OVERWHELM THE UNDERGROUND

You can check out our MVP artist page at woeunholy.ampwall.com. Buy a shirt while you're at it.

We're moving fast! Our first MVP focuses on the e-commerce product fundamentals. This includes things like:

• - Artist creation
• - Create merchandise and music with basic pages containing images and info
• - Streaming digital audio on the page and embeddable in social media where supported
• - Add to cart, purchase items
• - Multi-artist and multi-origins supported in single carts
• - Optional shipping calculations to supported addresses
• - DRM-free audio downloads and transcodes to various formats
• - Shipping dashboard with optional Shippo integration.

We are currently sprinting towards testing with artists and labels that are operated by people outside of our team. This is planned for the end of 2023 / early 2024. If you are interested in being an early testing partner, please get in touch through [email protected]!

Along the way, we'll continue adding to artist profiles and tools to help promote releases, connect with supporters, and strengthen scenes. We have an ambitious roadmap for Ampwall that combines familliar elements with insight that feels wholly unique.

We hope to start sending out invitations in the spring of 2024.

Of course! Usage of an amplifier is not required. We chose this name because it makes us happy and evokes a special something for us. We listen to a diverse range of music and are excited to welcome artists from all genres and walks of life onto Ampwall.

Right now, we're looking at per-transaction fees in the ballpark of 5% plus payment processing fees, which are usually 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.

We are highly motivated to keep fees low. We've felt the sting of high fees and know that as sales volume increases, they can add up and feel outrageous. It's our priority to run a sustainable business without expecting our most successful sellers to pay a disproportionate brunt of the costs.

Ampwall is the long-imagined project of Chris Grigg, a musician and software engineer based in New York.

Chris has been playing in bands for more than 20 years, including Woe, which started as a solo project in 2007. Woe has released four albums with a fifth due in September 2023 and toured throughout North America and Europe. Chris is also the drummer for the death metal band Glorious Depravity.

He has also recorded and mixed albums for many bands. Full discography here.

Chris was the first software engineer at Proteus Motion where he worked alongside the team to conceive and build the software side of the business. Proteus raised some $4-5M in funding during his tenure. Prior to Ampwall, he was a Staff Engineer at Shippo primarily focused on their new core web product's UI.

Ampwall is supported by a motivated group of friends and collaborators. Engineers and designers contributing to the platform and musicians who provide invaluable feedback and guidance.

Chris's first attempt at building a pay-what-you-want download service was in 2008. Built to sell Woe's first album, "A Spell for the Death of Man", the original product worked well enough that some friends asked to use it, then some strangers. It hung around for a year or so before better options popped up.

Almost 15 years later, while preparing to sell his latest release, he realized that despite the proliferation of options, there was still no single product that offered the combination of features he needed as an independant musician. Armed with years of software experience, he started building the service he was looking for.

Ampwall began development in January 2023. The company was incorporated in June 2023.

Ampwall is currently available to a limited group of testers.

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Emails can be directed to [email protected] or you can reach Chris directly at [email protected].