The start-up in focus today is Anjuno, a new arrival in the music sales and download industry. Built and run by some gen y entrepreneurs, Anjuno is certainly starting to carve a niche for itself.
Company: Anjuno
Website: http://www.anjuno.com/
Funding: Private/ seeking funds
Launch date: May 2009
About Anjuno:
The way the music industry is set up now, when an artist sells a song or a CD they only receive a small percentage of the profit. Why should fans pay $.99 on iTunes when the artist only sees $.20, or $15 for a CD when the artist only gets $2 or $3? This is unfair to both the artist and the consumer.
The same thing happens in the book industry. Publishers take the majority of the profit on every book purchase. These corporations no longer need to exist to take these huge amounts of money from artists in the internet era.
Enter Anjuno. Anjuno is a pick-your-price media website where fans discover new music and books.
Anjuno lets any artist post their media and get paid directly by their fans. There is no longer a need to find a publisher for your book, or a record label for your CD. Once the Anjuno community is built up, posting a book or a song will instantly allow your media to be seen by millions of people, absolutely free.
Anjuno is also unique in its payment method. In order to discourage piracy, fans can pick whatever price they want to pay for their media, even $0. Hopefully the fans who were unwilling to pay $15 for a CD would be willing to pay $2 on Anjuno. And since Anjuno doesn’t take huge cuts of the profit, the artist makes the same amount they would’ve made selling the real CD. True fans will support their artists, and artists have the potential of making even more money than they would using a conventional fixed price payment model.
Anjuno is based in Silver Spring, Maryland. It has been up and running for 1 month and is seeking funding. Future plans include adding a video posting feature and making design changes to the site.
