Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Pricing
How do payouts work? Do you use Stripe? PayPal? Wise?
We use Stripe to process payments. Artists will have to create an account with Stripe, linking their bank account or debit card to the service to receive payouts. Then as users purchase their albums or subscribe to them, this money will be sent directly to their Stripe account.
We've looked at other payment platforms like PayPal and Wise, but currently the work associated with maintaining and implementing them is beyond our ability to do so as volunteers.
Product
What are some of Mirlo's features?
Table TBD
What are the long term goals of Mirlo?
Our goals, informed by our Observations and Intent, will grow and change along with the community.
That said, we would like to make it easier for other groups (like music labels or other co-ops) to install the software. We’d also like to look into building plug-ins and other tools that are useful for artists (for example, plug-ins that help to make your music available on aggregators like Distrokids or other platforms).
Eventually, we hope to exit to our community, by bringing in musicians and other key stakeholders into the decision making process.
What's on your product roadmap?
We have a "version 1" in mind for Mirlo that we outline on our blog.
Check out our GitHub issues tracker for what we're working on, and what's on our ideas list to vote on what you'd like to see.
Can I sell Merch? CDs? Vinyl? T-shirts?
Yes! You can use Mirlo to sell your merch. Check out our features page for a full list of artist features.
Technical details
Are you open source?
Yes! And we want your help 🙂. Check out our code.
Tell me about your tech stack.
Our front-end is a TypeScript react app and our back-end is a node TypeScript express app. Our API and background jobs are hosted on Render. Our files are hosted on Backblaze. You can see all of our code on GitHub.
About the organization maintaining Mirlo
What makes you different from other orgs or groups?
We are different from other groups doing this kind of work because:
- we are rooted in mutual aid and is stewared by a worker co-op, which intends to exit-to-community as a multi-stakeholder cooperative;
- It’s open source and is working together with other similar products to build towards a standard-based and sustainable ecosystem.
How are decisions made?
Mirlo is maintained by a worker co-operative heavily rooted in a community of musicians and other interested people. Every feature on the platform is developed with input and insights from the community.
What are the main blockers facing Mirlo?
Our main blocker is paying our worker-owners to make space to work on Mirlo. Since we don't take venture capital money to fund our project we are almost entirely dependent on the support of our community. Want to talk about this? Via e-mail or on our Discord.
Want to support us with a monthly gift? Do so on our team's own Mirlo profile.
How can I get in touch?
Our community is primarily hanging out on the Discord. Come say hi!
Support
Can people see my personal informations when they buy things from my artist page on Mirlo ?
No ! When people buy things from your artist page, all they see during and after the Stripe checkout process is your Mirlo shop and artist name, none of the personal information you provide Stripes when setting up your account are shared with customers. We understand that this is a priority for many people, since a lot of artists tend to have pseudonyms, or don't necessarily operate from a business location and want to avoid their personnal address to be disclosed.
Other questions
Have you heard /project x/?
Probably! As individuals we’ve worked with and in Resonate and Ampled, and we’re in touch with or have spoken to a couple of other projects that are doing very similar things like jam.coop, faircamp, ampwall, patrontape, tone.audio, subvert, and some others. We’re hoping to continue talking to these folks and build towards standardization of resources and tech APIs so that our services can talk to each other and musicians can easily switch between them. If there’s a project you want to talk about, bring it up in our Discord!