Last August, I wrote an article about how Fairtunes.com was a "virtual tipjar" for today's musicians. The site is a service that connects fans with artists directly. Fans can use Fairtunes to make financial contributions to an artist in the name of a particular song or album. Fairtunes says they locate any artist the user specifies and will forward them the money in a fast and accountable way.

When I first heard about Fairtunes back in August, there had been a total of 322 contributions made to artists. (Totaling over $1200.00 in U.S. money and over $245.00 in Canadian money.) Tori Amos had earned $50.00, making her the artist that has been paid the most at the time and Metallica had been "tipped" a total of $11.00.

Now that the site has had a few months for word to spread, I thought I would check back in to see how their idea of artist compensation is working.

To date, Fairtunes.com has had a total of 1037 contributions totaling $6069.81 being "donated" in U.S. money and $617.08 in Canadian. Interestingly enough, the number two "most compensated" person on the Fairtunes Top 10 by Gross list is Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel which powers the Gnu/Linux operating system. (He has been given $172.53.) And as for Tori Amos, who was number one back in August, she didn't even make the Top 10.

When I spoke to Matt Goyer, cofounder of Fairtunes.com, he said, "The response from fans has been fabulous. Of course I'd like more people to send money to their favorite musicians. What's been interesting to see is that some fans have taken the idea of voluntary payments and extended to other domains. For example, Linus Torvalds (developer of Linux) is now our number two artist." Goyer went on to add, "The response from artists continues to be positive. While we don't hear back from major acts we do know that they are cashing the checks that we send them. (Acts like David Bowie, Tom Petty, Courtney Love.)

Fairtunes has also added a new plugin for Winamp that "takes the guesswork out of who you should be sending your voluntary contributions to by keeping track of your favorite artists and favorite songs. It makes sending money as easy as right clicking." For more information, visit http://www.fairtunes.com/download/.

I think this is terrific. ...and, while it may not be an astronomical amount, I feel they're headed in a good direction and their hearts're in the right place.

yes, they do have the right state of mind for this project, even though it might not be bringing in as much cash as the artists want.

[doobybrain]

I think it's funny that the major artists cash the checks from Fairtunes, yet they haven't responded to the site.

~Heidi

Linus should just retire from charging thousands of dollars for public speaking engagements. If this keeps up, he could have ~$250 by year end without any real effort.. courtesy of Fairtunes.com

I'll bet it's because, rather than be grateful that, unlike the labels they're signed to, there's a company out there tryin' ta work in their best interest, they're put off by the relatively small numbers. Unfortunately, I think in most cases it takes a struggling artist ta fully appreciate Fairtunes.

But you forgot to say that I'm the fourth most paid Fairtunes artist (after Courtney, Linus and Future of Music) and the third most 'succesful' in terms of number of payments (after Ani di Franco and Linus).

Check out my songs - http://www.tobyslater.com - and if you like it, place a tip - http://www.fairtunes.com/artistinfo.jsp?caller=url&artist=93963

and I can't spell. Sorry.