New music sharing app, EQUA.LS, will pay listeners to recommend releases
A new music sharing iOS app called EQUA.LS claims to pay its users for recommending releases to others
As part of the app’s ‘tastemaker’ program, users will be able to claim a 5% fee for any sale that originated through their ‘Grid’, essentially turning every user into an affiliate for the artist. The 5% is taken out of EQUA.LS platform fee, and not the artist’s.
Users can only display music on their Grid that they have purchased themselves. They can have up to 15 recommendations on their Grid at any one time. Tastemakers are paid in credits that can be exchanged for more music through the platform with their in-app currency, though the company says you’ll soon be able to withdraw your fee in your local currency. Grids can be discovered through the in-app search function. Artists already on the platform include Babymorroco, Saint Ludo and Scott Garcia with more artists set to be onboarded soon.
EQUA.LS inception comes from a “decentralised amorphous network of developers, engineers, designers, stylists, club promoters and strategists” with backgrounds in “Meta, Nike, Boiler Room and more.”
From the UK government demanding that streaming economics undergo a “total reset”, to the vast majority of music on Spotify becoming demonetised, how music fans consume and collect music from their favourite artists – and how tech platforms gatekeep that experience – has been increasingly under the microscope. EQUA.LS claims it is attempting to reframe ownership and community, creating an organic peer-to-peer recommendation system that rewards those who engage, away from opaque algorithms.
The announcement comes just days after the news that Aslice – a company started and funded by DVS1 that encouraged DJs to share a percentage of their fees with the producers whose music they play in their set – has closed down. Any app or new service that promotes fair and equal remuneration for artists has its work cut out for it.
