Please look for our crowdfunding campaign starting the end of April!
We’ve been incredibly busy here since our last update. We’ve been applying for grants, working on our value proposition canvas, business model canvas, connecting with local co-ops in DC, our crowdfunding campaign (which we’ll launch soon!), and been reviewing the first draft of our operating agreement.
jodi, one of our founding members, has been participating in a couple cooperative development cohorts. The first is Start.coop's #BlackCoopsMatter Peer Circle which commenced in February during Black History Month and finished earlier this month. They were also accepted for the Cooperative Leaders and Scholars program which is hosted by the Cooperative Development Foundation and NCBA CLUSA. During their time in the Cooperative Leaders and Scholars program, they'll have the opportunity to connect with fellow cooperators virtually and during in-person conferences. Be on the lookout in the upcoming weeks for their reflections on their experiences and some of what they learned during these cohorts. jodi is also Mirlo's Artist Liaison! On Tuesday, April 30th between 3:00 and 6:00 pm EST, they'll be hosting in-person info sessions in the Lower East Side in New York City.
As for some money stats, in March we had $39 worth of album purchases move through Mirlo, and our monthly artist support contributions are currently adding up to $295 a month. The highest artist monthly income is $40/month, while the Mirlo team currently gets $190 a month. This is almost enough to cover our infrastructure costs, which clock in at $225 a month. We’re stoked that people are excited about the platform, and that some artists have actually made money through it!
Of course we’d like to do more than pay for infrastructure—it takes a lot of time to maintain Mirlo and work with our community, as well as all other costs associated with running a business. We’d love to be able to compensate our team members for the hours spent and money invested working to make Mirlo a success. This is why we're launching a crowdfunding campaign in a couple of weeks, but in the meantime you can pitch in on our team page.
In the past month we’ve had 35 artists join, which brings our total to 137 artists with 276 albums uploaded (though only 232 published, which is something we should investigate!).
Here’s some of the things we’ve rolled out:
We’ve been working on more consistent / better mailing list handling, notifications, and email sending. It still has some edges that need to be cleaned up but most of it is live.
A lot of bugs and minor visual and clarity improvements based on feedback from you!
Did a lot of work on the admin section of the site, enabling us to get some of the stats listed above! This will be great for when we start making it easier to self install Mirlo.
We now have download codes! You can send press releases, bundle digital music with merch, or just let your friends and family download music for free.
Made embeds for albums more accessible and easy to use. You can embed your music in your own site or blog! Perfect for music writers.
Want to help out?
We’d love to talk to any musicians who want to help out at Mirlo. Email us or register for our office hours.
If you’re a small record label and want to help us figure out small record label features, please get in touch.
If you’re into devops and want to help us make Mirlo more robust and easier to install, we’d love your help!
Look out for our crowdfunding campaign, coming at the end of the month!
You can also follow us on socials:Mastodon,Instagram, andTwitter/X pages.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://mirlo.space/team/post/32