Freesound Forums

The very first model that came to mind after reading this announcement is a website for free video footage called https://www.videvo.net/

I've contributed there once or twice and I plan to do more as time permits. I've been gathering up some sound bites to contribute to freesound too.

I think it's great you're taking a step towards getting the funding you need to continue freesound.

I have a suggestion: set up a membership system with different types of membership..

"supporter" / "pro user" (pro FREESOUND) etc. for those who donated in the given calendar year...
and something involving the color gray for those who did not... and call them mercilessly "guest users"

all users should have the same level of access, though !!!
and those who contribute content (good content) should be rewarded with a "distinguished contributor" membership, for example

this is a raw idea.. but I'm almost certain that it can be caught .. sorry for this sketchiness

PS:
"a very small yearly contribution from some of these users"

I think this concept is not so.. sustainable... cause it suggests that "some" of us are different than the others... whereas this should not be the case...

I mean.. this is a project... we like it, we use it, we should contribute to its existence, it's that simple.. we all... equally... I mean, relatively equally.. that's why I though up this idea above...

My first reaction was Patreon. Which could work brilliantly if you had a dedicated volunteer to run it. I'll happily volunteer if need be. Using Patreon instead of a native donation feature built into the site would allow for more and easier promotion of the website and the ability to donate.

Although, I believe freesound would be capable of building a donation feature directly into their website with no problems. With that being said, perhaps displaying a "badge" on user profiles who donated. Doing this won't necessarily get someone who wouldn't have donated before to do so but it provides a little thank you to donors, and let's the more hardcore users of Freesound show off their deep support for the project.

In terms of sustainability, increased efforts on social media might yield some results in terms of more users and increased site activity. But again, that would require a lot of effort and another volunteer. Hello! I currently only see MTG's YouTube and Google+ for this. Give the project/site a personality and and regular content schedule, FreeSound will have a large following in no time at all.

As for opening up Freesound to advertisements. Google Adsense is certainly the easiest way to go. But to ensure the user experience on the site remains positive and unchanged I would put a heavy focus on blacklisting certain types of ads from appearing. It will limit the earnings but at least Freesound users will see more relevant ads. I love that freesound doesn't have ads. I hope we won't have to resort to it.

As mentioned previously in this thread, opening up special advertising placements to specific partners might prove worthwhile. Sample pack companies and websites are making huge money today with all the up and coming producers and DJs looking to speed up their production times. They might be a good fit. Podcasts creators are always looking for new sounds, and for film and foley artists this website is a goldmine if you put the time into it. There are plenty of services for those niches and professions that I'm certain would love to advertise on this website.

All in all. I would happily donate a small yearly amount to this website. My first thought is $12USD/yr, $1USD/mo. I'd do that in a heartbeat. I'd certainly go higher. Finding a way to accept cryptocurrency donations could also go a long way. Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin.

I hope you don't mind the long post. I really hope freesound is here to stay.

I have no experience with large community sites as these.. but wouldn't it work the way 500px.com and others do: show ads for regular users and visitors?
For users who want to make a contribution ads will be hidden (let's call them PRO).

You can probably also work together with audio suppliers and audio recording webshops where you provide exclusive discounts (with affilate link) for Pro users.

That could already make some difference probabably.

Or take it a step further: pro users can put a donate button on their profile or next to their downloads where people downloading sounds can give a free donation to the author as a thank you. Either this goes directly to the author (by using paypal / braintree) of you still keep a small percentage for the service.

Also work on the "people" page: make the pro users stand out. There is also still a bug in the recent activity that is displays sounds that are not approved yet.

Give people the change to work on their profile. Make it easier to connect an avatar using gravatar of connecting to Facebook profile photo.
Pro users their uploads can also be activated faster (let's say within 24 hours) instead of 72 for regular users
and more actively moderate the cool sounds and people to follow...

Another thing is the licensing of the API for commercial use.. is it used a lot? Can those rates be changed in the future?

Dear Freesound team,

Your message is very clear and understandable. In order to keep any internet community that expands like this alive and kicking you'll need some funding on one form or another.
What I appreciate very much is the clarity and transperant way in which you communicate this. Unlike SoundCloud (of which I still am an active member because of global connections with other composers / musicians), that generates money (nothing very wrong with that) by including uploaded material that was marked as copyrighted / non-downloadable in their "free" off-line listening service.
Returning to Freesound, I would not mind contributing a small yearly fee to sustain and improve what Freesound currently is.
To me Freesound is not only a cloud from which to download free sounds, but mostly a community allowing me to learn from others, contact others and possibly get feedback other sound workers. Thank you for recognizing that and for sharing your motivation on continuing the service in a sustainable way.

With regards,
Ad van Gerven

An incentive to encourage donations.

Create a page called, for example, "Hall of Patrons".
(No; Not called "for example "Hall of Patrons"". Just "Hall of Patrons", silly.)

On donations page add 3 option buttons

1 Show my name and amount given
2 Show my name only
3 Just add my donation to the Anonymous Total

Some donors might be encouraged by the publicity, others by the privacy. Discourages nobody.

I really like the current uncluttered and focused format; It sets Freesound positively apart from the garish cluttered mess of the bulk of the internet. I would be sad to see that change and possibly be the thin edge of the wedge to becoming totally Googlified. However I do understand the problem and the need to change for survival may be inevitable.

Regards,
Wibby

strangely_gnarled wrote:
An incentive to encourage donations.

Create a page called, for example, "Hall of Patrons".
(No; Not called "for example "Hall of Patrons"". Just "Hall of Patrons", silly.)

On donations page add 3 option buttons

Like http://freesound.org/donations/donors/, you mean?

Haa.. ha.. ha..

Thank you alastairp.

That should teach me to do my homework in future!
I will do my best, but probably fail again anyway and fall back on blaming dementia.

Well pride in my own brilliance once again turns to tail-between-legs.

And I was imagining the ego competition between all the billionaire philanthropists lurking among the membership.

Wibby

I've set up a monthly donation. But I'd heavily encourage you to start using Patreon for donations as well.

A small annual fee from frequent users (such as me) would make sense. For ad hoc users, I suggest that you limit the number of free downloads and then request a donation after that number has been reached. Given alternatives such as Premiumbeat.com and Shutterstock.com, I think that would be reasonable...

I'm new to Freesound and I think you are justified in requesting a donation. I noticed that after I clicked to close the popup it quit appearing upon my download. The popup was not obtrusive just that I was busy and I was happy to make a donation when I was done search, but when I went back to do so I decided not to for the following: I (like a couple of other folks) will not use Paypal and I'd like to see US currency not just Euro on the donation form.

While no one *likes* to see ads, if it's necessary for survival, there's no choice. Of course I wish some organizations, universities, and the like would throw some shekels our way, I imagine these players are always and already being courted. I think it's important that, when clamoring for user donations, ad clicks, or sponsorships to generate capital, the non-profit and educational affiliation of Freesound is always presented.

I would gladly donate ! you're an incredible tool for the global audio community. <3

I would gladly donate. I use freesound.org all the time and prefer it to purchased sounds for our youtube channel because I get to promote someone else producing great audio. Count us in.

In my opinion, this site is invaluable for a lot of people.

Drop the idea of adds. Find a way to charge a small amount to all users.

I suggest a yearly membership for a symbolic amount that allows for a steady income to your site, for maintenance purposes.

$10 membership for a year allowing users to upload and download as currently.
Hopefully you already have a Salesforce platform running, or something similar for nonprofit databases.
Ask for their opinion on that, if you haven't already.

Downloaders who exceed a certain high number of files should proportionally be charged more, unless they are uploading as much. Makes sense?
One of the best aspects of this site is that one can test a file or many, before finding the right sound. A membership cost per year would allow to continue this process as is, instead of charging 0.5 cents per file, for example, which also begins to look like sales, even though maintenance is still needed and costs salaries or service. Or at the very least, a lot of time.

$10 makes it reasonable for nearly everybody who already uses this site, to continue using it.

That is a single cheap meal at a restaurant. If a poor student can afford that, so can everybody else looking for sound files.

My 2 cents.

<3

jwilkins76 wrote:
A small annual fee from frequent users (such as me) would make sense. For ad hoc users, I suggest that you limit the number of free downloads and then request a donation after that number has been reached. Given alternatives such as Premiumbeat.com and Shutterstock.com, I think that would be reasonable...

Though, that would then go against the nature of "Freesound", which might do more harm than good.

Building on what has already been suggested, perhaps a sort of "leaderboard" page for donations, much like how we can see the "All time most active users". This leaderboard would show the top 50 or 100 users with the highest cumulative donations to the site (the more users shown, the more likely people will use it as a reason to donate).

A simple idea, but it would certainly give those with money something to brag about.

----

And a little more on the "pro" idea. I think that is an excellent little incentive to encourage more donations.

I would also suggest, as out there as this idea might be, that "pro" users would receive a monthly "Freesound Pack" of the most useful sounds uploaded in the past month, as chosen by moderators.

This might be a little tricky to coordinate and maintain, and there is always a small risk of a copyrighted sound passing through, but it would give a further incentive for sound enthusiasts/designers/artists to donate to Freesound and skip the "searching for the most useful sound" phase.

I would be happy to donate, I think this is a better option that pay per download seeing as they have been donated free of charge, and I also like the overall ethos of Freesound. That reminds me, I should also upload some recordings too!

This site has helped me in many ways, I would not have any problem in make a donation or have to pay a yearly fee

Thanks for all you do, Freesound creators, custodians, and community!
I think pushing the voluntary donation is an excellent place to start.
I'd also be happy to regularly share "donation" posts or button (if an embeddable one is created) on my website and social media.

This site really is fantastic and I am planning to add some sounds of my own as soon as I have time to , also I think the site definitely deserves donations and I will try to make one every year ..
I would be perfectly happy to see popups encouraging donations, so long as they weren't annoying also I agree that ads for music equipment etc might be a good earner for the site, and again I would be happy to see them so long as they do not interfere with the user experience. You guys did a great job with the site and I cannot thank you enough for all your hard work , also to all the great people who have donated sounds, there is some really great stuff on here... top job guys .