Picture this

Who it is for

Leo is an indie producer with 900 listeners. First Row gives him a club page where fans claim a dated seat the day they find him, add a one line note on how, and keep showing up at drops. When he books his first headline show, he sends soundcheck invites to the first fifty seats, no algorithm involved.

Two ways to own it

What you get

Base$99

$25 deposit to reserve

Artist club page, non-transferable dated seat claims, fan notes, drop check-ins, invite-by-seat tool.

You choose: chain
You choose: artist name and art
You choose: accent color
You choose: seat cap

Customfrom $600

Built around you

Reshape it entirely: new features, your flows, your brand end to end, integrations you need. We scope it with you.

Everything in Base
Custom features and design
Priority build

Why it is new

What exists today, and what this does differently

What is new

Makes early belief a visible, ordered seat chart the artist controls, with perks given by the artist, not traded or sold, so it rewards care instead of speculation.

Closest things out there

AlphaStamp is an MVP that timestamps fan discovery onchain; SoundCloud's First Fans module recognizes first listeners off-chain. Neither gives artists an owned club with seat-ordered invites.

Checked with web searches in October 2026. A search is not proof that nothing similar exists, and the market moves fast, so we recheck before every build.

What it unlocks

The human in it

Turns early belief into a front-row relationship.

The Regatta Board

Races it can enter

grant · Base · rolling

Base Builder Grants

rolling, retroactive

Official page ↗

Creator economy consumer app on Base.

Their rule on existing code: Existing shipped projects OK (retroactive)

What you own

The whole app, not a starter kit.

The complete First Row artist app: fans claim dated, non transferable seats, a lobby keeps farms out, drop nights build a habit, and soundcheck invites go out by seat order with a public rule.

Base price · $99

The user app, complete

Every buyer gets the same finished app. Basic branding and copy changes come through a quick form.

Three step onboardingHome

Shown once: fans take a seat, the date is theirs, invite by seat not by luck.

Club status and next actionHome

Seats claimed against the cap, lobby count, next drop, and one clear next step.

Seat chart and seat holdersSeats

Every seat with its number, date and activity; tap a fan for their stub and onchain receipt.

Quiet seat nudgesSeats

One friendly note to seats that went quiet. Gated behind Artist.

Fan claim page previewSeats

Email or passkey sign in, one line note, sponsored gas, nothing to buy.

Lobby with door checkLobby

New claims wait with their date held; farm clusters are flagged and declined before any seat is minted.

Drop night check insDrops

Seat holders hear new tracks early and tap in; one daily root goes on chain.

Fan notes digestDrops

Where fans found the artist, grouped from their notes. Gated behind Artist.

Invite builder by seat orderInvites

Pick N and an activity rule, seal invites, post the list root, track RSVPs.

Door list exportInvites

Seat number and first name for venue staff. Gated behind Artist.

Plans, club settings and share cardMe

Pricing from the owner paywall with USDC checkout, seat cap, chain, and the seat share card.

Open the full app demo

Add-on

Owner console

Your admin side: revenue, paywall editor, users, rules and the agent log.

Revenue and paywall editorRevenue

MRR, incoming USDC payments, payouts, live tier and gate editing, payment methods.

Artist clubs managerClubs

Every club you run with its plan, plus a form to open a club for a new artist.

Rules, agent log and roadmapRules

Lobby on or off, farm detection, default invite rule, nudge limit, chain, gas; plus the Agent log and priced Roadmap.

Top-up

Growth and referrals

Referral and growth mechanics, switched on when you are ready to grow.

Growth loops and referralsGrowth

Cohorts, listening party nights and artist to artist referral codes.

The money path, built in

How it earns for you

Fans never pay to claim a seat. Artists start free and pay monthly for the tools that look after the room; labels and venues pay for several artists and door lists.

StarterFreeClub page, dated seat claims, lobby, drop check ins, invites by seat

Artist$12 a monthFan notes digest, quiet seat nudges, door list export, own accent and domain

Label or venue$99 a monthSeveral artists in one account, shared venue invites, RSVP export for door staff

No fees on fans. Gas for seat mints and daily roots, well under a cent each, can be sponsored by the owner.

Prices are yours to set. Illustrative, not a promise of income.

Growth loops, built in

How it spreads

Seat share cards that invited fans post with their number and date
Low seat numbers before the cap pull fans in early
Soundcheck guests: each invite brings one friend
Artist to artist referral codes worth a free month for both
Listening party nights that onboard artists in a batch

Roadmap · build the next phase with us

Where it goes next

v1 included

The full artist club

Club page and dated, non transferable seats
Lobby with farm detection and batch approval
Drop night check ins with a daily root
Invite builder by seat order and a public rule
Paywall, share cards and fan notes

Included

Venue door and manager accounts

Venue door app that reads seats at entry
Manager accounts for several artists
Seat holder first ticket window
Push notifications for drop night

Add-on from $400

Fan taste passport and scene network

A fan's private record of who they found early
Cross club discovery for local scenes
Collective and festival white label
Open seat schema and verifier

Add-on from $900

For investors and grant reviewers

The pitch, ready

A fan club where artists see who backed them first and invite those people to soundchecks by seat number.

Problem: Small artists cannot see who believed in them first. Streaming dashboards show anonymous top listeners, and when the first real show comes the earliest fans are usually left out.

Solution: Fans claim a dated, non transferable seat the day they find an artist. A lobby keeps farms out, drop nights keep the room active, and invites follow seat order with a public, checkable rule.

Why now: Sponsored gas on Base, passkey wallets and small models for farm detection make an owned, crypto invisible fan club cheap enough for an artist with 900 listeners.

Market: Independent artists, their managers, small labels, venues and collectives that want a real relationship with early fans.

The ask: Pilot artists in one city scene, a venue partner for door check in, and support from Base Builder Grants.

Funding is never guaranteed. Check each program's rules.

For hackathons and demo days

Your 2 minute demo

Home: meet Leo, 24, in Maboneng, with a first headline show at The Yard and 44 claims in the lobby.
Lobby: run the door check, decline 41 claims from one device, give Sipho a seat.
Seats: tap Thandi, seat 7 since 14 March, and see what is and is not onchain.
Drops: drop Lift Club to seat holders and watch check ins land, then try the gated digest.
Invites: invite the first 50 active seats, seal them, and open seat 7's share card.
Owner Revenue: change the Artist price in the paywall editor and preview the Plans screen.
Owner Rules: turn the lobby off and see the farm take seats in the artist app.
Owner Roadmap: request the v2 venue door app.

Many hackathons require code written at the event. See the Regatta Boardfor each race's rule.

Make it entirely yours

Custom work from $600: your own branding and domain, streaming account listen checks, ticketing or CRM integrations, extra languages. Scoped on a call.

Custom from $600

BLUEPRINT

Why it matters and how it really works

The need

Small artists cannot see who believed in them first. Streaming dashboards show anonymous top listeners, social reach rewards whoever is loudest this week, and when the first real show comes, the earliest fans are usually the ones left out.

What exists and what is new

Pieces exist. AlphaStamp is an early MVP that timestamps when a fan discovered an artist onchain, and SoundCloud's First Fans module recognises early listeners off chain. Neither gives an artist an owned club with a seat chart they control and invites issued by seat order. What is new here is that combination: dated, non transferable seats with a one line discovery note, drop night check ins, and an artist set invite rule that anyone can verify. Research verdict: rare, medium novelty.

The data it runs on

Seat number, claim date and wallet (onchain, non transferable); the fan's one line note, email and RSVPs (held privately by the club, notes shown only with consent); drop check ins (hashed and batched); the invite list root and the rule used to build it.

1.The mission

Early belief should be visible and remembered, so the people who showed up first get the front row, not whoever pays most later.

2.Why people can't resist it

Your number never changes Seat 7 stays seat 7. A dated seat is a story fans tell: I was there in March.

Drop night New tracks reach seat holders a day early. One tap checks in and keeps a streak.

Invites you can check Soundcheck and listening party invites follow seat order and a public rule. No lottery, no hand picking.

3.How it works for real

Fan sign in: Privy email or passkey login creates an embedded wallet. Gas is sponsored by the club through a paymaster, so fans never hold ETH.

Seat contract: A small non transferable ERC 721 (soulbound, transfers revert) on Base or Zora, or a non transferable Token 2022 mint on Solana. Seat number and claim timestamp are set at mint.

Lobby and anti farm: New claims wait in a lobby. A passkey, one listen check from a linked streaming account or a private listen link, and device rate limits score each claim. The artist approves batches; declined claims are never minted.

Check ins: Drop night taps are recorded offchain and rolled into a daily Merkle root posted onchain, so activity is provable without a transaction per tap.

Invite builder: The artist sets N and a rule (for example: active in 1 of the last 4 drops). The app builds the list from seat order, posts its Merkle root, and sends invites by email and push.

Assistant: A small model tier (for example Claude Haiku or a comparable model via OpenRouter) clusters suspicious claims, drafts fan notes into a monthly digest for the artist, and writes nudges to quiet seats. It never issues or revokes seats.

Indexer and page: A light indexer (Ponder or a hosted subgraph) reads seat events; the club page and seat chart render from it.

4.Cost per use and pricing

Per seat: one sponsored mint on Base, usually well under 1 cent at normal gas. Check ins: one Merkle root per day, a fraction of a cent. AI: a few cents a month for a club of a few hundred seats on a small model tier. Example month for a 300 seat club with 4 drops: about 60 new mints plus 30 root posts (under $1 of gas), $1 to $3 of model calls, plus hosting and email at roughly $10 to $25.

Club Free for fans

Fans never pay to claim a seat. The owner covers gas, which stays tiny.

Artist $9 to $19 a month

An owner who runs this for artists can charge for the club page, lobby protection, invites and the monthly fan notes digest.

Label or venue From $99 a month

Several artists, shared venue invites, export of RSVP lists for door staff.

5.Growth loop

Every seat holder gets a share card with their seat number and date. Fans post it when they are invited; other fans of the artist want a low number before the cap, and other artists see the card and ask how to get a club. Artists bring their fans; fans bring the next artist.

6.Risks and guardrails

Seat farming: Bots grab early seats after a playlist add. Lobby approval, passkeys, listen checks and rate limits keep seats from being minted to farms.

Turning seats into speculation: Seats are non transferable by contract and perks come from the artist, not a market. The app should not add pricing, bidding or resale.

Privacy: Notes can be personal. They are private by default, published only with the fan's consent, and emails are never onchain.

Unfair lists: Pure order can reward the first click over care. The invite rule is public and the list root is posted, so fans can check it.

Promises: Invites depend on the artist booking shows. The app says so plainly and never implies a guaranteed perk.

7.Build order

Club page with artist name, art and accent colour
Email or passkey sign in with sponsored, non transferable seat mint
One line discovery note and seat chart
Lobby with approve in batches
Drop night check in with daily root
Invite builder by seat order and activity rule, with email invites
Share card for seat holders

8.Where this is going

Now
One artist, one room, seats and soundcheck invites by order.
Next
Venues read seat charts at the door, so early fans get in without a list on a clipboard.
Later
Fans carry a quiet record of who they found early across many artists, a taste history they own.
The world
Early belief is visible everywhere music is made, and the first fans of every artist get the front row by default.

Costs and tools are estimates at the time of writing. General information only, not legal or financial advice.

OWNER PLAYBOOK

Own it, then chart your voyage

Nine routes from one vessel. Tap a port to open its chart.

Why own First Row

First Row gives an artist a club page where fans claim dated, non-transferable seats the day they find them, so the artist always knows who believed first. Owning it means your fan club lives on your page and your wallet, not inside a streaming platform that hides your fans behind an algorithm. When you book the show, you invite the first fifty seats directly, no middleman.

What’s stopping you?

“I can't code.”

You do not need to. The club page, seat claims, fan notes, drop check-ins and invite tool come ready. You add your name, art and a seat cap.

“My fans are not crypto people.”

Most are not. Seats are free to claim and non-transferable, so nobody is buying or selling anything. Keep the language about seats and invites, not tokens.

“What if only a handful of fans claim seats?”

That is fine. Ten real early fans are worth more than a thousand passive followers. Start with the people who already message you.

“Is this a way to sell my fans tokens?”

No. Seats cannot be traded or sold. Perks are given by you, such as soundcheck invites or early listens. That keeps it about care, not speculation.

“Is it really mine?”

Yes. Your page, your domain, your wallet, your fan list. You can export it any time.

The million-dollar ladder

As an artist, you earn by turning early fans into paying supporters for shows, merch and listening parties you choose. As an operator, you earn by running First Row clubs for many artists: monthly plans for independent artists, label and manager tiers, and white label for venues and collectives.

$90

$7,500

$24,750

$85,000

First 10 artists

10 artists

$9 per month

Independent scene

500 artists

$15 per month

Managers and small labels

250 managers