New App Lets Musicians Collect Digital Tips From Fans

Most city-dwellers are familiar with street musicians, the performers for the people who strum guitars, play pan pipes and sing with varying degrees of tunefulness at tourist attractions and on subway platforms nationwide.  To finance their art, many put out a hat to catch tips from those who happen to be passing by.

appLOUD, a new start up and mobile app, thinks it can help turn the web into a virtual subway platform by offering a sort of Instagram-like video that livestreams music from around the nation.

Fans upload content and are given the ability to tag the Twitter handles of the artists they choose to highlight.  Once a Twitter handle is tagged, the app automatically adds links to tip the performer (or their charity of choice), purchase tickets to their next performance or buy their music.

appLOUD takes ten percent of the tips and affiliate fees toward tickets and music sales – though their ultimate goal is to charge vendors a fee to access their data.

Cecilia Pagkalinawan, an entrepreneurship enthusiast, founded the company which has so far only brought in an early round of Angel funding worth about $130K. Pagkalinawan reportedly met with manager, musicians, labels and venues to figure out where the pain points are now, and how mobile might be used to alleviate them.