Patronism is a tool for musicians to augment or replace dwindling CD sales with sustaining subscriptions. Our platform allows people who love music to connect with and support the music they love.

Patronage is the oldest way to fund the arts and Patronism is the newest way to do it.

If you are a band or musician who would like to start using Patronism please fill out our application form.

If you are a music lover who would like to get your favorite band or musician on Patronism, please tell them about us and make a pay-what-you-feel pledge of support.

Stewardship

Musicians - we are simply stewards of your career. We don't claim any of your rights; we don't use your music in any way without your express permission. We create tools and you use them in whatever way benefits you and your patrons the most.

Patrons - 85% of your support goes directly to your artist(s). Then we pay hosting, storage, bandwidth, etc. The remainder goes to development and maintenance of the site. We also strive to keep the overall quality of work available on the site elevated, to give you the best experience possible.

The Three Pillars

We use our Three Pillars to drive our actions. In everything we do we strive to be:

• Fundamentally beneficial to all parties
• Unquestionably equitable for all parties
• Unflinchingly ethical in every decision and action

We also require our users to apply these rules to their interactions on the site.

To build the best connection between patrons and artists, and define the future of music.

A world full of patrons and artists working together, unfettered by the old corporate system, making a broad variety of truly compelling work for the benefit of humanity.

We are a "For-Benefit" or Fourth Sector company, which is an integrated hybrid of non-profit and for-profit business models.

From FourthSector.net:

"For-Benefits are a new class of organization. Like non-profits, For-Benefits can organize in pursuit of a wide range of social missions. Like for-profits, For-Benefits can generate a broad range of beneficial products and services that improve quality of life for consumers, create jobs, and contribute to the economy.

For-Benefits represent a new paradigm in organizational design. At all levels, they aim to link two concepts, which are held as a false dichotomy in other models: private interest and public benefit. For-Benefits seek to maximize benefit to all stakeholders, and because of their architecture, they can embody some of the best attributes of other organizational forms. They strive to be transparent, accountable, effective, efficient, democratic, inclusive, open, and cooperative."

We employ an intentional and transparent organizational practiced called Holacracy. Dave Kuster, our CTO, found this practice described at BuddhistGeeks.com and it helps us run the company in an agile, responsive manner. Learn more about the practice at Holacracy.org.