IOUmusic, in a similar vein as other grassroots, crowdfunding applications such as Kickstarter and RocketHub, is a new donation website that's focused on assisting musicians and providing them with alternative means to fund their creative projects.
As well, they are positioning themselves as a way for fans to pay artists for music that they have obtained for free. The founders of the company state that while this is their first incarnation, as a crowdfunding app, they are open to evolution of the site as the needs and wishes of artists change. From the payments to the artist, garnered from their fans, IOUmusic takes a 10% cut.
Two Alternatives
According to Maria Popova at Brain Pickings, “Kickstarter charges a flat fee of 5%, but also passes along the Amazon Payments transactional fees (3%-5%) to the artists who use the platform, for a total fee anywhere between 8% and 10%. RocketHub charges a flat total fee of 8%." Thus, depending on your goals, there are the fees to consider, but sometimes one site just feels better than the other.
(via IndieMusicTech)
