“I wanted to involve my fans beyond just connecting with them on the stage and through my music,” Walker tells the BBC. “We have raised just above $100,000 [from fans] in our projects so far, but this number is not what makes me tick.
“It’s the thousands of backers that have participated in my projects that will now share the success with me.”
Stockholm-based Corite is the brainchild of music industry veteran Mattias Tengblad, who was previously commercial director for industry giant Universal Music Group.
The idea behind Corite is that up and coming artists can skip signing with record labels – which typically make more money from a successful artist, than the artist make themselves.
Under Corite’s model, artists secure financial backing from their, hopefully, growing fanbase.
In return, fans can hope to earn more money than the sum they have invested. Although it is important to stress that they can lose money.
The way it works is that an artist announces a “campaign” via Corite, typically the forthcoming release of a single. They then detail how much money they are seeking to raise, from just $500 up to tens of thousands, and how much profit they will give to each investor if the song is streamed a certain number of times over the first year of its release.
Typically the rates of return are between 1.4 and 1.7 times the amount a person invests. So if you put in $10 at 1.7, and the song reaches its one-year listening target you’d get back a minimum of $17.
And if the song greatly exceeds its streaming target, the investors will get even more earnings. However, it is a gamble, as if the song flops, and doesn’t hit its goal, then the investors won’t recoup as much money as they put in. Instead they may only get a few pounds or even just pennies back.
To help people decide whether a song is worth investing in, they can listen to a 30-second snippet via the Corite site.
When the song is ready to release in full, Corite uploads it to all the streaming services, and collects and distributes the revenues to the artists and the fan investors.