One of the most prominent startups helping musicians and influencers to make money from their superfans has been acquired.
We last wrote about Patreon-style company Fanhouse in May 2022 when it raised a $20m funding round, and before that in 2021 when EDM duo The Chainsmokers’ VC fund invested in the startup. They were also one of its most prominent users.
Now Fanhouse has been acquired by a newer company in the fan-funding space called Passes, which itself has just raised $9m of seed funding. The price paid for Fanhouse has not been announced.
“In a few weeks, all creators will be offered a seamless transition over to their personalized Passes page. Fanhouse will keep running during this transition and for a period after,” explained Fanhouse, while stressing that this is an opt-in process.
“Passes won’t get any data/content or make you a page unless you opt-in — if you do, it will be a secure transfer,” it promised.
Passes is similar to Fanhouse: a way for creators to launch subscriptions for fans. However, one of its differences is that it has been building ‘AI clones’ for some of its own customers.
“This feature is not live on Passes and is still in the prototype stage,” it noted in its own FAQ on the acquisition. “We understand that some creators dislike the concept of AI trained on their likeness– we totally understand that. We will never train an AI Clone on a creator’s account without their explicit request and permission.”
We should think so too!
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