Font distribution

Jasper de Waard
Jasper de Waard Posts: 641
in Type Business
Hi there,

Just a thought I've been playing with for a while. I hate to see monotype own everything, and I hate to lose around 50% with resellers. So, here's the idea:

A website with similar functionalities to myfonts, without all the crappy typefaces, and without the option of actually buying the fonts. It merely showcases the work of a lot of different foundries, and when the viewer wants to buy, he/she is redirected to buy from the foundry's website.

The website and work on the website (including webbuilding, managing people, and some marketing like newsletters and such) is payed for by participating foundries, in relation to the amount of clickthroughs to their foundry website they get as a percentage of the total amount of clickthroughs. So the more clickthroughs, the larger the portion of running the website you pay for.

It's a rough idea. Probably won't work as is, but perhaps someone is crazy enough to make this work. Just perhaps.

Comments

  • Eris Alar
    Eris Alar Posts: 455
    Have you seen http://fontsinuse.com ? I'd say it's filling the niche you are outlining.
  • James Puckett
    James Puckett Posts: 2,001
    The time for new distribution platforms is over. This industry is full of snobs who would rather pretend to be special than join with the rabble. Of course they’ll keep selling through MyFonts, but never stoop to organizing another shop with the same people that isn't controlled by Monotype.
  • Eris Alar
    Eris Alar Posts: 455
    I agree with you James. As a font-customer, I want to support indies much as I can, but the way MT have been consistently expanding leaves a bad taste in my mouth so purchasing through one of the MT-owned resellers makes me feel conflicted. Especially as some of the indies I like only sell through MyFonts.

    Another issue for me though is that I have less issues with other corps doing it (like Apple, Google, Amazon etc buying up companies to expand), so rationally I don't know why this news has emotionally impacted me the way it has.
  • Chris Lozos
    Chris Lozos Posts: 1,458
    It bothers me because it is just a "queens pawn forward" first move (or 2nd or 3rd) in a line up of events to be controlling. It is purely a "Winning" move.

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