Paris (AFP)

While no prospects emerge for tours and festivals, the Patreon sponsorship platform is an option for professional singers and musicians, provided you know how to tune this new instrument.

This digital medium, created in the United States in 2013, is open to all designers, from fashion influencers to philosopher.

But the founder "Jack Conte is a musician, and the DNA at the start is music", as Thomas Koch, France marketing director of Patreon, reminds AFP.

And this week, the platform put Joe Budden in its storefront.

Besides his quasi-disambiguation with the American president, this US rapper ticks all the boxes of the buzz: success in the 2000s with "Pump it up", past drug addict, reality TV shows, big presence on social networks, without forget his big mouth side.

"All our creators are not round and smooth, some have small bumps", laughs Thomas Koch, delighted with the "fame" in the podcast department of the newcomer.

In football, one would speak of a transfer: Budden ceased his podcast activity on Spotify to put on the Patreon jersey, with the key to an advisory role for a "fair creation".

And the rapper, like all the other musicians registered on the platform, offers his fans and other different subscription levels (from 5 to 24 dollars per month) for exclusive content and benefits.

This sponsorship is at the heart of the machine.

- "Closer community" -

"With Patreon, we move away from the model of investors with an objective of profit, clip or album. On Patreon, people adhere to the vision of the artist, give him time, freedom, monetize an emotional relationship and not a deliverable ", analysis for AFP Emily Gonneau, author of" The Artist, the Digital and the Music ".

And the platform takes on the appearance of a refuge with a health crisis that deprives many musicians of their main source of income: concerts.

There is "clearly a Covid effect", confirms Thomas Koch.

Patreon does not detail the 30,000 new global registrations since the start of the pandemic.

But, for music, there has been an "increase in artists from electro", a sector hit hard by the closure of clubs, says AFP Noura Labbani, responsible for relations with creators for France and Belgium at Patreon.

But there are both the French violinist Esther Abrami and Rodrigo y Gabriela, the two Mexican guitarists who invented metal-flamenco.

"We wanted to reach a closer community, since our fans hoped for our music day after day during the first months of the pandemic", exposes by email to AFP this pair from Mexico, a country where there is no help to artists, unlike France.

- "Avoid pitfalls" -

"Rod y Gab", say their followers fond of unpublished pieces, models, questions and answers or even guitar "masterclasses".

Their formulas range from $ 3 to $ 2,823 per month (here with private online service, among others).

"Like any tool, you have to put it at the service of your vision and avoid pitfalls, warns Emily Gonneau. It must not become + the tool recommends that ... +, or + it must be refined my style according to what we expect ... + ".

“The other trap is to think that this solution is suitable for everyone and that it can replace an entire ecosystem in difficulty. However, we must keep other options, such as music for images (soundtrack of films or series , advertising jingles, video game soundtracks, etc.), composing for others, developing merchandising, etc. ”.

If the pandemic subsides and world tours resume, "Rod y Gab" will not leave Patreon: "We will adapt our content to keep sharing a lot."

"If the pandemic disappears, you adjust your offer when you are back on the road, to keep an interesting dynamic for the patrons: less livestream and in return for exclusive content in + backstage + (backstage) at real concerts", agrees Noura. Labbani.

© 2021 AFP