On The Importance of Founders
I’ve worked at building many different types of communities as a member of gaming cohorts, as a startup technologist, as a political campaigner, and as a product manager. Community building is just HARD! There is no shortcut to the process, unless you want to be left with a room full of bots, hackers, and schemers.
Enter Indie Music Feedback (IMF) founders, Pax Libertas and Vulpz — the hardest working pair in online Independent Music communities.
These cats have built a real community of musicians, one that I didn’t think was possible. There are many subreddits focused on music and I won’t go through them all here. Suffice it to say that most of these “communities” are somewhat beholden to the platform on which they congregate. IMF has managed to saturate Reddit, and has expanded to a much more interactive Discord chat server.
The community has a very simple tenet — pay it forward. You give feedback on songs to earn points. With enough points, you can ask the community for feedback on your own songs. It is a deadly simple, and highly addictive system if you are a music maker. Don’t take my word for it. Here are some quotes from community members.
“The folks on IMF aren’t just internet strangers. I’ve made real friends and musical connections that I would not have made without IMF. Even my production has grown by leaps and bounds, just by sharing with others.” — Flimsy
“You will be greeted with encouragement and motivation, and you will also find your musical nemesis.” — Slackerman
“IMF is such a rare community of positivity that helps artists grow craft by showering them with uplifting encouragement and constructive feedback. I honestly am shocked and overjoyed to say I’ve found a place of like minded producers who I can call friends while being in awe of their music.” — Soran Leif
“To create a platform like IMF and to invest their precious time in supporting and connecting artists (whom they don’t know ) to ensure everybody’s music is heard in the fairest possible way with a sole reason being their love for Indie music & Artists, is what really makes Pax & Vulpz special” — S ^ 2
The IMF community is unstoppable right now. To check out the Discord server, install the Discord chat client or use the web client. You can also find a larger audience (10K+) on Reddit, where musicians are constantly posting new songs for feedback.
