Flattr: The Social Micro Payment App, Are they trying to bring a change in the market?

I’ll not be reviewing Flattr like we review other apps, because Flattr is not your usual networking or gaming app, but instead a social micro payment app started by Peter Sunde and Linus Olsson.

Some Littile Basics:

It’s started with an intention to help creators and artists make money depending upon the number of likes, called as Flattrs they receive from the users consuming their work online.

As a user you Sign-up with Flattr, you decide your budget for donations, amount of money you would like to set aside for your favorite artists and creators. You add money to your Flattr account using your Credit or Debit Card or your Paypal account.

At the end of each month your donations are divided into the number of Flattrs you make i.e. the number of likes you give to the stuff, you are reading, listening or viewing. On the 10th of the following month your money will be distributed to the artists and creators you Flattred.

From the creator’s perspective, you get paid for your content, which is liked by the consumers. This would help you to improve, help you to understand the kind of content users like, and hopefully should also help you to understand your target audience. I am not sure about the target audience part, because I don’t know, whether the creators are being provided with any analytics or demographic stats, but if they would, that would have been really helpful.

What are they trying to do?

Now that I have given you a glance at the basics of the Flattr, it reminds me of Lesson 1 by Swedish Entrepreneur Jonas Birgersson CEO of Labs2, “There is no Conflict between Creator and Consumer.“ Watch this little video here.

So they want to connect the Creator directly with the Consumer, in Lesson 2 of Jonas Birgersson, he says, we have 3 parties, the Creator, the Consumer and the Non Creative Non Consuming Organisations, they basically want to keep heir very big part of the revenue share.

To some extent I do agree with Jonas Birgersson, but in most of the cases, I’ve observed the media agencies, the agents, production houses, PR executives,etc. play a very important role in the success of the artist. They promote the artist, they keep track of the target audience, come up with creative ideas on how can the artist perform better and make an impact. They themselves may not be an artist, but they put in a lot of hard work.

No famous artist or performer carries himself on the success path alone, there’s a team behind the artist that keeps up his tempo, so he is energetic and creative and also helps him to come up with ideas.

I am not sure how popular Flattr will be, but I do wish it becomes a success, because it seems like a noble initiative of connecting the Creators directly with the Consumers and allowing Consumers to pay only for what they like.

In case an artist wants to stay away from the limelight and still make some cash, this may be a good platform, but will require a lot of hardwork.

Do let us know your thoughts about Flattr.

Photo Source: flattrcom