I’m thinking of developing an online platform/community where people can offer their instruments to lend out. Quite often I want to try out an instruments for a few days before buying or have some new inspirations.
For each day of lending out an instrument the user gets points. These points can be used for renting other instruments. The point amount you get/need each day, might depend on the value of an instrument (a vintage synth should be worth more points than a Korg volca)
What makes this platform special: Instruments are insured when lend via the platform. And for preventing theft, people have to register via their passboard when joining the platform. And users get ratings when the lend instruments.
Not everybody wants to lend their instruments or might doesn’t have any, so users can also buy points (aka days) via money. This also makes the platform profitable. And there will be a selection of instruments provided by the platform/us.
Now I’m wondering if there is a market for such a platform or if this sounds too complicated/unlikely that people join?
It is funny you post this I was just thinking about it yesterday, I came to the conclusion that it would probably be fraught with problems though.
Mainly accidental damage, malfunction or issues of condition, which would likely cause disputes, I’ll be interested to see how you could overcome such issues though. Perhaps some feedback score/trust rating, but even this can be open to people misusing.
I had thought about this a few months ago when contemplating a new purchase being useful!
There’s a thriving house share industry that basically relies on trust and a relatively small yearly fee.
A lot of house swap services charge a yearly fee of $100-$200 and thats all u pay.
This keeps the lowest common denomination out in most cases.
I feel like a service for borrowing instruments would struggle with such a high fee, but perhaps if this was put forward more as an insurance policy (as you suggest) more people would be on board.
I think allowing people to provide written “reviews” of other users is crucial too so people can avoid certain things (eg smokers/beer pourers)
The main thing here would be that it relies on other local musicians being subscribed to the service too or else the $100 yearly fee seems like a waste.
Alternatively if this was framed as a “gear rental” platform, where individuals could put their own gear up for rent (maybe using the tokens as you suggest), then this could open it an even larger audience (eg PA systems, DJ equipment etc)
I do like the idea but I think its a relatively hard sell if your target audience is just local muscians who want to try gear for a few days!
My concern as a lender would still be how fraud/theft is adequately addressed.
How would the platform verify if the passports are real? Real, but stolen, passport data is available for purchase in identity theft markets.
Insurance is useful if an insurance payout is able replace the stolen/missing/damaged item, but is cold comfort if the instrument is discontinued or rare.
How would disputes between the lender and borrow be resolved in a fair manner? Even after all these years, few seem to be happy with how eBay or PayPal treat these issues.
Online lending platforms face similar issues. One example is “loan stacking” where a malicious user would open multiple loans at the same time with no intention of paying back. By the time any one of these loans are due, the user has already moved on. These types of user would take smaller loans to build up trust in the system before they make their big exit.
Similarly, user could borrow multiple instruments and exit the platform before they are due to be returned. They would similarly build up trust by borrowing and returning items to build up a trustworthy history.
While these malicious transactions/user may be a small percentage of the user base, it doesn’t take much to erode trust in the platform as a whole.
I think the idea for an instrument lending platform will be valuable to many users, but if you can solve the issues above, those solutions will be very valuable to a wide range of online platforms beyond instrument lending!
Considering the fact that many retailers offer a generous return period, I doubt that this will make you the next Elon Musk. Also, resolving disputes will be a nightmare.
Generally a great idea, but I know people, who take much care about things they lend, and others, where you can be sure that there will be some issues after return. This said … would I lend gear like my vintage synths to someone in the wild? Definitely not, but if I know someone in person, I would invite him or her to the studio and to do some work … “watching with my eagle eyes” …
“watching with my eagle eyes” … 
