See.Me Helps Artists Raise Money and Build Relationships With Fans

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Name: See.Me

One-Liner Pitch: See.Me gives musicians, photographers and artists a dedicated place to promote their work and receive donations from fans.

Why It's Taking Off: The social network helps artists raise money and build relationships with their fans.

Amanda Palmer went viral earlier this year with her TED Talk urging musicians and music labels to make it easier for fans to offer financial support to their favorite artists. "I think people have been obsessed with the wrong question, which is: How do we make people pay for music?" the former Dresden Dolls singer told the crowd during her talk at the 2013 conference. "What if we started asking: How do we let people pay for music?"

As it turns out, at least one startup was already trying to do just that. See.Me, a Brooklyn-based company that launched in November, is a social network specifically for musicians, photographers and artists which provides a platform to display a portfolio of their creative work and raise money directly from fans through a virtual tip jar. It's almost like the digital equivalent of busking: a band or artist can showcase their work and those passing by can choose to show their support for it by clicking to chip in a dollar or sharing that artist's profile with friends on social networks.

"Our focus is simply to support creatives," William Etundi Jr., founder and CEO of See.Me, told Mashable. "Getting recognition and showing off your stuff is important, but the financial aspect makes the recognition more meaningful. That's where the tip jar system comes from."

Starting this week, any artist on the website will be able to enable a tip jar on their page for $1 donations from visitors, or else pay an annual fee of $50 to upgrade their account and solicit funds in varying amounts up to $500. With that premium option, the artist can also provide various rewards for those donations. For example, a musician can choose to email a song file to a supporter or an artist can mail a hard copy of their work. See.Me also charges a $1 fee for every $20 that musicians cash out from the website.

Unlike crowdfunding services like Kickstarter, artists on See.Me are not raising money for particular projects or goals, but simply leaving the door open to donations at any time for any reason. "We want users to create a recurring relationship with users," Etundi says. "Once you donate, you can check a box to receive a monthly list of everyone you've donated to and see their updates."

See.Me grew out of a previous startup from Etundi called ArtistsWanted, which launched a few years ago and helped artists get placed in gallery shows and create online profiles of their work. That project attracted "tens of thousands" of artists in 2011, but the following year Etundi decided to re-focus the service around the profile aspect and re-launch as See.Me. The current iteration has more than 640,000 users.

The startup raised $2.2 million last year from O'Reilly Alphatech Ventures and Founder Collective, and currently has 14 full-time employees working at its headquarters in Long Island City, New York. After Palmer gave her talk, Etundi says he got excited and sent the video clip to the entire staff.

"She speaks to exactly the ethos that we are trying to encapsulate: creating a simple, permanent ongoing way for people to support artists," he said. "We are hoping to be that permanent place for artists."

Images courtesy of Flickr, thatmysnaps and See.Me