Web Monetization for the Arts started with questions that arose during the Covid 19 pandemic. With performance calendars cancelled and gigs disrupted, the pandemic was devastating for freelance artists and small performing arts groups. Shut out from in-person performance, many artists took their work online. Some chose to stream live performances via Facebook or YouTube. Others began offering online courses.  

Web Monetization for the Arts started with some questions: Will this change be permanent? Will performing artists continue to put original content online? Is that the new expectation for artists? If it is, knowing how much work generating original digital content can be and how little monetary reward for it there is, how can we help artists develop financially viable and sanity-sustaining online content strategies? 

Web Monetization for the Arts Survey

In spring 2022 we set out to survey freelance classical musicians, independent performing artists, and small performing arts organizations about their digital content strategies. We contacted thousands of artists and organizations. We wanted to know how many were making original digital content. How were they sharing it? What were they using it for? What were they optimizing for? Impressions? Shares? Engagement? Monetization? None of the above?

Our survey also sought to gauge respondents’ familiarity with Web Monetization, an internet protocol that allows for streaming payments. More than just “making money online,” Web Monetization is a new way of putting content online and sidesteps the tradeoff between monetization and visibility creators face with paywalls. We wanted to see if our audience was aware of it. 

Over a few months we received responses from groups all over the United States, representing small to midsize organizations. The majority of respondents (69%) were individual artists/creators. Most (72%) were musicians. Eighty percent of respondents stated that they create original digital content.

We asked respondents if they had received revenue from this online content in the past two years. 35% said Yes. 65% said No. 

When asked how they monetize online content, the top answers were donation, ticketing/sales, and none of the above. 

When asked how they measure the effectiveness of their digital content, respondents gave equal weight to acquisition, interaction, and reach (views) at 18% and conversion, publicity, and revenue at 10%-12%. Twelve percent of respondents stated that they don’t measure effectiveness. 

Concerns about posting content online were also evenly spread between concerns about generating income, fraud/theft of content, infringing on intellectual property of others, and receiving proper credit for their work.

Web Monetization for the Arts is a course on streaming payments designed for classical musicians and small performing arts groups. The project is funded by Grant for the Web.

What does the 2022 Web Monetization for the Arts survey teach us?

No singular digital content strategy emerged from our survey results. Indeed, artists are choosing a variety of digital platforms and tools, and using a range of performance indicators to define “success.” One surmises that every artist and organization is creating their own best practice.

These practices can be arranged on a spectrum, with visibility and monetization at opposite ends. On the visibility end, art shared online is a public good, free for all. It serves to inspire, challenge, beautify the world. It might get you some followers or future sales, but that is not its primary purpose. On the monetization end, the art shared online is a private intellectual property. It is also labor, and like all other forms of labor, it should be paid.

Here are two comments we received from survey respondents:

• Artists should stop putting their work on streaming platforms because they rip artists off.

• Let’s not talk about money. We’re artists, not businesses. 

In the first comment, the current monetization scheme used by streaming platforms is considered unfair. In the second, the relevance of monetization is called into question. 

Again, no two artists are the same. They will choose different strategies depending on where they are in their career, what they are working on, their artistic medium, their support base. But the conundrum remains: Today’s technology makes it easier than ever before to put work online. At the same time, it’s never been harder to build a financially sustainable career as an artist. 

So. If there were a way to monetize your content, while keeping it visible for a wide audience, would you do it?

Web Monetization for the Arts is a course on streaming payments designed for classical musicians and small performing arts groups. The project is funded by Grant for the Web.

Web Monetization. Browser API that allows the creation of a payment stream from a user agent to a content creator. 

API. Application Programming Interface. Software interface that allows two computer programs to communicate with one another. Connects two computers. A user interface creates a way for a computer to talk to a person. A software interface allows computers to talk to one another. 

Coil. Coil is a for-profit membership service that streams micropayments to content creators according to members’ content consumption or attention. Coil essentially provides payment support for Web Monetization. Coil charges members $5 a month. 

Micropayment. Just as it sounds, this is a financial transaction involving small sums, even under  $1. The term originated before the web and was used to discuss paying copyright holders for content.

Internet Protocol (“IP”). A protocol, or set of rules, governing how data are routed between networks. Protocols define how networked computers communicate with one another and Internet Protocol defines how networks communicate with each other. 

Interledger Protocol (“ILP”). A protocol for sending packets of money across payment networks or ledgers. It is neutral – not tied to any company, currency, or network – and is designed to work across any type of ledger. 

Digital Wallet. App or software that allows users to make transactions electronically. Cash app, Paypal, and Venmo are all examples of digital wallets.

ILP-enabled wallet. A digital wallet that is compatible with the Interledger protocol. Uphold and Gatehub offer ILP-enabled wallets. 

Payment Pointer. A unique identifier used by Web Monetization to move money from one user to another. It’s like a bank account embedded on web pages that Web Monetized sites use to identify the destination of  funds sent to content creators. 

Payment Streaming. Just as it sounds, payment streaming is the transfer of funds from a digital content consumer to the digital content creator. The longer a consumer spends on the creator’s site, the more micropayments are streamed. 

Digital Platform. A business term. The marketplace created by the information and content exchanged on a software application. There are content platforms (YouTube), social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter), and crowdfunding platforms (Patreon, GoFundMe). where the community is a vital part of the business structure.

Web3. A loose term meant to indicate a shift in the architecture of the web and a move towards decentralization and blockchain technology. You can think of this generally as a move from platforms to protocols. Web3 tools allow users to access protocols and bypass centralized platforms. 

Browser Extension. Software module for customizing a web browser. Some well-known browser extensions include Adobe Acrobat, AdBlock, Grammarly, Google Calendar, and MetaMask.  

Plugin. Computer software that adds new functions to a host program without altering the host program itself. Plugins can be added and removed. WordPress users will be familiar with WordPress plugins, which, when added to the WordPress site, make available a variety of new functions. 

Open Source. Pertains to software whose computer source code is made freely available. Open source is the opposite of closed source programs such as Adobe Photoshop. Oftentimes the copyright holder for the code will couple a permissive Open Source license—such as a Creative Commons license—with Open Source software so that users have the right to use, study, change, and distribute the software without needing permission from the creator. Collaborative projects such as Linux and Chromium—the software that runs the Chrome web browser—are released as open source projects. 

Web Monetization for the Arts is a course on streaming payments designed for classical musicians and small performing arts groups. The project is funded by Grant for the Web.

With a Coil account you will be able to see how Coil recognizes Web Monetized content and notifies you that you are streaming payments to the content creator. 

Getting started with Coil requires two steps:

1. Sign up for a Coil Account

2. Add the Coil extension to your browser. 

Go to www.coil.com .

To become a member, you supply a credit card to sign up for the $5-a-month membership. Membership is charged automatically each month, unless you cancel. 

In order for Coil to recognize Web Monetized content on your browser, you need to install the Coil extension. On mobile, you can also use Puma, the Web Monetized browser for iOS and Android. 

To install the Coil extension in your Chrome browser, follow the steps on Coil’s homepage. 

The browser extension is available for desktop and Samsung devices: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Samsung Internet, Microsoft Edge, and Brave browser. 

We’ll go over installing the browser extension for Google Chrome. 

1. Click on the icon for Google Chrome. This takes you to the Chrome Web Store. 

2. Press Add to Chrome and you’re done. 

Once Coil is installed, you can browse Web Monetized content and know that you are paying the content creators while you visit. With Coil installed on your browser or in the Puma browser, web monetized sites will appear ad-free. 

At coil.com/discover you will find a list of recommended web monetized sites along with special benefits for Coil users. 

How do you know you’re streaming payments? Look for the Coil icon in your browser. (You might need to click on the Extensions tab to see all your installed extensions.) If Web Monetization is enabled, the icon will have a green dot on it. Click on the Coil icon in your browser. You’ll get a pop-up that tells you if the site is Web Monetized or not.

Keep in mind: Coil does NOT create a paywall. Content is still available for viewing online. Only Coil subscribers will be streaming payments to the content creators.

Test your skills.

It is possible to create exclusive content only for Web Monetization members. If you have signed up for a Coil membership, visit this page with premium, Web Monetization-only content at Monetized.

If you can see the video, you have successfully added Coil to your browser. 

If you have Coil, when you come to this page you will be able to play a short video. If not, you will be instructed to sign up for Web Monetization. In this way you can direct your audience to sign up for Web Monetization.

Web Monetization for the Arts is a course on streaming payments designed for classical musicians and small performing arts groups. The project is funded by Grant for the Web.

Let’s go over setting up an ILP-enabled digital wallet. Once you have an ILP-enabled digital wallet, you will be able access your Interledger payment pointer. You need the payment pointer to set up your streaming payments from Coil. 

Currently, your options for the ILP-enabled digital wallet are Uphold and GateHub. In order to receive your payments in fiat currency, that is, not in cryptocurrency, you should select Uphold. 

Let’s look at getting an Uphold account in detail. 

You can sign up for Uphold at www.uphold.com. Click Sign Up to get started. 

You’ll be taken to the sign up page, where you select to sign up as an Individual or as a Business. 

To sign up as an individual, you’ll need to supply an email address, account password, your country of residence, state of residence (if in the U.S.) and citizenship. 

You’ll add your full legal name, legal address, date of birth, and SSN/TIN. You will verify your email address and submit a W9. You will verify your identity with Veriff, an app that allows you to upload photos of your government identification and a photo of yourself.  

If this seems like a lot of personal information, remember that Uphold is a regulated financial platform. It needs certain information to be able to verify who its customers are as part of Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations that prevent money laundering and other financial crimes. 

Once your account is verified, you can visit your dashboard. Uphold is a platform for trading as well as a digital wallet, so on your dashboard you will see a lot of options for trading cryptocurrency. We’re using Uphold only as a digital wallet, so you can ignore the Trading card on the far left of the dashboard. 

To sign up for a Business account at Uphold wallet requires more documentation. 

You will need to fill out an application and will be asked to include the following documents:

• Legal Entity Name/DBA

• Legal Entity Type. Is your business a sole proprietorship, partnership, nonprofit, S corp?

• Legal Entity Registration Number. TIN or EIN for your organization. Please note that if you use a fiscal sponsor, your sponsor may not approve use of their EIN for this purpose. 

• Registered Address/Mailing Address. PO Boxes are not accepted.

• Website. If applicable. 

• Source of Funds/Source of Wealth. Where did the funds for this organization originate? 

• Business Activity

• Account Holder Information/Authorized Signer Information/Trustee Information

In addition, you may be asked to submit further documentation including articles of incorporation, articles of organization, and bylaws. Registered nonprofits may be required to submit their latest 990 and a beneficial ownership form listing all board members. 

A full list of the documents required can be found here. 

Applying for a business account takes some time. Make sure you have your documents ready and expect to spend about fifteen to twenty minutes on the application. You will hear from Uphold within a matter of days. 

With your Uphold wallet established, you can link your bank account. Linking a bank account will allow you to withdraw your funds. Click the green My Banks button on the Transact card.

Web Monetization for the Arts is a course on streaming payments designed for classical musicians and small performing arts groups. The project is funded by Grant for the Web.

This payment pointer is your unique identifier for streaming payments using Web Monetization. A payment pointer is like an email address for your digital wallet. You will be able to add it to your Coil account and other third party Web Monetized platforms. You can also hard code it into your website. It will start with “$ilp.uphold.com/” and end in a unique alphanumeric sequence. 

To find your payment pointer on your Uphold dashboard:

Look at the rightmost card on the dashboard. This is the Transact card.

Select the dropdown menu under From. You’ll see Interledger Network listed at the bottom.

Select Interledger. You’ll get a card with the message: “Use the following address to receive Interledger payments in your wallet.” Your payment pointer will appear at the bottom of the card.

Copy the payment pointer. You’re ready to add that pointer to your Coil Creator profile. Linking Coil and your Uphold wallet via your payment pointer allows you to start monetizing content.

At Coil, click Creator in the top navigation. Then click “Start Monetizing. It’s Free.” You’ll be asked to set up your wallet. Select Uphold.

If you’re logged in to your Coil account, you will be taken to your Coil Creators Monetization page. Here you will be able to add your payment pointer to your Payout Wallet settings.

From this page you can easily connect your YouTube channel and enable Web Monetization. Payments will stream to you every second a Web Monetized user watches your channel. Coil provides you with a tag to use to add Web Monetization to your website. We’ll go over these implementations in the next lesson. 

Web Monetization for the Arts is a course on streaming payments designed for classical musicians and small performing arts groups. The project is funded by Grant for the Web.

Here are some easy ways to enable Web Monetization on your own content. 

1. YouTube

Coil offers an easy, one-step process for monetizing your YouTube channel. 

Go to your Coil Creators Monetization page. This is where you added your payment pointer and connected your Uphold wallet. 

At the bottom of the page you will see Monetize YouTube Channel. 

Simply press Add Channel and follow the OAuth flow to connect Coil to your YouTube channel. Allow Coil access, and voila, your YouTube channel is now Web Monetized. This means that when users with Coil membership watch your video, they will stream payments to your account.

2. Free Music Archive.

The Free Music Archive (FMA) makes available open license music from independent artists around the world. If you have music you want to share under such a license, FMA is a good way to get started with Coil and Web Monetization. 

Your first step is to sign up for an account. You’ll be asked for a password and to verify your email address. You will now be an FMA Member. 

To become an FMA Musician, you need to create an account and then email the administration, meghan@tribeofnoise.com with the subject line “FMA artist account.” Your account will be changed from Member to Artist. 

If you have an existing page on FMA – you should check; search for your name on the site – you can claim it. As FMA writes on their support page:  

Go to your FMA artist page

• Under the Bio section, click on the “Claim This Page” button

• Add the information required, check the boxes and agree

• To Finalize, scroll below and click on the “Claim your page” button

If you have an artist account on FMA and become a Coil creator, you can easily add your Coil payment pointer to your FMA profile. Go to your Artist page. Go to the Edit button and select the  Monetization section. Here you will be able to add your payment pointer. 

3. Monetized. 

Monetized is a new tool for gating digital content. Content can be added by file uploads, content embeds, and link redirects. Monetized works on the URL level. Each piece of gated content receives its own monetized link and a payment-gated landing page. 

To get started, sign up for an account. Link your content. You can link URLs or Notion pages. You can also upload files and embed video and audio in a new post. 

After you link your content, set your price and payment method. Select Web Monetization. Press the button to Configure to add your payment pointer.

Publish your page. Share your link. Anyone who follows the link will come to a payment-gated landing page. Now only your Web Monetized fans can access your page. A button will prompt users to sign up for Web Monetization at Coil. 

4. Add Coil to your WordPress site

If you use WordPress, there is an easy way to get your site Web Monetized and offer premium content to Web Monetized users. Coil makes a plugin for WordPress. The plugin applies the Web Monetization meta tag to each page of your website. It lets you customize the visibility of posts. This means that you can offer premium content to your Web Monetized users. 

From your WordPress admin dashboard, go to Plugins and click on Add New. Search for Coil. Install Coil Web Monetization plugin. 

Click Activate. Once it’s installed, the plugin will appear as an option on your WordPress admin dashboard. 

You’ll need to add your payment pointer. Select the Coil plugin and go to the Global Settings tab. Add your payment pointer and click on Save Settings. Your WordPress site is now Web Monetized. 

The default settings for your content will Web Monetize your posts and pages AND keep them public. You can change these settings from the Content Settings tab in the Coil plugin. 

For more on customizing your WordPress plugin, check out this video tutorial from Artist Rescue Trust:

If your site is not a WordPress site, you can still add Web Monetization by adding a single HTML tag into the header of your website. This involves editing the HTML of your site. 

If you’re interested in a technical overview of the process of adding Web Monetization to a web page, Web Monetization.org has an overview to get you started. 

To make the process as easy for you as possible, Coil provides you with a meta tag that can be added to your website. You can find this tag on your Coil Creators page where it has been customized for your payment pointer.

For information on adding Web Monetization to your own website using HTML, please watch this video tutorial from Artist Rescue Trust:

Web Monetization for the Arts is a course on streaming payments designed for classical musicians and small performing arts groups. The project is funded by Grant for the Web.

We’ve covered how Web Monetization works. You’re now familiar with the components – Coil + digital wallet + payment pointer. We’ve outlined a few ways to get started with Web Monetization as a creator. 

To get a full picture of the vision for Web Monetization, specifically how it can help creators, let’s compare Web Monetization with Coil to an important streaming service for music, Spotify. 

Many of you have music on Spotify. How many of you have ever received a check from the service? 

Spotify’s payout accounting is complicated. A 2020 Business Insider report found that musicians earn as little as $0.0033 per stream on Spotify. However, Spotify does not pay per stream. Instead, it calculates earnings based on “streamshare,” a metric that accounts for both an artist's streams and the total number of streams per that artist’s market. 

[Keep in mind: Spotify pays rights holders, which may or may not be the same as the artist.]

In 2022 Clare Mulroy at USA Today analyzed the creator revenue share system at Spotify. They contacted the streaming behemoth for more information on ‘streamshare.’ "Every month, in each country we operate in, we calculate streamshare by adding up how many times music owned or controlled by a particular rights holder was streamed and dividing it by the total number of streams in that market," Spotify explained. (Apple Music also pays on a stream share basis.)

From the article:

The Union of Musicians and Allied Workers found artists were paid an average of just over half a cent per stream in 2018 and under a third of a cent in 2020. The average artist pay rate declined 43% over two years.

Music lovers are taking notice. In August 2022 Congresswoman Rashiada Tlaib introduced House Concurrent Resolution 102. The bill “recognizes the need to establish a new royalty program that would directly compensate musicians with a fairer royalty payment every time their music is listened to on a streaming music service, like Spotify.”

From the press release: 

Spotify, the world’s largest streaming service, paid rights holders an average per-stream royalty of $0.0030 – at that rate, it would take more than 800,000 monthly streams to equal the wage of a full-time worker earning $15/hour. According to the UN’s World Intellectual Property Organization, even the current meager streaming rates are declining every year.

You can read House Concurrent Resolution 102 here. 

Let’s compare Spotify’s payout policy with Coil’s implementation of Web Monetization.

Coil sends micropayments per second per user. Payments are streamed according to how long the user is consuming – in this case paying attention – to the content. On the supporter side, Coil charges a flat fee of $5 per month. Those fees fund the payouts to content creators. 

From Coil’s website: 

Coil “streams payments” instantly instead of keeping a running ledger of what each creator and website is due. They pay websites and creators continuously while the subscriber visits their content at a rate of 0.0001 USD/second. Websites can use the proposed Web Monetization API web-standard to check and verify when and how much clients are actively paying them. This can be used to unlock subscriber-only content (like a universal pay-wall), hide ads, or otherwise customize the customer experience.

This payout policy removes the streamshare variable. Your content earns you per second, per user. 

Of course, the more Web Monetized users you have visiting your content, the more money you will receive. To date, Web Monetization has not attracted nearly as many users as Spotify has. 

Let’s do the math.

Let’s imagine a song streams on Spotify. The song’s duration is 3 minutes, or 180 seconds. Let’s assume 800,000 monthly streams, the figure that Congresswoman Tlaib uses. 

With Spotify: 800,000 monthly streams * 0.0033 per stream = $2,640

With Coil: 800,000 streamers * 180 = 144,000,000 seconds * 0.0001 = $14,400

Looking at these stream numbers another way for our 3-minute song:

Spotify revenue per stream: $0.0033

Coil revenue per stream: $0.018

A Note about YouTube

In order to unlock YouTube’s monetization features, your channel needs to have at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 public watch hours. YouTube’s monetization relies on advertising. Many YouTube channels rely on brand partnerships to make their channels profitable. 

Coil will allow you to monetize your videos. Any Web Monetization member who visits your channel will stream you payments. Additionally, any of your videos embedded in Web Monetized sites or platforms will also earn you money. No need to get your subscriber list to 1,000.  

The key to earning with Web Monetization is two-part:

1. Have your content on Web Monetized sites and/or platforms. 

2. Have Web Monetization members coming to your content. 

Placing Your Content on Web Monetized Platforms

If you Web Monetize your personal site, consider creating a page for archived digital content. Place your reels and videos here, including anything you’ve shared on social media. Blogs, performance calendars, videos all become Web Monetized content. 

Add Web Monetization via Coil to your YouTube channel. Try the Free Music Archive. Gate content for Web Monetization members at Monetized. 

The more time Web Monetized visitors spend on your site and your content, the more funds will stream to you. 

This leads us to the question . . . .

How Do I Get More Web Monetization Members Coming to My Site? 

1. Convert your audience. 

If you’ve added Web Monetization to your site, consider placing the following language on your Support Us page:

[Artist or Org] has built this site with Web Monetization, a new protocol for streaming payments. Web Monetization sends micropayments for every second a Web Monetization member enjoys our content. [Artist] spends hundreds of hours creating content to share via this site. Please consider becoming a Web Monetization member to support this work. It will take less than ten minutes to set up your account and will cost you only $5 a month. For information on becoming a Web Monetization member, click here.

Coil offers an affiliate referral program. You will earn additional funds from any supporter who joins Coil from your referral link.

2. Inform your supporters. 

We’ve supplied you with shareable information about the economics of streaming platforms like Spotify. Recent research has shown that most people underestimate the revenue that artists make from streaming services. You can copy and paste that information into a shareable email to send to your supporters and encourage them to join Web Monetization. 

Researchers at Tel Aviv University have been studying the effect of the visibility of Web Monetization on user preferences. The team found that “when users are aware that their online browsing provides monetary compensation to content creators, they prefer to consume content from non-profit organizations or independent creators and activists over that of mainstream media outlets.”

Web Monetization for the Arts is a course on streaming payments designed for classical musicians and small performing arts groups. The project is funded by Grant for the Web.

Web Monetization FAQ

1. Do I need to be a Coil member to receive payments via Web Monetization? 

No, you do not. 

You only need to sign up for an ILP-enabled digital wallet (Uphold or GateHub) and add a payment pointer to your content. Here is Coil’s quick guide.

Coil is needed to send payments to sites that are Web Monetized. This means that in order to get your supporters using Web Monetization and streaming payments to you, THEY need to become members at Coil. 

Coil is currently the only provider of this service. In the future, and as the Web Monetization community grows, there may be additional providers. 

2. Can I add Web Monetization to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter? 

Not at this time. 

3. Can I split payments between creators, like splitting copyright on a compound work? 

Revenue sharing with Web Monetization is possible. Each creator needs to have his or her own payment pointer. Each payment pointer will be assigned a weight. This information must be added to the HTML code on your site. 

This is a probabilistic revenue sharing model. More information on how to set this up can be found at WebMonetization.org. 

An explanation of probabilistic revenue share can also be found on their site: 

In Web Monetization, probabilistic revenue sharing works by randomly choosing from a list of predefined payment pointers each time a web monetized visitor loads your page. The visitor pays to the chosen pointer until the page is reloaded or closed.

The chance of a payment pointer being chosen is based on its assigned weight. For example, if Alice's payment pointer has a weight of 50, the pointer has a 50% chance of being chosen. The laws of probability state that Alice’s share will approach 50% of the page’s total revenue as more users visit the site.

A video demonstration of how to add the code can be found here at 5:09. 

In addition, the Free Music Archive allows any Artist profile to add multiple payment pointers, no coding required. You will be asked to input a weight for each payment pointer. The total weights must sum up to 100. This format allows an Artist such as a band or other collaborative to split the Artist's Web Monetization earnings. 

What other questions do you have? Email me at natalie@groundswell.media.

I would love to know what you think. Is Web Monetization something you’d like to try? Do you think it can help you? Please keep in touch and let me know. I’ll be offering additional Zoom support sessions to go over the topics and provide tech support. Thank you for following this course on Web Monetization.

Web Monetization for the Arts is a course on streaming payments designed for classical musicians and small performing arts groups. The project is funded by Grant for the Web.

Web Monetization is a protocol and proposed standard for the web that allows users to stream micropayments to content creators. Payments stream according to a user’s attention. For every second a user spends on a Web Monetized site, micropayments will stream to that site’s creator. 

With Web Monetization, creators sidestep the tradeoff between visibility and monetization that a traditional paywall creates. 

Web Monetization therefore allows you to put content online, keeping it visible for everyone if you choose, while simultaneously turning it into an additional revenue stream. Web Monetization is additive: you will still be free to use various platforms to collect donations, sell merchandise, and add subscribers. 

Once you enable Web Monetization on your website, any Web Monetized visitor to your site will automatically stream micropayments to your account as they watch your content. Web Monetization will stream payments from Web Monetized users. Payments stream for every second a user consumes your content. 

There are three steps to getting started with Web Monetization. 

1. Sign up for Coil.

2. Open an Interledger Protocol-enabled digital wallet.

3. Find and link your Payment Pointer to your content.

• If you want to try Web Monetization as a consumer only, you can stop after step #1, sign up for Coil.

• If you want to try Web Monetization as a creator, you need a digital wallet and a payment pointer. 

This course will go over these steps in detail. Some of the terms might be unfamiliar, so we’ve included a glossary of terms for reference. 

Once you have completed these steps, you can begin to implement Web Monetization on your content. In this series we’ll look specifically at implementing Web Monetization with YouTube, Free Music Archive, Monetized, and WordPress. 

For those of you who learn more visually, we’ll be linking to some videos that explain the content further. These videos were created by Artist Rescue Trust (A.R.T.), a philanthropically funded program created to provide financial relief to Professional Artists and Creatives affected by COVID-19.

In order to make the most of Web Monetization, it helps to have a large audience of Web Monetization browser-enabled users. We’ll give you documentation that you can share with your fans and fellow artists to get them started. Getting set up as a Web Monetized user is easy. Once they fully understand the economics of digital content, chances are that your supporters will be more likely to join. Researchers at Tel Aviv University have been studying the effect of the visibility of Web Monetization on user preferences. The team found that “when users are aware that their online browsing provides monetary compensation to content creators, they prefer to consume content from non-profit organizations or independent creators and activists over that of mainstream media outlets.”

Web Monetization for the Arts is a course on streaming payments designed for classical musicians and small performing arts groups. The project is funded by Grant for the Web.