Where Money Goes
For artist support, here's how the money breaks down. We'll use the example of someone supporting an artist for $10/ month, since it's an easy round number.
Payment Processing Fees We use Stripe Connect to help processes payments in a secure and compliant way. Stripe charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, which is an industry standard. This payment processing fee is shown during checkout as someone is supporting an artist and is added onto the nominal support amount (like taxes or shipping would). For artist support of $10.00, the payment processing fee would end up being $0.59, making the total charge to the supporter $10.59.
Membership Dues As determined by a collective vote in January 2021, membership dues are a sliding scale choice for artists-- either 7%, 10%, or 13% of their artist support will go towards Ampled's operating expenses. The choice is up to artists and can be changed at any time in the artist page settings. We also allow for hardship exemptions.
Ampled's membership dues will go towards a few things (1) A pool to pay back contributors that have helped build & grow the platform, (2) A small percentage dedicated to repaying investor loans, (3) Operating expenses to help build and grow the platform.
We are participating in an accelerator program called start.coop which has invested $18k in Ampled. We have also received loans from friends and family to help give runway to get the product off the ground. This money was raised by utilizing revenue-financing, a debt instrument that does not give any ownership or control to investors. We are setting aside a small percentage of the co-op’s income to pay back these investors to a capped return. The investment terms we used were developed in partnership with CUNY Law School and their Community and Economic Development Clinic.
The remaining revenue for the co-op goes towards operating expenses - staff salaries and general overhead. To view these expenses, see the "salaries", "services" and "profit and loss statement" sections.
Last modified 2yr ago