Ask HN: Swoopo like auction for musical bands?

[bart]

Hello Hackers, I see lot of musicians there so I would like to ask you thoughts about the idea which we would like to take into the life.

The problem : Musical bands are looking for additional revenue streams. They own the brand and could have thousdants of followers, which are happy to buy merchandise items.

Solution : Our site should provide musical bands with additional money by auctioning for rare musical items like "Drumstick signed from Dave Grohl", "Dinner with Linking Park", "Act in the Metallica video", "Shirt of Britney Spears", etc.

The site should adopt swoopo like auction model. The reason is, that band can earn more money and rare item can be bought by fans, who are not the richest.

Do you think that it can work both for musical bands and also for fans?

[SwellJoe]

I strongly suspect the Swoopo model will be deemed to be illegal in the not distant future, at least in the US. It is either gambling in the form of a raffle, or a ponzy scheme, or some combination of the two, which are heavily regulated or illegal, respectively. Of course, Swoopo also does other things that are very probably illegal (offering products under different names in different markets on the same "auction", but only having one "winner").

I would also, personally, have serious ethical qualms about targeting the dumbest people with a rigged game. Screwing really dumb people just seems low, since they also tend to have the least disposable income.

But, I suppose if you're not concerned about the ethical greyness of the idea, and you're not concerned about the business having to change rapidly in the future due to legal barriers, and you're not concerned about the fines and probable gambling backtaxes you'll end up paying, and the huge potential for class action lawsuits, etc. the Swoopo model is making a small number of people fantastically wealthy in a very short period of time. The Swoopo founders will probably still end up very rich, even after they spend some time in court and have to dramatically alter or shut down Swoopo.

[pedalpete]

it's a decent idea, the problem i see is that i think the service only really applies to bigger bands. for indies, how many people would you really have bidding up the value of these items?

i also think as a complete service, it might not work. would i go to your site to go and find memorabilia? i would expect to go directly to th artist page, so a widget might work, but why wouldn't the artist use ebay?

[bart]

Good point, I think that widget should be key part of the service. Maybee it will be better to completely get rid of the marketplace on our site.

You are right, that it could work for bands, who have decent user base. Indie bands will not be able to find enough followers bidding on the unique items.

The reason, why swoopo like auction could benefit band and their fans is, that at the Ebay, just the richest win. But there it is more like the lottery. Everybody has the same chance.

The biggest problem for me is to find bands with enough fans to try it.