The Levellers, Ed Harcourt and Bon Jovi guitarist Phil X.
The artist-centric company, has provided musicians, YouTubers, TV shows and other celebrities with a new, sustainable income stream via their own private fan club platform, and has attracted more than 500,000 users to date.
FanCircles founder and CEO Kevin Brown said the platform was the latest evolution of the classic fan club model.
“Fancircles provides a platform for a wide range of artists and personalities in music and beyond, which essentially gives them their own direct to fan channel away from social media and the major streaming services,” he said. “That’s not to say we’re on some crazy mission to bring these companies down – quite the opposite, we want artists to have somewhere for all those roads to lead to rather than taking fans around in circles.”
Brown, founder and former CEO of tech giant Awin.com, the UK and Europe’s biggest affiliate network, which was acquired by Axel Springer in 2012, added: “We’re all creatives ourselves and wanted to make it easy for artists to control their own content without getting bogged down in tech and the analytics that go with it – more time to create and share.
“We are the missing link in the ecosystem. FanCircles bridges the gap between social media, streaming and retail. A perfect solution for artists at any stage of their career with support from a team of music obsessives who have complete understanding of the evolving music and tech marriage.”
For a monthly or annual subscription fee, fans can unlock benefits such as exclusive content and competitions, early access to tickets and premium-only giveaways. Popular features have included band chats, song masterclasses, cooking, wine tasting and film reviews, while exclusive merchandise and products have sold out with no promotional costs incurred.
Based on streaming revenue estimates, clients need to sign up just 50 annual subscribers to make the same money as one million streams, with the added benefit of having the data of 50 people and an engaged fanbase in a like-minded community where they can be reached 100% of the time away from the increasing toxicity of the established social media sites.
Through FanCircles, The Levellers have already amassed more than five times’ the amount of members of their existing fan club.
Jon Sevink, the fiddle player in The Levellers, said: “The app is the most creative and immediate way we have of communicating with fans. We think of it as an interactive online magazine where we can express our creativity using music, artwork and videos. Combine that with live video, a fans-only ‘wall’ and ticket and merchandise links and there really is something for everybody.
“It has become a vital communication tool for us while there are no live concerts and once we’re back out on the road again it will be invaluable for passing on information and a place where fans of the band can come together.”
Author: Kevin Brown
Kevin, the CEO of FanCircles, is a serial entrepreneur with extensive experience in both the tech and music industries. He has managed arena-level artists and founded Affiliate Window (Awin.com), which he successfully exited in 2012 after its acquisition by Axel Springer. Recognizing the needs of artists and labels to connect directly with fans, he embarked on the journey of establishing FanCircles.
