Welcoming fanBunker

Here’s a bit more about fanBunker.com. We acquired the site earlier this month, partly for its synergies with FargoTube. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

fanBunker Screenshot

FanBunker facilitates interaction among sports fans, centered both on outside links to sports news and on independent, team-specific blogs.

We’re also bringing on former NFL Linebacker Carlton Bailey, a three-time Super Bowl-er to help bring introduce fanBunker to new fans.

Carlton and the acquisition are part of our continuing push to broaden FargoTube’s appeal to entertainment forms outside of independent music, which has been its strongest market. As you probably know, our social networks are designed to draw users with both exclusive and non-exclusive content, to present that content in an attractive manner, and to make that content a touchstone for fan interaction.

“Our decision as a company to acquire a sports website was a no-brainer,” F3 President of Media and Marketing Kwan Straughn told me. “Since 2008, integrated sports/social entertainment has grown from a modest niche market to a multi-billion-dollar industry.”

F3 Technologies CEO Frank Connor (second from left) and fanBunker co-founder Seth Roseman shake on the deal. From left to right: F3 VP Baron Agee, Connor, Roseman, fanBunker co-founder Mark Griffith, Straughn and F3 Senior VP Stephanie Miller.

Kwan helped to drive our acquisition of fanBunker. We’re hoping to acquire one, two or three additional fan-centric websites by the end of the year. As was true with fanBunker, we’re assessing them for their potential synergies with FargoTube, including the increased visitor traffic we expect them to bring. We’ll definitely keep you abreast of all new happenings on that front.

You can read more about Carlton Bail and fanBunker in the press release we put out this morning.

New look and features coming to FargoTube

Details in this press release. We’ll let you know as soon as it’s ready for viewing and again when it goes live.

We’ll also put out details of the FanBunker acquisition in the next couple of days.

Jump-started!

Sherrié Austin has raised more than $3,000 for her forthcoming album, “Circus Girl,” through FargoTube’s Jump Start crowd-funding tool.

Austin launched the fundraiser in mid-June, with the goal of raising $15,000. Crowd-funding is useful for unsigned artists because it’s an alternative to the traditional label-centric model, in which a record label funds an album’s production, keeps most of the sales proceeds, and often owns the rights to the music in perpetuity.

Beyond that, the combination of Jump Start and FargoTube allows Austin’s fans to participate in the production and release of her music and in other aspects of her career. Austin’s Jump Start campaign allows them to contribute at varying levels, from $5 to $2,000. Fans who contribute that amount can spend a day in Nashville with Sherrié as their tour-guide, a brand-new autographed guitar, a Skyped living room concert premiering songs from “Circus Girl,” an autographed t-shirt, a mention in the CD’s liner notes, and a range of other schwag.