This article originally appeared on Medium, as part of the Open Music Initiative.
We believe in purpose-driven music. What do you believe?
The business side of creating music can be confusing, exhausting, and feel far removed from one’s artistic mission. But what if it didn’t have to be?
We’re Pufferfish, and we plan to change everything.
Artists united.
Whats the problem?
If you were to ask a musician why they got into the music business, it is deeply unlikely that they will respond, “for the money”. So many creators do the work they do because they were born to do so; they love connecting with people, sharing emotions, and maybe they even hope to change someone’s world.
Until this dream becomes a reality, Pufferfish wants to help.
But, if you want the time to be able to create good, affecting work, you’ll have to find a way to feed yourself too.
Across the board, one of the biggest complaints from artists was that the process of releasing music responsibly, in a way that ensured maximum compensation, was confusing, exhausting, and very far-removed from what they wanted to be doing. Sometimes, they felt more like a compilation of usernames and passwords than creators, and even the word “business” felt dirty. So we set out to clean it up.
Who/what is a Pufferfish?
Pufferfish believes in purpose-driven music. Our purpose is to help artists feel good about getting paid for their work by taking control of their businesses in an honorable way.
When you become a Pufferfish artist, we will compile all of the usernames, passwords, documents and more that make up your data identity, and put them in one manageable place. Then, we allow you to ascribe a social value to your work and grow a story around your creation by choosing a cause to support.
Once you connect your various accounts and select your cause, we will send you a Puffercard that contains all of your artistic data. Then, whenever you are ready to release new work to the world, all you have to do is swipe your Puffercard, enter the song details, and then let us handle the rest. Check it out below.
Here are some snapshots of our interface.
This is an example of the process for singer-songwriter V Blackburn to release a song in honor of the Orlando shooting victims.
What’s the bigger picture?
As we move forward with Pufferfish, we hope to grow a database of musicians, producers, songwriters, and caused-based companies so that all parties in the creation chain can use this as a connection tool, and fans can gain a new insight to their favorite artists.
We also see great potential for events such as Pufferfish Festivals in which artists across all genres, but with like causes, can come together on one stage.
A few things we’re wondering is if we could allow artists to support multiple causes, and in what ways we could define “support”?
