Not-for-profit · free forever · built for the scene
Independent music, hyped by the people who love it.
iHYPE is a free music platform owned by no one with a profit motive. Fans discover and champion artists. Artists get paid when their music sells tickets. The people who make the scene — not a corporation — decide what rises.
Trending tonightPhantom RidgeIndie quartet from Portland, Maine. Wreckage Tour starts 22 Jun.↑ 142/h · 8,412 active HYPE
Show this FridayDisco Mortis · Vol. 4Late-night mix from a Portland promoter. 90 minutes, headphones in.1,284 hyping · 64 in last hour
23 open datesState Theatre1,800-cap venue in Portland, ME looking for acts this summer.62% avg fill · ticketing live
Right now·
28,941 listening·
184k HYPE given today·
$632k distributed to creators today·
$0 to iHYPE
What iHYPE is
One platform. Three rules.
$0
Free for everyone, forever.
Listen, hype, attend, publish, sell tickets. No premium tier. No paywall. Same access day one until forever — whether you're a first-time fan or an artist on your fifth album.
45/45/10
Tickets pay the makers, not us.
Every ticket splits direct: 45% to the artist, 45% to the venue, 10% to the promoter who brought the crowd. iHYPE takes nothing. Card processing and tax shown as separate line items.
100%
Music ads only. Nothing else.
Funded by audio ads from artists, venues, promoters, and music shops. No sports betting. No crypto. No mortgage refinance. If it isn’t music, it doesn’t get in.
Who it’s for
One account. Four roles.
Start as whichever fits today. Add more whenever — same account, no re-onboarding.
F
Fan
Listen, hype, attend. Build your taste profile. Show up for the scene you love. Your HYPE shapes the charts — not a label’s budget.
Most people start here →
A
Artist
Publish songs, plan tours using HYPE heatmaps, get paid 45% of every ticket. No middleman. No service fee. Tour planner built in.
Tour planner included →
V
Venue
List shows, scan tickets at the door, see which local artists are gaining momentum before anyone else books them.
Booking radar included →
The scene only grows if the people who love it say so.
Every major streaming platform is optimized to make shareholders money. The result: the same 40 artists dominating every chart, regional scenes invisible, and ticket prices climbing because the people taking fees have no reason to stop. iHYPE only works if fans use it. The algorithm reads what’s loved locally and surfaces it. The charts rank what’s genuinely hyped — not what’s paid to appear. If fans use it and share it, independent music gets louder. If only big labels know about it, it becomes another platform they can game.
This is the mechanism: your HYPE is a vote that doesn’t expire instantly, doesn’t disappear behind a paywall, and can’t be bought. Share iHYPE with one person who loves music and you’ve added one more uncorrupted voice to a system built around uncorrupted voices.
For fans
The music you love gets louder when you say so. Your HYPE shapes the charts that an artist’s next booking agent, venue, or promoter will read.
For artists
Every new fan who joins is a potential ticket buyer and HYPE giver. The tour planner reads real HYPE concentration — more users means better signal for where to tour next.
For the scene
Local venues and promoters see HYPE momentum before the majors do. The first show a scene plays at a new city often builds a permanent fanbase there.
Why it’s the best · 01 of 05
You can read the receipt. Every line.
A real $45 ticket sale, fully itemized. No “service fee” burying a platform cut. The artist made the music, the venue holds the room, the promoter brought the crowd. They split it. We take nothing.
iHYPE.org
Not-for-profit · 501(c)(3)
Wreckage Tour · Phantom Ridge
Reserved · State Theatre · Portland, ME · 22 Jun
Ticket price$45.00
Where this goes
Phantom Ridge · artist (45%)+$20.25
State Theatre · venue (45%)+$20.25
Disco Mortis · promoter (10%)+$4.50
iHYPE platform fee$0.00
Pass-through (not ours)
Card processing · Stripe+$1.61
Sales tax · ME 5.5%+$2.48
Total charged$49.09
The 45 / 45 / 10 split
Artist 45%: they made the music. Venue 45%: they hold the room and run the door. Promoter 10%: they brought the audience via their recommendation. No promoter attached? The split rebalances 50/50 to artist and venue.
Why card and tax are shown separately
Most platforms blur Stripe fees and sales tax into a “service fee” that hides their own cut. We itemize them so you can verify — the card fee goes to Stripe, the tax goes to your state. Neither dollar touches iHYPE.
Refunds keep the math intact
If a show cancels, every recipient is debited proportionally — including the platform fee zero. No one keeps a cut they didn’t earn.
Why it’s the best · 02 of 05
What you’d pay elsewhere.
Live music ticketing is a $35-billion industry built on stacked fees. This is what a $45 ticket costs on the platforms that exist to extract value from the scene.
Criterion
iHYPE.org
Typical ticketing platform
Service / convenience feePer ticket
$0.00
$8 – $25
Order processing feePer checkout
$0.00
$3 – $7
E-ticket / delivery feeFor a digital QR
$0.00
$2 – $5
Artist getsAfter all fees, on a $45 ticket
$20.25
$3 – $14
User data resaleSelling listening data to brokers
Never
Industry standard
Paid chart placementLabels buying top positions
Forbidden
Routine
“Hype the scene. Not the next rich guy.”
— iHYPE charter · founding principle
Why it’s the best · 03 of 05
Eight things we will never do.
Easier to commit to a list than a vague principle. If iHYPE ever does any of these, you should leave — and this list is baked into the charter that requires a board vote to change.
✕
Charge a platform fee on tickets
The platform fee line is $0 forever. Not “introductory.” Not “during high demand.” Zero.
✕
Gate features behind a subscription
No iHYPE Pro. No Premium. No paywalled charts, analytics, or HYPE multipliers.
✕
Sell or resell user data
Your listening, location, friends, purchases — never packaged, never sold, never shared with brokers.
✕
Accept payment for chart positions
Charts rank on active HYPE only. No label can buy a top spot. Sponsored slots appear at position 4+ and are labelled.
✕
Run non-music ads
No sports betting, crypto, or mortgage refinance. Music-related businesses only, in audio playback only.
✕
Displace top organic recommendations
The top three recommendation slots are always earned. Sponsored content appears at position 4 or later.
✕
Play ads outside music playback
No banners. No interstitials. No pre-rolls on pages. Audio ads only, in the player only.
✕
Take a cut from artist revenue
Tip jars, merch, supporter funds — 100% goes to the artist after card and tax. Full stop.
Why it’s the best · 04 of 05
Every number, in the open.
The Glass Wall is a live public dashboard showing where every dollar went today. Aggregated, anonymized, updated every minute. iHYPE management sees the same numbers you do — there are no private dashboards.
Today · live
412k
Songs finished
Today · live
184,294
HYPE given
Today · live
14,028
Tickets sold
Today · live
$632k
To creators
Right now
28,941
Active sessions
Where today’s ticket revenue went
Updated every minute. Public API available.
$632,401Today · so far
Why it’s the best · 05 of 05
Owned by the community. Governed by the scene.
Not-for-profit is just a tax status. What keeps a platform honest is who sits on the board, what they can block, and what they’re required to publish.
The board · 9 seats
Eight seats elected by users — two per role. One executive director. Three-year terms, two-term cap. Quarterly public meetings.
FanElected
FanElected
ArtistElected
ArtistElected
VenueElected
VenueElected
PromoterElected
PromoterElected
Exec. Dir.Staff
✓Algorithm changes need board approval and a public changelog with dissents recorded.
✓Payout rules can’t change without board vote. The 45/45/10 split is charter-protected.
✓Recall by petition. 25% of any role’s voters can trigger a seat recall.
✓ED salary cap at 5× the platform’s average wage.
What we publish — on a schedule
Real documents on a regular cadence. Not press releases.
990
IRS Form 990 · annual filing
Yearly · within 30 days of submission
P&L
Quarterly profit & loss
Every 3 months · revenue + spend
ADS
Ad inventory & top sponsors
Monthly · who paid, how much
REC
Algorithm changelog
Per change · vote and dissents recorded
MOD
Moderation actions · anonymized
Monthly · removals and appeals
PAY
Payout report · by role & region
Monthly · aggregate
BRD
Board meeting minutes
Quarterly · 14-day comment window
Join the platform that exists for the scene.
Free forever. Two fields to start. The music you love gets louder when you say so. Share iHYPE with one person who loves it as much as you do.
501(c)(3) · books open · $0 platform fee · no data resale · owned by the community