Photo credit: Erik Drost / CC by 2.0
The Jonas Brothers helped found Scriber, a subscription-based media company aimed at established creators and celebrities, which debuts today. Scriber allows fans to text a number to subscribe and receive exclusive content sent to their phone.
Launching today, backing teenage singing sensations-turned-philanthropists Joe, Kevin and Nick Jonas, Scriber is a subscription-based company for established entertainment figures. With Scriber, creators can post a phone number for fans to subscribe to an SMS (via Apple Pay or Stripe) and receive exclusive content delivered to their phones.
Creators on Scriber retain the rights to the content they upload. The platform gives each subscriber a unique link to view uploads to protect the material from leaks. So when a user shares a link, Scriber can quickly identify the source of the leak. How well this protects authors’ content in practice remains to be seen.
Scriber’s CEO, former journalist Brian Goldsmith, provided most of the company’s seed capital. In conversation with axios, Goldsmith said he hopes celebrities he works with will use the platform to raise money for philanthropy. The Jonas Brothers have said they plan to donate about half of their earnings to causes close to their hearts.
Goldsmith adds that Scriber plans to target the top 1-5% of a celebrity’s existing fan base.
“They target the small community of superfans who either want more of what they’re already doing or want to see something only subscribers can see,” says Goldsmith.
Because Scriber isn’t an app, the platform doesn’t have to pay any fees to Apple or Google, which helps keep costs down. Creators pay Scriber $1 per subscriber per month and absorb Stripe’s 2.9% processing fee. Scriber’s subscription price for fans started at $4.99 per month, although the service is only available in the US for now.
App store fees have always been a bone of contention for creator-centric startups like Fanhouse, which implemented a coin system that fans can buy and redeem to subscribe to creators, bypassing Apple’s 30% cut. Fans can still pay through the app, but Fanhouse charges additional fees to cover fees.
The Jonas Brothers have previously invested in other startups, such as social food app Snackpass and celebrity-backed soda company OLIPOP. Without his brothers, Kevin Jonas launched the (now defunct) food app Yood and an influencer marketing company called The Blu Market.
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