#fandistro

FanDistro Artist Platform to Accept Bitcoins

By Alex Pham, billboard.com

FanDistro, a marketing and sales platform for artists, announced it is accepting bitcoin as payment, becoming one of the first music platforms to jump into the rapidly growing but highly volatile currency.

Bitcoin, invented in 2009, is an unregulated currency that has started to catch on with major retailers and merchants such as Overstock.com, Zynga, Virgin Galactic and select Etsy sellers who accept bitcoin payments.

For FanDistro, the primary advantage of using bitcoin is that it allows artists to avoid paying credit card payment processing fees, which typically eat up anywhere from 5% to 10% of every sale, said FanDistro Founder Michael Penfield.

FanDistro Becomes 1st Music Marketing Platform To Accept Bitcoin, Adds $700K Funding

By Bruce Houghton, hypebot.com

FanDistro, a marketing platform that rewards fans and charities for selling music and merch, has become the first music marketing service to accept controversial alternative currency and payment system Bitcoins. The move not only puts FanDistro and the artists they service at the forefront of an increasingly popular trend, but lowers transaction costs to zero.

The Connecticut based startup also just landed $700,000 in Angel funding. FanDistro’s previous round was $450,000 in August of 2011.