• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Crowdfunding!

punkjazzben

punkjazzben

Jun 26, 2008
1,711
206
Australia
#1
Hi all,

Back in January my band went into the studio to record seven new songs for our second EP. We were hoping to get it printed and packaged and in the hands of fans this month, but we've all kind of struggled to get the money together.

Enter me, and my crazy, Gen-Y, business ideas! I looked into crowfunding, and thought we could pay for our CD that way. I thought I'd go through Kickstarter, but you have to be a US citizen. I found an Australian site called Pozible, and they seem pretty good. One day into the campaign and we're just under half of our financial goal, so that's cool! This is what our page looks like - The Melodic Tales of The Still Trees by Ben Wilkie on Pozible

I thought the free gig for big donors was a nice touch ;)

Who else has used crowfunding? Do you have a project under way right now? What has the reaction been from your fans? Oh, and what kinds of rewards did you use to entice people? Just interested in everyone's experience with the platform.

- Ben
 
#9
Yeah, somebody is throwing a 30th birthday party and took one of the gigs.. Pretty awesome! We're thinking about adding more rewards and doing something special if we exceed the goal, like putting the EP on iTunes via CD Baby or something. It's has generated a lot of interest in the band, and has put our original music back in the spotlight.

I would highly recommend this to people thinking about doing a CD; the first major benefit is that you can start making a profit on music sales quicker than if you had injected your own cash into the project initially.

The only road bump we've hit is that some fans don't want to use their card on the Internet. For those people, we've set up a Facebook group where they can tell us what they want to donate and arrange payment. We're collecting the cash and will make a large ($700+ at this point) donation ourselves towards the end of the project.

Otherwise, it's turned out much better than expected. US forumites, I would go for Kickstarter. Not sure what there is for other regions of the world. Pozible is Australian, but they do international projects and work with overseas banks I think.

:hyper:
 
#10
Sort of a related story, a few months ago I ran an indiegogo campaign in order to raise some money to build demos, and therefore "kickstart" my local/regional promotion. didn't raise a cent, at least through the indiegogo site.. Don't know how $30 wound up in my paypal account, kind of a mystery to me, but it could have been several scenarios..

Once I finish v3 of the Gigmaster website, I may revisit indiegogo to launch another campaign. Not exactly sure how I'm going to finance "suitable" perks beyond website recognition and discounts, but something has to get this going..
 
#12
One of my favourite bands (The Skints) used PledgeMusic last year to fund the recording of their second album, which is excellent BTW.

Also recently had a local arts group use PleaseFundUs to raise cash to fund the purchase of a venue (a barge) which has been successful.

It definitely can work if you've got a large and appreciative audience already.
 
#13
Crowdfunding is a wonderful thing, I'm glad to see it working well for someone else too. My band, Link Removed, recently released an album which was just about completely funded through a kickstarter campaign.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back