Slicethepie, the web-based artist financing engine that lets musicians and bands raise money to make a professional record, has partnered with Fontana Distribution, the “indie” arm of Universal Music Group Distribution. The arrangement will see Fontana act as a sort of A&R middle-person by recommending the best Slicethepie artists to their network of over 80 labels across the U.S. each month, thus offering the potential for an actual record deal or at least formal, albeit, independent label distribution.
Though comparable to other crowdfunding platforms, such as Sellaband, Slicethepie mixes social features in which fans help discover new talent and offer funding through a stock exchange system where they can also trade their artist investments.
Fans can get a return on their money based on a percentage of sales of the final record, with Slicethepie taking a commission on the re-sell of artist investments (called ‘contracts’) and a royalty of any record sales generated. However, as of today, the royalty is being dropped, so that financed artists now keep 100% of proceeds from their completed EP or album.
Along with that change and the Fontana partnership, Slicethepie has also announced other changes to its service: full conversion to $US, and complimentary subscriptions for artists to the premium services offered by Tunecore, SoundOut, Nimbit, SoundCloud, Sonic Bids, and Jango.
On that note, Grace Hammond, SVP Marketing at Slicethepie, comments “We’re delighted that so many of the leading players in the digital music ecosystem have pledged their support to artists securing finance on Slicethepie. This, combined with the Fontana partnership, will give them the best chance of building a career both online and through the traditional label structure.”