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GoFundMe to Pay for Gear?

To the people who finance it? You bet they do!

Sure. Assuming they're financing it rather than contributing to it. It's an important distinction. That's what crowdsourcing is about - and why it exists in the first place.

As the crowdsourcing websites repeatedly remind their contributors - your contributions to a campaign are not investments or financing by legal definition. (If they were, these campaigns would be classed as investment vehicles and subject to securities laws - which is exactly the thing crowdfunding was created to avoid.) They are simple contributions with, in some cases, incentives offered by the campaign. You have zero legal rights or expectations beyond receiving whatever incentives were offered in exchange for your contribution. And there's some waffling as to whether or not they're even obligated to do that much if the project tanks. Something which happens to many projects due to the inexperience (and often general cluelessness) of the people running them.

FWIW most failures I've seen were because the project had no idea how much things cost and had asked for too little money rather than too much; and made promises it was impossible for them to deliver with the budget they had to work with. Which is why I always balance out what I think something will cost against what the campaign is asking for. That's where you can really spot the total amateurs.

Generally speaking, the lower the campaign target, the higher the failure rate.
 
Maybe...I haven't seen any of these videos.

Having said that, everyone and their grandma is on Youtube giving it away and all they want are views. None of them are passing the hat.
You could say they were passing GAS... Because, you know, they now have GAS for custom instruments? Ah, poopie, I'll go home now.
 
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Defend this:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]


May I?

It never hurts to try, but three weeks in "No donations yet. Help launch this campaign and become the first donor." so it seems a wasted effort.

You'll never go broke underestimating the general public's intelligence. I could elaborate using the current, and most past, election(s) as example but there are rules here.

A guy once held up a sign in the end zone at a televised football game. The sign had a QC code and "Send me bitcoin" on it. Within hours he had $30k free and for no reason other than simply asking.

The bitcoin guy was creative whereas the bass beggar is simply crass, but I wouldn't "fund" either so makes no difference to me.

I've seen so many "GoFundMe" that are transparent scams, usually in name of charity or initiative of some type, with never a word of accountability with respect to where the funds go. It's even happened on TB.

At least the bass beggar is forthright.
 
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Please.

If you are marketable, record companies still fund your album. I haven't seen Taylor Swift begging for money. And don't kid yourself; this is begging.

And the example given, isn't for production costs - it's so somebody can buy a custom made instrument. Pride is a disappearing trait.
The trait that really seems to be disappearing for some is the ability or willingness to read and fully comprehend before reacting. Instead of reading the OP and understanding that he is in fact referring to two GFM posts where services are offered in exchange for a donation, a number of people seem to have just read the thread title, typed up a rant and hit 'post reply." SAD.:beaver:
 
I've seen a couple YouTube videos lately of musician starting GoFundMe campaigns to pay for custom instruments to be built. I'm not going to post them here because my intention isn't to bash them personally. But I want to see what TB thinks about it.

The trait that really seems to be disappearing for some is the ability or willingness to read and fully comprehend before reacting. Instead of reading the OP and understanding that he is in fact referring to two GFM posts where services are offered in exchange for a donation, a number of people seem to have just read the thread title, typed up a rant and hit 'post reply." SAD.:beaver:

Seems to me that the reading comprehension issue isn't ours.

The OP SPECIFICALLY mentioned using crowd funding to buy new instruments.

It (like most discussions) veered off into other areas, that were then commented on.

Please tell me what products or services you are receiving for purchasing a bass for someone you'll never meet...
 
Seems to me that the reading comprehension issue isn't ours.

The OP SPECIFICALLY mentioned using crowd funding to buy new instruments.

It (like most discussions) veered off into other areas, that were then commented on.

Please tell me what products or services you are receiving for purchasing a bass for someone you'll never meet...

From the OP ;)

"Both videos I saw (and I'm sure there's plenty more that I haven't seen) are for national touring bands, so it's not like they're just some jabroni in his basement. They both offer incentives for donations ($20-ticket to a gig, $50-privatelesson, $500-a private concert in your home, $1000-a song written on the new bass)."
 
Seems to me that the reading comprehension issue isn't ours.

The OP SPECIFICALLY mentioned using crowd funding to buy new instruments.

It (like most discussions) veered off into other areas, that were then commented on.

Please tell me what products or services you are receiving for purchasing a bass for someone you'll never meet...


Ummm .... are you sure you read the first post?

the first post said:
They both offer incentives for donations ($20-ticket to a gig, $50-private lesson, $500-a private concert in your home, $1000-a song written on the new bass).
 
Clearly you missed all the responses regarding sending money for a new bass. They were pretty clear.

As for funding for a project (which was the post of mine that you quoted): the discussion moved to the belief that record companies no longer fund albums.

That isn't true. Record companies fund what they can make money off of. If you don't have commercial appeal, you won't get a dime from them. They aren't in the business of losing money.
 
Clearly you missed all the responses regarding sending money for a new bass. They were pretty clear.

As for funding for a project (which was the post of mine that you quoted): the discussion moved to the belief that record companies no longer fund albums.

That isn't true. Record companies fund what they can make money off of. If you don't have commercial appeal, you won't get a dime from them. They aren't in the business of losing money.

The question was, "Please tell me what products and services you are receiving for purchasing a bass for someone".

They're written above in black and white, no sense trying to move the goalposts now ;)

If you aren't interested in any of those products or services, you obviously wouldn't fund the project: that's how the free market works.
 
The question was, "Please tell me what products and services you are receiving for purchasing a bass for someone".

They're written above in black and white, no sense trying to move the goalposts now ;)

If you aren't interested in any of those products or services, you obviously wouldn't fund the project: that's how the free market works.
Not moving the goal posts.

The OP ended his first statement about funding some guys custom bass with the sentence "But I want to see what TB thinks about it".

The next paragraph isn't related to the first, but was added (IMO) as another example of crowd funding uses.

But he asked for opinions about the first.
 
Clearly you missed all the responses regarding sending money for a new bass. They were pretty clear.

Those responses ignored the fact that the original post described incentives for funding. It wasn't until post #159 that an example was given where there was no incentive for giving.

As for funding for a project (which was the post of mine that you quoted): the discussion moved to the belief that record companies no longer fund albums.

That isn't true. Record companies fund what they can make money off of. If you don't have commercial appeal, you won't get a dime from them. They aren't in the business of losing money.

Nobody ever said record companies don't fund albums anymore. We are saying this is an alternative to that, which is in many cases beneficial to both artists as well as fans.
 
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I thought about doing one for releasing vinyl. But never did. I thought begging for money over the internet is kind of lame. I have seen former co workers make a kickstarter when she couldnt make rent or for her daughter to go to prom. I thought that was worse. People are just taking advantage of others. Id never make one to fund a new bass or anything like that. Maybe for vinyl but probably not. Ill just stick with working and paying for stuff that way...