Want feedback on your art? Fluence turns power users & busy media experts into paid consultants

Say you’d like to get some feedback on a particular creative project, but don’t have a ton of cash to hire a part-time consultant. New startup Fluence, which launches today, might be a good alternative.

Fluence invites industry experts, marketing pros, social media power users, and other to quickly and easily provide feedback — in exchange for fees — through its web-based platform.

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It’s attempting to provide a more reliable solution for professionals who might enjoy the wide range of reactions provided by social networks, but who need more constructive feedback than you’re likely to find on Facebook or Twitter. While feedback on media projects (audio and video) is a natural fit for the platform, you could also use it to solicit feedback on a variety of products and services.

For instance, if you want feedback on a new demo video for your music startup you can surf Fluence for relevant people to provide feedback. Those doing the consulting list a short bio illustrating their background, and list a per-minute rate for their service. So if you wanted a combination of 50 musicians, fellow music startup founders, and freelance journalists to weigh in on your video for about 7 minutes apiece, you could probably do so for about the same price it would cost to hire one dedicated consultant for a few hours.

The startup was cofounded by Shamal Ranasinghe, who previously founded artist analytics platform Topspin, a startup that was acquired by the now Apple-owned Beats Music. That said, he’s got plenty of experience in trying to help people gain crowd-based insight about their work.

“The idea for Fluence came to me while I was still working at Topspin, but the inspiration for it almost predated it,” Ranasinghe said. “There are so many talented artists playing to only a fraction of their potential audience. It occurred to me that what was needed is an easy way for them to get feedback on their work.”

After Ranasinghe walked me through a quick demo of Fluence, I asked him how it would handle instances where the person doing the consulting doesn’t actually need the money — but does want to “pay it forward” by quickly advising some folks looking for guidance or feedback. For example, Apple CEO Tim Cook typically auctions off a lunch to one person with deep pockets every year, with the proceeds going to charity.

Fluence plans to do the same eventually. Ranasinghe revealed that he sent an invite to former Topspin and Beats Music CEO Ian Rogers.

“I invited Ian to become a Fluencer and he could just donate whatever money he brings in to a good cause,” Ranasinghe said, adding that it would be pretty valuable for music startups to gain feedback from the man in charge of Apple’s streaming music efforts. I wouldn’t disagree.

Fluence’s platform could be huge for those who wish to bottle up the sort of diverse feedback provided when sharing on on various social networks. But that’s assuming that enough credible “influencers” sign up to sell their time. While Ranasinghe didn’t disclose how many users the service has from its open beta, he did indicate that Fluence was seeing steady growth.

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For a close look at Fluence’s service, check out the demo video embedded below.