Kickstarter in early 2016 acquired Drip, a service that paired independent artists and record labels with those interested in supporting them financially via subscriptions. It was kind of like Patreon, but specifically for music.
Drip has operated more or less in the same manner since the acquisition but that’s now changing.
The crowdfunding platform on Wednesday announced it is rebooting Drip, opening it up to the full spectrum of artists and creators it currently supports on Kickstarter. In other words, Drip now welcomes content creators of all sorts – filmmakers, game designers, authors, etc. – not just those involved in the music industry.
In announcing the reboot, Kickstarter said they’ve seen the growing validation of subscriptions for serial online content creators through services like Patreon, Steady and Flattr. Rather than compete directly with those platforms, Kickstarter believes it can operate Drip alongside them. In fact, Kickstarter said it will even help creators export data and content as well as transfer subscription and payment information should they decide to change subscription platforms.
Drip stands a good chance of finding success. Unlike other platforms, Kickstarter is well-established in the creative community, a fact that’ll provide the service with a solid initial user base and lots of validity. Kickstarter could also elect to more tightly integrate its core service into Drip down the road with backer rewards and so on. The future is bright, for sure.
The new Drip is invite-only for now, launching with 61 hand-selected artists. The plan is to roll out of beta early next year.
https://www.techspot.com/news/71902-kickstarter-reboots-drip-now-compete-patreon.html
