If you ever see a headline in Music Ally talking about how a company “monetizes the Like economy”, please unsubscribe. TechCrunch’s Web 2.Oh-no headline refers to an interesting story though: the idea of micro-payments startup Flattr helping fans pay creators simply by liking their updates or music on Twitter, Instagram, SoundCloud, Flickr, Vimeo, Github, 500px and App.net. The idea being that people sign up to Flattr, set a monthly budget that they’re willing to pay creators, then connect their social accounts. At the end of the month, the money is divided according to the Likes, favourites and stars they’ve dished out to creators signed up to Flattr. GigaOm has some more details, suggesting that the average monthly spend per Flattr user is €4.50, with 1.5m flattrs performed since the service launched three years ago (which, at €0.50 per flattr on average, means users are in the tens of thousands). It’s an interesting idea, but one that needs more scale to be meaningful for creators. The new social plumbing is an attempt to provide it.
Tools: platforms to help you reach new audiences
Tools: Kaiber
In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…