MUSIC INDUSTRY BLOG

25-year old female singer, Hind, completed her fund raising project on SellaBand, the foremost fan-funds-artist platform.  In just 11 days, Hind, a former Pop Idol from the Netherlands, raised €40,000 ($60,000) to record a new studio album.  Almost 1,000 Believers (fans) from over 50 countries invested an average of $5,500 per day, a new artist fund raising record!

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Pubic Enemy is the first established act to sign with SellaBand, the fan funding platform for music artists.  SellaBand will facilitate the fan funding process for Public Enemy’s new album with the band aiming to raise $250,000 in increments of $25.00.  Fans who invest in Public Enemy will receive an exclusive, numbered copy of the album and share in the revenues from sales of the record.

“SellaBand’s financial engine model goes about restructuring the music business in reverse,” says Public Enemy front man Chuck D.  “It starts with fans first, then the artists create from there.  The music business is built on searching for fans and this is a brand new way for acts to create a new album with fans first, already on board.”

The news follows an earlier press release from SellaBand announcing an improved and more accessible fan funding platform for independent artists, which I wrote about here.

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Since 2006, artists raising funds on SellaBand had to reach the $50,000 mark to cash out (see previous post).  In a recent post on their blog, SellaBand announced that the company has reconsidered the model and will implement a flexible funding goal structure (from $10,000 to $100,000) which should make the platform accessible to more artists.

“When SellaBand was launched in 2006, we set out to make a difference.  A lot has happened, a lot has been achieved.  Over the years, the world SellaBand is operating in has changed, our environment has changed and our ideas of what the role of SellaBand as a company is has changed.  Almost on a daily basis we are being approached by bands, managements and labels, asking if they can somehow use the SellaBand concept and change it to their own liking.”

SellaBand is the first online platform to introduce the concept of fan funded music.  Anyone can invest in a SellaBand artist.  Once the artist has reached his or her funding goal, all Investors receive a free limited edition copy of the CD.  Artists and their Investors share equally in the revenues of album sales.

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I’m very impressed with April Smith.

She’s a sassy self-starter and strong marketer.  And her music and image is top notch.

She won me over with this 2 minute video:

(Click here to watch it on Kickstarter.com)

At the time of this posting, April Smith raised $10,575 from pledges on Kickstarter to finance her next record.

Pledge Music, which soft launched last month, is an online network for artists to fund their records, tours and promotions by fan contributions, and raise money for charity in the process.  In concept, Pledge Music is similar to Sellaband, Slicethepie and Kickstarter.

Here is how it works:

1. Artist defines a project and its cost (i.e. the fundraising goal)

2. Artist promotes the project to his fanbase for contributions

3. Artist provides fans with incentives to pledge (credit on the record, exclusive content etc.)

4. Fans are only charged if the project goal is met

5. Pledge Music assists the artist in the vetting process (i.e. selecting and paying the recording studio)

6. Artists are encouraged to donate a portion of their proceeds to a charity of their choice

7. Artists retains 100% ownership of their copyright

Pledge Music boasts an impressive management team of music industry veterans, including Malcolm Dunbar, former A&R Director at Island, Warner/East West, Mother/Universal, V2 and Sanctuary; and Jonathan Smith, former CFO at Sanctuary and EMI.  In addition, the company has undertaken to go out and scout new talent for the site themselves, combing the traditional A&R process with the new-world, crowd sourced internet phenomenon that’s sweeping the industry.

Pledge Music piloted their programme on one of their founders, Benji Rogers, who met his fundraising goal within six days under the artist alias, Marwood.  His EP went into production shortly after.  Currently, there are twelve other projects in the pipeline.

Artist sign-up is by invitation only until September 2009.
Contact Benji Rogers for details at benji [at] pledgemusic.com

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Duncan Freeman of BandMetrics turned me on to an online fundraising service called Kickstarter yesterday in a post he authored for Indie Music Tech.

Much like Sellaband and Slicethepie, artists use Kickstarter to raise funding for their recording and marketing activities by providing existing and prospective fans with an incentive to pledge.  Kickstarter is not limited to music though.  Projects are posted by photographers, designers, activists and doctors ? anyone with a great cause – with the aim to inspire Kickstarter’s community to pledge enough money to meet their project goals, be it to raise enough money to record an album or travel to a 3rd World country to volunteer.

The website is terrific and each project description is accompanied by a video detailing the cause, usually delivered or narrated by the fundraiser in a truly creative manner.

Fundraisers provide a variety of incentives to pledge depending on the pledge amount.  In music, this may translate to exclusive content, autographed apparel and limited edition merchandise but the model works across the board.  For instance, I discovered The Floating Doctors whose mission is to reduce the present and future burden of disease in the developing world, and to promote improvements in health care delivery worldwide.  For a pledge of $150 or more, the “backer” will receive a 11×14 print from the voyage and a crew portrait, personalized and signed by the whole crew.

As a “backer” on Kickstarter, you’re supporting a project because you believe in the cause and the people driving it.  You’re contributing to ensure that it gets done.  Your pledge is pivotal.

As an artist, Kickstarter is a unique platform to engage new fans and give them a reason to buy – to buy into your ideas, your music, your career – and develop new relationships founded on your strength of conviction.

When Sellaband launched in August 2006, it introduced music fans and unsigned artists to a revolutionary approach to meeting and collaborating with one another.  By providing a financial incentive at the very core of its proposition, the German upstart pioneered an investment platform that provided fans with a stake in their favourite artists’ assets, and artists with a means of raising capital for recording and distribution from the folks who care about them the most: their fans.  A seemingly far-fetched idea, the platform took off and, today, boasts an extensive fan funded artist base that has managed to raise over $2,200,000 collectively.  Although a handful of fan funded music dotcoms exist, including SliceThePie and TheNextBigSound, Sellaband is leading the trend that has yet to illustrate its full potential as an industry shifting force.  The company is now setting its sights on the US market with a high-profile endorsement from Chuck D.