Introducing Zapstr / Pitch

Zapstr is a design-only concept (for now) of a music platform that allows artists to own their audience (thanks to nostr) and monetize their music with zaps and streams. It also acts as a discovery platform for everyone else.

Artists keep 100% of their revenue (possibly even more if the platform is healthy and profitable and decides to split revenue with artists). Platform has incredibly low overhead and can monetize with additional contributions.

With zaps, artists can set up splits (prisms) to automatically earn on collaborated works. Nostr allows artists to build their online presence and truly "own" it.

Keep in mind, I am not a developer and don't have a full picture of what is possible and what's not, so I would welcome all developer input here (constructive criticism only).

Links / Previews

• Figma File

• Video recording (presentation)

Vision:

• Possibly bolt12 subscriptions (allow your most loyal fans to subscribe to your work). Reward any way you see fit.

• Automatic built-in wallets for every user. It just works. (option to connect your own)

• Stream sats (30 seconds free, pay for remainder of the song). Configurable to your preferred amount, but recommended a default.

• Zap tracks, artists, fans or shitposts.

• Easy to configure splits (prisms). Want to collaborate with another artist and ensure they get paid their fair share? No problem. Splits make it easy.

• Custom URLS for tracks, artists, playlists.

• Copyright detection outsourced to Youtube (at least initially).

• Native apps (why not?)

• NIP5 spam prevention / monetization strategy (only allow people who have proved their identity to show up in the top lists). User pays the platform to get a NIP5 ID, and the platform uses that to determine if they can show up in the top lists. Without NIP5 from Zapstr you can still do everything else like upload music, share, etc.. but you just won't reach the top lists, thus reducing your discoverability through the platform significantly. This is done to prevent copyright abuse and spam. Once NIP5'ed, abuse of the platform results in revocation of ID, removing you from the ability to rank in the top lists and disqualifies you completely from ever getting NIP5'ed by Zapstr.

• Tags / hashtags for music genres (handled on the front end as inputs to help classify music). OR, we could do interest-based relays, but I am not sure if this would be the most efficient way of handling it. Welcome all input on this. Hash tags would also make it more easily discoverable on other clients that are not music-focused.

• Some minor personalization - make your profile unique with uploadable images.

• Possibly a built-in digital storefront for every account, down the road (this does not exist yet). The idea is that artists, or anyone else for that matter could sell other types of digital content (maybe artwork).

Why this would be amazing

1. No more middlemen and legacy system. Get paid directly by your fans and keep 100% of your revenues. No weird contracts and shady people to deal with.

2. No way to de-platform you. Since it's nostr, you can move platform to platform and always keep your audience. Your audience is there regardless of which client they use to discover you / your work.

3. Easy collaboration. Just set up splits and get paid based on your determined percentages.

4. Fast, super cheap (near free) payments - zaps. Direct connection to your audience, which you can monetize if you wish, or just show them a lot of love.

5. Direct relationship with fans. You could in theory sell one time digital drops, merch, or anything imaginable and get paid instantly. Hell, you could run your account like Instagram and get zapped by beloved fans just for posting photos.

I imagine the ideal artist who join initially would be somewhat undiscovered and new. It may even be someone creating and sharing AI music. As the platform grows and attracts more attention, bigger names can join.

Currently looking for development help to make this a reality. Funding would also be nice, but not absolutely required.

For V1 we would just make sure people can add tracks and get zapped for them. Streaming and all the other bells and whistles can be saved for later. I will probably be one of our first users by uploading AI-generated music, assuming copyright permits it and YouTube has no issues with it.

Preemptive Q&A

Why YouTube? Doesn't that defeat the purpose?

Two reasons: 1. To outsource copyright infringement detection. I would not want to handle this myself, sounds like a legal nightmare. 2. Because it would be easy to build a V1 this way. If / when the concept grows, we could always explore doing it in-house.

What about X, Y, Z of the music industry practices...?

I have no idea. I don't know anything about the music industry. Maybe that's a weakness. But maybe a strength? You decide.

Will this become a reality?

Yes. I will see to it.

How will the track uploads be handled? It doesn't seem like it's a nostr note?

I assume you can format the nostr note via various inputs instead of 1 note. We can then also ask for a hashtag (music category) that automatically gets parsed on the front end as a music category so users can discover it under that music genre. I welcome developer input on this.

I am also not against the possibility of Zapstr being semi-centralized. As long as the audience part is nostr-based, I don't think the music uploading has to be decentralized. Artists always keep copies of their work, and it would be tiny effort to re-upload it on another platform should something happen to Zapstr. Centralizing the music handling process while letting Nostr handle the social aspects would also give the Zapstr team more control over what is possible.

Next steps

I'm looking for development help. Will need front end and backend work. Full stack welcome. You can DM me on Nostr. Once I get some amazing dev help, I will design the rest of the screens (we'll likely need quite a few still).

MVP - we'll hopefully timebox v1 and push for a super quick release. It'll be messy, buggy, whatever, doesn't matter! V1 might just handle track uploading, and nostr integration. V2 - zaps. V3 - streams etc...

If you're someone who can contribute funds in any capacity, I'd be happy to chat! Again, use the DM link plz and I can share an email later. Let's do this! 🚀