Kickstarter for the Average Musician

Kickstarter and fanfunding, are the buzzwords of the moment. Thank you Amanda Palmer!

But realistically, how easy is it to reach a target?  

You have an email list of fans, but how many will give you some of their hard earned cash?

There are many questions like this that the average musician needs answers to, so John Oszajca of Music Marketing Manifesto has recently interviewed someone at the other end of the scale to Amanda Palmer, singer/songwriter Kat Parsons, who recently reached her modest amount (in comparison) of 20,000 US Dollars to record her album, and asked her why she chose Kickstarter what her pledges were, how she engaged her fanbase to reach her target.

The interview is a podcast on his website and you can hear it here.

 

Link

http://www.musicmarketingmanifesto.com/mmm-podcast-episode-7-kickstarter-for-the-average-musician-with-kat-parsons/

 

3 Legal Tips for Amanda Palmer-Style Crowdfunding

Here at Make It In Music we have been following with interest the Amanda Palmer Kickstarter story. It has definitely been a game changer. Indie musicians everywhere are now looking at the DIY approach in a new light. There is money to be had.

Earlier this month we took at look at this, with Crowdfunding - Beware of the Goldrush - 20 Things You Must Consider  looking at things that concern your commitment to the fans that have invested in your music.

But we forget there are other implications to suddenly having a million dollars fall in your lap.

Martin Frascogna has written an article covering possible legal and financial implications to consider when setting up a kickstarter project.

Martin states,

Raising millions via crowdfunding doesn’t come without questions, and more so, legal implications. Where does all the money go? Is there a legal obligation to investors? Because Amanda’s successful Kickstarter will inevitably inspire others to initiate crowd funding campaigns, artists can avoid future pitfalls by implementing the following techniques.

1. Treat It Like a Contract

2. Assure the Proper Entity

3. Transparency Is Key

You can read his full article in the Midem Blog here

Links

http://makeitinmusic.posterous.com/crowdfunding-beware-of-the-goldrush-20-things

http://blog.midem.com/2012/06/martin-frascogna-3-legal-tips-for-amanda-palmer-style-crowdfunding-success/

 

 

Learn from Ginger - a fan funding masterclass

This is pretty much the gospel when it comes to how to fan fund a record.

Ginger Wildheart has raised more than 5 times the money he asked for to make a triple album.

Sure, he has history and a fanbase to fall back on, but you should have some kind of active fanbase before you even attempt fan funding. Maybe not as many as Ginger, but the fabled 1,000 fans is a minimum really.

Read the interview with his manager here.

There's a lot I love about the interview:

People love music, they love great bands and they love a great story. The industry is very different than it used to be but in many ways is stacked more in the artist’s favour than ever before. With such a direct line into fans, an artist has complete creative freedom to explore, and at the same time fans also have complete control as to which projects they want to see come into fruition. Its an ideal scenario for both parties.

And then there's his view on what's essential for every artist:

The importance of honing your craft can never be underestimated. There are so many bands that rush to play live and record. It really is a false economy. You only get one chance to make a first impression, so make sure it’s one people won’t forget in a hurry. No amount of tweeting and Facebooking will make up for your band’s miserable live performance!

Read the whole thing as it has general insight for every musician plus great detail on fan funding.

Once you've read that go and watch Ginger's pitch for fan funding and look at how he updated pledgers with almost daily videos (the Activity area at the bottom of his pledge page). I know he has that heritage to rely on, but that didn't stop him doing a great job just to make sure anyway.

A lot to learn here.

 

QR Codes Primer

QR Code use is really taking off.

Don't know what a QR code is? It's those square odd looking boxes of pixels that you see on posters, packaging - all over the place now. It stands for 'Quick Response' code and once scanned with a scanner on a smartphone it will transmit information or open a webpage.

Powerful stuff and, despite some naysayers, the recognition and use of QR codes is growing exponentially.

I think they are now something that every musician should be using to send fans to their website, to a mailing list sign-up form, to run a special competition etc.

This post from Aweber has a great basic guide.

Through the magic of QR codes, consumers can interact with your brand in unexpected places. Mobile web means they can explore your content away from their home computer.

That’s why QR codes make the most sense in print – on billboards, stickers, fliers, signs, business cards, in magazines, anywhere people might see them on the go. The point is to drive them to your mobile site to make a purchase, join your mailing list, download a coupon, find out more about your business or something else that makes their interaction with you easy and enjoyable.

Read it here.

As a bit of inspiration, look at this very clever Christmas promotion that JC Penney are using - a customer records a personal message to the person they are giving a gift to and they can scan it and hear the message as they open the gift.

Imagine doing that with a personal message from the band as a tier offer on your fan funding project for your next album.

Whales & Baby whales want to give you their money

Whales & Baby whales - terms from the gambling world to refer to big spenders - are, according to this article, responsible for as much as 50% percent of the income where a business model begins with a free option (such as online social gaming).

@Lefsetz pointed this out in an email yesterday:

When you employ a freemium model, a small percentage of your customers will generate a significant part of your revenue. This is why you must offer expensive tickets and merchandise for these diehard fans.

...which he got from this article on allthingsd - a must read for it's views on where the music industry is going in terms of how an artist will earn an income - not from selling recorded music in the long term is the conclusion!

And that's why the freemium model to build a mailing list of fans with whom you engage continually (rather than in an album cycle) will allow you to offer your 'whale' fans music experiences that will form a large chunk of your income.

That article link again.

3 tips for your fan-funded record

We've looked at fan funding a lot - such as in this great post full of tips here.

But, this post on Digital Music News reduces the advice to 3 great points that you NEED to know.

Today, as we watch the labels shift and recorded revenue streams dry up, the idea of patronage has resurfaced.  Platforms like Kickstarter and Pledge Music market themselves as direct financing engines and have helped artists raise some serious cash.  And this can work: I just raised more than $10,000 on Kickstarter, but not before learning some surprising lessons.   

Read them here.

Fan Funding Case Study

On the ever excellent Mic Control blog they are running a series of posts on fan funding - and this one is especially good.

The piece looks at one band's decision to use Kickstarter to raise the money to make their first album but it also has input from the studio where they were going to record - which adds a different perspective.

What I like about it is that it goes into detail about how the band came to decide on fan funding, and what they did wrong!

In retrospect, we should have anticipated these sorts of questions. We also should have prepared a short video presentation for the Kickstarter page. Seeing a short pitch with real human beings in it makes the project seem more personal; all we had was a relatively formal, but excruciatingly vague description of what we were trying to do. Sure it made sense for our fans who had seen us live, but it didn’t introduce our band to strangers stumbling across the Kickstarter page. All we had was a photo of us on stage performing, and since we were all very unhappy with the quality of our demo recording, we didn’t even have an example of what we sounded like.

Read the whole thing here.

6 tips for fan funding success

This is a great primer for anyone thinking about trying to fan fund a music release - taken from the DIY Musician blog.
When undertaking a crowdfunding project of your own, be sure to avoid these common pitfalls:

•   Setting unrealistic fundraising goals: “Internet Angels” (wealthy strangers trolling the internet looking to give away large sums of money) are the exception, not the rule.

•   Underestimating the importance of marketing your project: The assumption that “If You Build It, They Will Come” (simply posting to a crowdfunding platform and expecting contributions) is a conviction best left to Kevin Costner movies.

Crowdfunding is WORK, but it is smart work.

Here are 6 Tips for Crowdfunding Success:

Read the 6 tips here.

The emergence of crowdfunding

As part of We All Make Music's 'Best of 2010' series, Rocket Hub have put together this list of 4 signifcant developmenets in fan funding.

Fan Funding or Crowd funding - whichever you prefer - really came of age in 2010 and this list gives you some places to go and learn more about how you can use it in your music career.

Read the post here.

 

Pledge Music - an interview about fan funding

I have posted a fair bit on the Dailies sites about fan funding - because I believe in it.....a lot.

This post is an interview with the founder of one such site, Pledge Music.

It ranges from his personal experience in setting the site up to examples that inevitably give insight and tips on how to set up your fan funded project whichever service you do that through.

Benji Rogers is the founder of Pledge Music – a platform that enables musicians and fans raise money for new records or touring while simultaneously raising money for charity.  Prior to founding Pledge Benji played (and actually still plays) in a group called Marwood that were signed to a few different labels in the UK.  He started off in the music business as a roadie on various high profile tours.  I wanted to catch up with Benji because I had been hearing that large numbers of people were raising money with Pledge – and it was actually working!

Read the interview here

 

Alternative funding options for artists

A newsworthy post from the Guardian which looks at where funds can come from for artist development.

With some investment funds who were funding new artists pulling out as it's 'too risky', where can that money come from?

The piece reveals great statistics about how the Canadian government made funds available that allowed, amongst other things, for the band Metric to have a four album embryonic growth. Got me thinking!

"The creative industry has been one of this country's biggest exporters for generations," says Message, who's also the chairman of the Music Managers Forum. "But who's going to fund the future of our culture?" He doubts that banks will ever loan money to artists – no matter what the government says – so instead he suggests the government takes 1% from the EFG scheme and makes that €20m available as startup seed capital.

Read the piece here.

More Fan funding - one artist speaks up in favour.....

....although almost all that I have seen speak on it have been on the pro-side!

We posted several pieces about fan funding last week as the debate rattled on after Brian Hazard suggested that it might not be the best thing for artists - read that here.

Hyebot had plenty to say on the issue, and at the end of last week they interviewed an artist who'd had great success funding his record on Kickstarter and who wholeheartedly believed in the process.

Bleu, a singer-songwriter-producer, set a goal of $8,000 for his Kickstarter campaign. Almost overnight, 387 fans jumped into the mix and contributed nearly $40,000 to his cause. He didn't need to get the album funded. Rather, he just needed to cover the expenses of distributing and properly marketing his album.

All of these questions are based on assertions that Hazard made in his essay.

For example, Bleu took home an extra $32,000 from his fans. From Hazard's perspective, who contended that preorders are nobler than fan-funding efforts, taking that money could be considered dishonest in a way. Since, it greatly exceeded the initial need. Hazard says, "why should your fans pay to promote something they already bought?" It's an interesting way to look at it. Bleu was kind enough to assert his opinions on Hazard's and share this thoughts on this.

Check it out here.

 

Fan funding - fans are the new record label

Just go and see this post about fan funding on Hypebot.

I am pro fan funding, some are not, but this explains why fans helping you do your thing is a responsibility for your fans.

Plus, it's a brilliant way for this particular artist to get everyone to talk about funding his record. Clever.

That's all.

See it here.

How to make your fan funded project a success

I'm working on some posts about fan funding for the main site at the moment. It is a great way to raise funds and push your career forward in the modern music business.

Photo by AMagill

This article looks at how one person used Kickstarter to fund a graphic novel but gives really good tips about how to set up your fan funding project - what to do and what not to do.

If you’ve never heard of Kickstarter.com before, you really should check it out. Kickstarter is an exciting place where creators can post their projects and get pledges from people who are interesting in their ideas and want to help the projects move forward. I’ve already found myself pledging to a few other projects that caught my interest. Anyway, if you already know about Kickstarter and you are thinking of launching a campaign for your comic or graphic novel, here are a few things I suggest thinking about before jumping in.

Read the article here.

How to have a pop hit

Looking at Cee Lo's new single, 'Fuck You', as an indicator of how to use all the tools that the internet age affords in order to master your music marketing is a little narrow minded.

This article has a lot of pertinent thoughts that won't be a mystery to our readers, and it does manage to acknowledge that the attention that Cee-Lo got when his track was first put on YouTube was down to it being both really bloody good and massively profane. A great combination and one that lit the internet up with chat.

The article then sweeps through a number of things that you probably already know about - twitter, fan-funding, special fan packages etc. But it's a well put together run through. Just don't expect overnight worldwide recognition by following these tips. Your music had better be exceptional too.

You can't buy it, watch it on television or even hear it on the radio but Cee Lo Green has a monster hit on his hands.

The R&B singer's song F*** You! is a blend of pure funk-soul uplift and extensive swearing so catchy that I find myself singing it in the most inappropriate places. And I am not alone; people who have heard it on the internet adore it — in their millions.

It is a prime example of the prevalence of music on the web and how it has taken the guesswork out of hitmaking. Record companies no longer need to send a grovelling plugger to Radio 1 and pray to every god going for a spot on the A-list.

It's worth reading as a solid overview of the way pop is using the interent to have hits.