Help

When you sign up, pick the fan side rather than the artist side. You then choose a handle, your city and the music you listen to, which is what we use to suggest artists to you. Your handle is the only name other people ever see; your first and last name stay private.

In your settings, an Install button puts the icon on your home screen. On iPhone you have to ask for it yourself: tap Share, scroll down the list, then choose Add to Home Screen. Once installed, Starshine opens full screen with no address bar, and it can alert you when someone replies to you.

The feed: posts from artists, plus the memories and reviews left by other fans. At the top, four sorts, Recent, Hot, Memories and Reviews, plus filters for a genre, a place or a local scene. At the bottom, five tabs: home, my artists, messages, rankings and your account.

The list of every artist you have sent at least one flame to, from the most supported down. The same screen holds a feed that shows only their posts, with nothing else in between. You can remove someone from your list: their posts leave that feed, you still cross paths with them in the home feed, and the flames you gave them stay theirs.

In the feed, the filters set the genre, the sub-genre, the place and the scene. What you listen to and the city whose scene you follow are set in your profile info, and they are what decides which artists get highlighted for you. Your city itself is never shown anywhere.

They start switched off: as long as you say nothing, your phone never rings. Once switched on, you tick family by family what you want on your phone and by email. Unticking silences the alert, never the entry itself: everything is still there in your notifications list.

It is the way you show support on Starshine, and the only one: there is no like button next to it. Flames are limited, so what you give one artist you no longer have for another, and that is exactly what makes the gesture mean something. You send as many as you want at once, to whoever you want. Your balance is shown in your account.

You get a monthly allowance on the first of each month, and whatever you did not spend clears at month end. The ones you buy never clear, and they are always spent last. An artist’s crew, once you are a member, hands you back a share of what you give that artist: those are your earned flames, spent first and expiring at month end.

From their page, or under one of their posts: the flame button lets you pick an amount from the list or type your own. Both routes end up in the same place, the artist’s total. You can also leave a comment under a post, and mention someone in it.

The flames an artist receives turn into stars, and stars are what the rankings are built on. Artists are ranked among their own: by genre, by country, by scene, by kind of artist. Only the first hundred places show for any given set of filters, and the ranking is recomputed continuously.

Yes, in packs. Those are permanent: they do not clear at month end, and they are only spent once your monthly allowance is gone. You need a verified email address, since that is where the receipt goes, and you need to be at least 16. Your invoices are kept in your account.

It is the side of Starshine where fans lend a hand to touring artists: a bed, a ride, an extra pair of arms, promo, extras on a shoot, translation. An artist posts what they are missing for one of their dates, fans nearby offer to help, and the two sides work it out together. In return the artist says thank you in kind: tickets, merch, a signing, time together.

Build your help profile: a couple of sentences about yourself, your city, and one block for each thing you can do, with photos if you are offering a place to sleep. Nothing is required, and you answer case by case. When you would rather not be asked, one switch takes you out of searches without erasing anything, and you come back whenever you like.

On the calendar, month by month, and on the map, which shows what is needed around you. Both can be filtered by place and by kind of help. Once you have offered, My helping hands tells you where each exchange stands and what you promised.

No, never, and that is the hard rule of Fanhome. What the artist gives back is in kind: tickets, merch, a rehearsal, time. Any text mentioning an amount, a rate, a deposit or a payment method is refused, and so is a link to a classified ad. Your phone number and your email address do go through, because someone has to be able to reach you.

On the artist’s page, the agenda block lists their upcoming dates. A gig announcement can also come through your feed, poster and all. Every date has its own address on Starshine, where you find the venue, the time and a ticket link when the promoter added one. There is no list of every gig everywhere: you come across them through your artists and your feed.

The going button sits under the gig announcement in your feed, and on the agenda block of the artist’s page. Once tapped it turns green and cannot be tapped again: it is a promise, not a switch. You change your mind from My concerts, where all your dates wait for you with their venue and ticket link. A date that has passed drops off the list on its own.

You get a reminder on the day, you are told if the date moves, and the morning after Starshine offers you a chance to tell the story. Whoever posted the announcement sees how many people answered. Other fans see nothing by default: the promoter can switch on a setting that shows the faces of those who are coming on the gig’s page. No public counter is shown anywhere, so that a promise stays a promise and not a vote.

Two things, and both are always about an artist. A memory is a moment you lived with them, with at least one photo: meeting them at the stage door, the festival, the signed vinyl. A review is a critique of a gig, an album or an exhibition, with your rating from one to five smiles.

Yes, from your inbox: start a new conversation and search for their name. Only published pages show up, and an artist may have closed their door to messages. All your threads live in one place, alongside the rooms you belong to.

A room where an artist speaks to all the fans who have given them a lot of flames at once, and where those fans can see each other. Spending on an artist makes you eligible, and nothing more: opening the room is the artist’s call, and they may never make it. Buying flames buys flames, never a seat.

No. A crew is the fans’ own room for an artist, founded by a fan and run by that fan: the artist can drop by, but cannot rename it, dissolve it or throw anyone out. Founding one takes a certain number of flames given to that page, and the screen tells you where you stand; joining one takes a single flame. Once you are a member, a share of what you give that artist comes back to you as earned flames.

In your profile info, without logging out: the new one takes effect immediately. If you sign in with Google, you can add a password as a second way in, for the day you lose access to that account. If you have forgotten it, ask for a reset link from the login screen.

The Actions menu, next to a post, a comment, a message or an account, lets you report or block. Blocking cuts both ways and hides your comments from each other; the person is not told, and your flames are untouched. A report hides nothing on its own: a human reads it and decides, and the answer comes back to you in your account.

From your account, right at the bottom. It is immediate and final: there is no bin. What you wrote in your own name goes with you, comments and messages included; where someone had replied to you, only an empty marker stays, so their reply is not wiped out with yours. The flames you gave stay with the artists. Before you go, you can download everything Starshine knows about you from your settings.