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Fyodor Murachkovsky:
“An artist shouldn’t stand there holding out his hat”
INTERVIEW · ARTEL MAGAZINE
The creator of Planeta.ru, Russia’s first crowdfunding ecosystem, on a universe of projects, creators and fans, on vinyl and DDT, and on why crowdfunding is not only about money.
Text by Sergey Turkin
The creator of Planeta.ru, Russia’s first crowdfunding ecosystem, on a universe of projects, creators and fans, on vinyl and DDT, and on why crowdfunding is not only about money.
Text by Sergey Turkin
Fyodor, Planeta’s turnover has passed 2 billion and keeps growing.
Yes, we’re now approaching two and a half. More than 10,000 projects have been completed in 13 years.
Are there no competitors left?
There are niche players in our business, and that’s great, but there are no competitors in our format in the country — and probably not in the world either. We are ahead of our time. For example, back in 2013 we launched a store of products created through crowdfunding. A similar store appeared on IndieGogo, the world’s second-largest crowdfunding platform, only in 2017. It didn’t survive the pandemic, while we used that time to develop partnerships with marketplaces and grew significantly.
Planeta has outgrown the format of a simple crowdfunding platform — is it now a whole planetary system of three planets?
We call it an ecosystem: several tools united under one “umbrella” brand, Planeta.ru. Besides the traditional crowdfunding platform everyone knows, it includes Orbita.fans, a system of subscription donations. We don’t actively advertise it yet; it spreads by word of mouth. The projects launched there revolve around a star.
Is the star you?
The star is the project’s creator, who monetizes their fan base with us. Fans are usually “spread” across different platforms; with us a creator sets up their own ID and brings their whole audience to it, including from other platforms.
A project usually lasts up to six months, or even less. When it runs its course, where do the star’s fans go?
They don’t go anywhere; they stay on our platform in “standby mode”. You can keep them engaged with news and updates — for example, reports from a rock band’s tour. When a new project appears, they’ll be ready for it; they won’t have cooled off. The creator then works with the same audience or grows a new one. Say the idea for a book comes up — they can publish chapters from it. And there’s no need to create a new ID.
Is there a third element of the ecosystem?
Yes, we have Atmosfera.store, a store of unique goods — the place where products are sold from idea to shelf, gathered as lots. These might be books and vinyl records, for example. We handle the logistics ourselves, which makes things much easier for the creator. Storage at our warehouse also has to be built into the price so that the “math” works. All this requires professional work from the creator: knowledge of marketing, management and PR.
If it’s a “creative unit” rather than a sales professional, where would they get that knowledge?
That’s what our Crowdfunding School is for — it distills the experience of our producers, who work with major and/or promising creators. We decided to help creators prepare. We started by explaining what crowdfunding is, and then added to our courses the questions our own creators asked us while running their projects. In addition, most “stars” have their own dedicated managers for crowdfunding projects. Of course, not every creator has that option.
If one person decides to support a favorite creator on your platform, and another to buy a specific lot, how ethical is that choice, including for the creator? One simply donates money, the other buys a product?
People choose for themselves how to support a particular project or creator. When, say, DDT releases another album, neither donations nor purchases of unique lots can cover all the production costs anyway. We give fans the freedom to choose, and that is the value of the platform.
DDT is one of your champions; on average they raise 30–40 million per project.
Since there has been more than one project, they’ve raised over 100 million in total. As for music, performers on our platform gained the ability to release an album without involving any label, which made some people very unhappy with us. In effect, the musicians kept all the rights, and we connected the creator with the consumer directly. The fan decided how much the musicians earned, and not everyone liked that.
Yes, we’re now approaching two and a half. More than 10,000 projects have been completed in 13 years.
Are there no competitors left?
There are niche players in our business, and that’s great, but there are no competitors in our format in the country — and probably not in the world either. We are ahead of our time. For example, back in 2013 we launched a store of products created through crowdfunding. A similar store appeared on IndieGogo, the world’s second-largest crowdfunding platform, only in 2017. It didn’t survive the pandemic, while we used that time to develop partnerships with marketplaces and grew significantly.
Planeta has outgrown the format of a simple crowdfunding platform — is it now a whole planetary system of three planets?
We call it an ecosystem: several tools united under one “umbrella” brand, Planeta.ru. Besides the traditional crowdfunding platform everyone knows, it includes Orbita.fans, a system of subscription donations. We don’t actively advertise it yet; it spreads by word of mouth. The projects launched there revolve around a star.
Is the star you?
The star is the project’s creator, who monetizes their fan base with us. Fans are usually “spread” across different platforms; with us a creator sets up their own ID and brings their whole audience to it, including from other platforms.
A project usually lasts up to six months, or even less. When it runs its course, where do the star’s fans go?
They don’t go anywhere; they stay on our platform in “standby mode”. You can keep them engaged with news and updates — for example, reports from a rock band’s tour. When a new project appears, they’ll be ready for it; they won’t have cooled off. The creator then works with the same audience or grows a new one. Say the idea for a book comes up — they can publish chapters from it. And there’s no need to create a new ID.
Is there a third element of the ecosystem?
Yes, we have Atmosfera.store, a store of unique goods — the place where products are sold from idea to shelf, gathered as lots. These might be books and vinyl records, for example. We handle the logistics ourselves, which makes things much easier for the creator. Storage at our warehouse also has to be built into the price so that the “math” works. All this requires professional work from the creator: knowledge of marketing, management and PR.
If it’s a “creative unit” rather than a sales professional, where would they get that knowledge?
That’s what our Crowdfunding School is for — it distills the experience of our producers, who work with major and/or promising creators. We decided to help creators prepare. We started by explaining what crowdfunding is, and then added to our courses the questions our own creators asked us while running their projects. In addition, most “stars” have their own dedicated managers for crowdfunding projects. Of course, not every creator has that option.
If one person decides to support a favorite creator on your platform, and another to buy a specific lot, how ethical is that choice, including for the creator? One simply donates money, the other buys a product?
People choose for themselves how to support a particular project or creator. When, say, DDT releases another album, neither donations nor purchases of unique lots can cover all the production costs anyway. We give fans the freedom to choose, and that is the value of the platform.
DDT is one of your champions; on average they raise 30–40 million per project.
Since there has been more than one project, they’ve raised over 100 million in total. As for music, performers on our platform gained the ability to release an album without involving any label, which made some people very unhappy with us. In effect, the musicians kept all the rights, and we connected the creator with the consumer directly. The fan decided how much the musicians earned, and not everyone liked that.
“
The main thing is to give people the chance to choose, to take risks and to make decisions themselves.
You’ve recently got into vinyl?
You could say I took a direct part in bringing this unique product back to the market. It has a special sound that no digital format can match. You listen to a record exactly as the artist intended; you no longer skip from song to song. We recreated the vinyl record production process, with precisely set thickness and weight. Turnaround is 2.5 months, including sound and printing. We now have several such projects in the works. We’ll be reissuing DDT on vinyl, by the way, as a pre-order. The band’s fans will be able to buy the records through a crowdfunding project at a better price. We may make a larger run so that those who didn’t manage to pre-order can still buy records — though they’ll cost more. And we’ll sell them through our own store.
Not everyone can raise tens of millions; some struggle to raise 3 million.
Our creators are all different. Someone will shoot their first film for 250,000 rubles — and be happy with the result, because people have heard of them. Maybe that’s where their rise will begin. You and I remember Garri Bardin’s animated film The Flying Ship, but young people know nothing about it. Our platform is a chance for him to tell young people about himself, whether or not he manages to raise money for a new animated film. I think he will.
If a project doesn’t reach the coveted 50%, what happens to it? Do you return the money?
Classic crowdfunding works on an “all or nothing” basis. If less than 50% is raised, the money is returned. Now we give creators the option to proceed with less than 50% raised if they believe the project can be completed with that money. But in that case our percentage is higher.
Speaking of percentages, is it true that you take no commission on charity projects hosted on your platform?
It’s true: of our 18 project categories, charity is a special case. These are pressing social initiatives, and they are often off the charts in creativity and appeal to donors. For example, in 2024 a crowdfunding project made it possible to launch “1221”, an anonymous psychological support chat for teenagers. Thanks to the service, young people aged 12 to 21 can get a free hour-long consultation with a professional psychologist. Since the sessions are online, teenagers can reach out from anywhere in the world.
There’s another example of an approach that may not be charitable but is certainly creative. Photographer Ivan Khafizov launched 15 crowdfunding projects, raised almost 23 million rubles and created a virtual museum of platbands [carved window frames], released assembly models and publishes photo calendars every year.
Crowdfunding is one way of attracting investment. Is it about money? Or about something else?
It’s certainly not only about money: this technology provides feedback between the creator and the consumer of creative content. An artist shouldn’t stand there holding out his hat; it’s far more interesting to offer a fan a unique product they won’t find in an ordinary shop. The band Aria raises tens of millions of rubles on our platform, but it would release its albums anyway. We explain to the members of our network: Planeta.ru is your legacy; this platform unites active people who start doing things together. Stars pull less famous performers along with them. When Aria releases its album, many hard-rock and metal bands will launch on our platform alongside it. Not every project “takes off” — on our platform one in three succeeds. The main thing is to give people the chance to choose, to take risks and to make decisions themselves.
You could say I took a direct part in bringing this unique product back to the market. It has a special sound that no digital format can match. You listen to a record exactly as the artist intended; you no longer skip from song to song. We recreated the vinyl record production process, with precisely set thickness and weight. Turnaround is 2.5 months, including sound and printing. We now have several such projects in the works. We’ll be reissuing DDT on vinyl, by the way, as a pre-order. The band’s fans will be able to buy the records through a crowdfunding project at a better price. We may make a larger run so that those who didn’t manage to pre-order can still buy records — though they’ll cost more. And we’ll sell them through our own store.
Not everyone can raise tens of millions; some struggle to raise 3 million.
Our creators are all different. Someone will shoot their first film for 250,000 rubles — and be happy with the result, because people have heard of them. Maybe that’s where their rise will begin. You and I remember Garri Bardin’s animated film The Flying Ship, but young people know nothing about it. Our platform is a chance for him to tell young people about himself, whether or not he manages to raise money for a new animated film. I think he will.
If a project doesn’t reach the coveted 50%, what happens to it? Do you return the money?
Classic crowdfunding works on an “all or nothing” basis. If less than 50% is raised, the money is returned. Now we give creators the option to proceed with less than 50% raised if they believe the project can be completed with that money. But in that case our percentage is higher.
Speaking of percentages, is it true that you take no commission on charity projects hosted on your platform?
It’s true: of our 18 project categories, charity is a special case. These are pressing social initiatives, and they are often off the charts in creativity and appeal to donors. For example, in 2024 a crowdfunding project made it possible to launch “1221”, an anonymous psychological support chat for teenagers. Thanks to the service, young people aged 12 to 21 can get a free hour-long consultation with a professional psychologist. Since the sessions are online, teenagers can reach out from anywhere in the world.
There’s another example of an approach that may not be charitable but is certainly creative. Photographer Ivan Khafizov launched 15 crowdfunding projects, raised almost 23 million rubles and created a virtual museum of platbands [carved window frames], released assembly models and publishes photo calendars every year.
Crowdfunding is one way of attracting investment. Is it about money? Or about something else?
It’s certainly not only about money: this technology provides feedback between the creator and the consumer of creative content. An artist shouldn’t stand there holding out his hat; it’s far more interesting to offer a fan a unique product they won’t find in an ordinary shop. The band Aria raises tens of millions of rubles on our platform, but it would release its albums anyway. We explain to the members of our network: Planeta.ru is your legacy; this platform unites active people who start doing things together. Stars pull less famous performers along with them. When Aria releases its album, many hard-rock and metal bands will launch on our platform alongside it. Not every project “takes off” — on our platform one in three succeeds. The main thing is to give people the chance to choose, to take risks and to make decisions themselves.