Questions for you…
Looking for a Patreon alternative to create a better fan experience by offering exclusive content?
Had thoughts of selling content and paid subscriptions?
Wish you had direct access to all your stats and fan data so you could market better?
Interested in creating a profitable online fan club?
And what if you could do all this on your own, brandable white-labeled website?
These are the questions Fangage prompts us to ask. But what does it all mean, and how does Fangage – a possible Patreon alternative – solve these problems? That’s what we’ll be considering in this in-depth review.
What Does Fangage Promise To Be Able To Help You Do?
Fangage is a new platform founded by multi-platinum selling Dutch DJ Sam Feldt.
Ever noticed how it’s getting harder than ever to reach your fans on social media? Sure, you can hound the news mills for the latest trending platforms – like TikTok or Clubhouse – and hope to gain first mover’s advantage.
But you can bet that you’re not the only artist thinking that way, and we all know that every platform goes through stages in their evolution that make it increasingly harder over time for you to reach your fans – changes to the platform, algorithm updates, and a dizzying array of competitors vying for the same attention units.
That’s why Feldt created Fangage. He wanted to develop a platform where artists can always reach 100% of their fans all the time.
But that’s not the only problem Fangage solves, nor is it their only promise.
As mentioned earlier, it’s a fully functional system that allows you to host exclusive content and fan experiences, sell content and subscriptions, get access to fan data, and build on your own website complete with all the powerful functionality just mentioned.
What does Fangage’s feature set look like? How do they stack up against the competition? How well does the platform work? How much does it cost? That’s what we’re going to be looking at now.
Keep reading to discover whether Fangage is right for you…
What Does Fangage Offer That Any Other Patreon Alternative Does Not? – Comparison
In this regard, Fangage has done your homework for you.
They’ve compared their platform to Patreon, the fast-growing OnlyFans, Twitter, and Instagram.
The comparison to Twitter and Instagram is perhaps superfluous, given that they can’t compete on any level, but it makes the point.
Where Fangage, Patreon, and OnlyFans are an equal matchup is in the paid content and subscriptions department. Each platform allows you to develop an online membership where your fans can pay to unlock additional content, whether it’s songs, pictures, Q&As, or otherwise.
What the other sites don’t offer that Fangage does includes a fully brandable website, fan data ownership, email and SMS marketing, follow-to-unlock gated content, and fan submissions.
- So, it’s all good and well that this functionality is included, but what benefits can you expect to gain from this feature set? Here is an overview:
- Being able to adorn your website with your own branding means the ability to create recognition and loyalty for your music
- When you have access to fan data, you can actively follow up with your best customers, thereby increasing the lifetime value of every customer
- The ability to communicate with your fans via email and text means you don’t need to utilize other, separate services (that may not sync or talk to each other) to achieve the same ends
- With follow-to-unlock gates, you can give your new fans an easy way to “commit” to you without spending a dime while growing your social media following
- With fan submissions, you can engage your fans in a new way, and create spin-off content, Q&As, remixes, fan recognition, and more based on feedback and participation
Fangage Feature Set – A Powerful & Robust Patreon Alternative
An overview of a platform’s functionality is always helpful. But it doesn’t necessarily tell the full story, just as a book cover doesn’t convey all that’s inside.
Going below the surface demonstrates just how Fangage can deliver on their lofty promises.
Here are some of the things that stood out to us:
- Fans can sign up with just one click. They can register using Facebook, Google, Apple, Spotify, or Twitter. That means less friction to increasing your fan count.
- Automated chat helps mine for more data. Sounds kind of sleazy when we put it that way, but this is a powerful tool for helping you get access to more relevant fan data over time, while developing a relationship with them, without asking for a commitment upfront.
- Fan Relationship Manager lets you manage and segment your fans. It’s been shown that businesses are usually talking to multiple audience segments at a given time, and the best businesses know to send customized messaging to each. Fangage’s FRM makes this possible within your music marketing ecosystem.
- Access to analytics means better marketing. Fangage lets you see exactly what’s working and what isn’t, so you can repeat and iterate on strategies and tactics that engage, versus those that waste time.
- You can integrate other tools. Just in case. You can link Shopify, WooCommerce, Bandsintown, VIRPP, GUTS, Songstats, CM.com, and Fanfiber for additional functionality.
The Fangage Experience – How Does It Stack Up?
Fangage has a professionally designed, streamlined website. And what we know from other tools and resources is that the outer often reflects the inner.
But we went inside anyway, just so we know what we’re dealing with.
Upon clicking on the “Start now” button, we were prompted to select a theme for our website, enter website info (display name and subdomain), personal details, and business details (Fangage has been built to work for all types of creatives, not just musicians).
Once complete, Fangage went to work on creating our demo page. Then we were presented with our dashboard, where we were given a few prompts – promote the new website, create the first page, and set up paid content and subscriptions.
The dashboard is nicely set up and easy to use, with sections for Fans, Content, Engage, Insights, Configuration, Management, and Translations. Fangage also has a friendly “Feature request” link in anticipation of future developments (they already have plans to develop their audio messaging functionality).
Overall, their platform is nicely designed, easy to navigate, and simple to use. And that’s a tall order for what is basically a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution with added functionality like paid content and subscription options.
How Much Does Fangage Cost?
With everything we’ve just explored (and more) on the table, how much would you expect Fangage to cost? $200 per month? $400 per month? $1,000 per month? Not outlandish, as we are basically talking about an enterprise level solution here.
Well, Fangage obviously knows their audience, and their pricing reflects it. Here is an overview of the three plans:
- Talent. Free. This plan comes with unlimited fan profiles and content items, fan relationship manager (FRM), paid content and subscriptions, theme and styling customization, as well as email and SMS communication. The only cost to the Talent plan is 6% processing fees on earnings.
- Star. $39 per month. This plan includes everything in the Talent plan, plus custom pages and menus, the ability to use your own domain names, integrations, file downloads, and free setup support. Processing fees go down to 5% for the Star plan.
- Legend. $79 per month. This plan includes everything in the Star plan, plus follow-to-unlock content, the ability to receive fan submissions, admin user roles and permissions, coupons and contests, and the ability to remove Fangage proprietary branding. Processing fees go down to 4% with the Legend plan.
The Star and Legend plans also come with a 14-day free trial, so you can try before you buy.
Click here to get your free trial.
Concluding Thoughts – Our Verdict On Fangage
Fangage promises to be an all-in-one solution for all types of creators looking to set up a content and membership site / fan club. They are clearly forward thinking in a world where digital marketing is more critical than ever for the average artist trying to build a following and monetize their work online.
Their feature set is robust, and it’s clear they are looking to add additional functionality to cater to the demands of their creators.
If you want to be able to access fan and customer data and engage your fan base in more ways, Fangage is a more than competent Patreon alternative.
Their pricing is beyond reasonable, and if utilized well, you could recoup the cost of joining quite quickly by encouraging your fans to pay for content or a subscription. You even have the option of building up a fan base before committing to a paid plan.
There is one possible challenge we see, though it certainly isn’t unique to Fangage. You’ll still need to build traffic to your website, and that’s never been harder. And, while Fangage promises to be a more reliable way to reach all your fans consistently, it doesn’t make social media moot. Chances are you’ll still be using social media to drive traffic to your Fangage website (and they even encourage this behavior).
So, the best way to take advantage of Fangage is with a dedicated, complete strategy for building and monetizing a fan base.
Click here to try Fangage for free for 14 days.
(Before you go… make sure you get access to my music promotion resources in “The Vault” by clicking here or on the image below)
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