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Alternate title: '''How to create a rainy day fund for your artist.'''
During the Covid-19 lockdown, our artists have now lost a year's worth of income that would have come from public performances. Please support your artist by buying their music, joining their Patreon and tipping on their vlog live-casts. What the pandemic has exposed is that most successful indie artists have a core following of a couple of hundred engaged fans, the other 150,000 fans are apathetic and uninvolved. To make matters worse, music streaming has killed CD sales and music downloads -- most indies just don't have the volume to make it on hundredths of a cent per stream.[https://www.riaa.com/u-s-sales-database/ RIAA Data]
The following is for those super-fans who want to do a little more for their artist in the form of a rainy day account giving. (We are complicit in our artist's risky career choice, because we encourage them to give us more music.)
== Concept -- personal experience ==
On May 7, 2015, I sent $3.07 worth of BitCoin (BTC) to a tipping platform called ChangeTip to give to my favorite artist, she never claimed the BTC and the company returned it to me when they went out of business. As of this morning (March 19, 2021) that 0.0131046 BTC ($3.07) is now worth $763.91. (I certainly hope she does not ask me for it now because I don't have it anymore!!!)
= Rainy day funding and risk warning =
Before we go any further, <u>this concept involves Bitcoin (BTC) and putting some portion of one-hundred dollars of your money at risk</u>, most of us keep more than that in a bank account that gains zero interest. If you can't afford to lose some or all of your seed money -- do not participate.
::'''Step 1.''' Have your artist create an account at coinbase.com to receive BitCoin. In the left menu, the artist selects "Earn rewards" > "Invite friends" > "Copy link". This is an affiliate link(www.coinbase.com/join/YOUR_REFERRAL_ID), where the artist (and you) will receive $10.00 (in Bitcoin) if you join Coinbase and purchase $100.00 worth of Bitcoin The , the current processing fee you pay is should be $2.99.
::'''Step 2.''' This is a rainy day fund, don't be in a hurry to purchase your BTC, you have [https://help.coinbase.com/en/coinbase/other-topics/other/the-coinbase-referral-program 180 days] to purchase at this address {{highlight|https://www.coinbase.com/trade}}. Bitcoin prices can fluctuate several thousand dollars over the course of a week, buy low -- sell high.
::'''Step 3.''' Once you have purchased your BTC, your artist will receive her referral commission and your on-going support can start. You should now have $97.01 worth of BTC and if you followed step 2, your holdings should increase to beyond $100.00 on the next upswing. When you notice that your balance has increased beyond $100.00, let's say, $112.00, send $12.00 worth of BTC to your artist's BitCoin address (a long cryptic number/characters (s)he will publish on her website or social media page -- this one is mine 3HUH6cqaddCvMs6uHZ6kkY8QtC1MvnF8gt).
= Why not just give the $100.00 or BTC to the artist? =
It's your money to give, but the concept is to create a rainy day fund that the artist does not use for daily expenses, taking advantage of Bitcoin's historical rise in value. Your $100.00 seed investment could generate several hundred dollars per year, at no cost to you. On the other hand, if the artist spends your generous gift, the seed money and hopes for appreciation is gone.
With the Federal Reserve's target inflation rate of 2%, and minuscule interests rates at banks, it does not make sense to save in dollars.