Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project by raising money through a large number of people online. If I was an emerging artist I would definitely use crowdfunding as one of the ways to support my financial needs in the music industry. As the internet has been evolving throughout these past two decades, you can see that more money is being raised online today than ever before. With that being said, why not start up your career through crowdfunding. Though, it is not as easy as it seems, it can jump start your career in an attempt for greater reach and exposure. The crowdfunding idea is a very complex business model, meaning there are a variety of crowdfunding types. The three primary types of crowdfunding, are donation-based, rewards-based and equity crowdfunding. A donation-based campaign is one in which the investors or contributors make no financial gain or return. The most common donation-based efforts include fundraising for disaster relief, charities and small school events. Reward-based crowdfunding involves people contributing to your business for a “reward”.The reward is usually of the product or service that the company offers. In my case, it would be unreleased music. This is a popular and successful type of crowdfunding because it let’s the owner benefit their contributor while still receiving something little in return. The last form of crowdfunding is based off equity. This is the least likely form of crowdfunding you’ll find an artist using. Unlike rewards-based and donation-based crowdfunding, this form allows your contributors to become partial owners of your company by trading capital for equity share. As equity owners, the contributors receive a profit of their investment in your company.
Now you may ask how all of this may be helpful in building a brand or your name, to say. It allows you to reach out to all of the loyal supporters who invest in your idea and company. By selling into the crowdfunding idea, you can give yourself an idea of where you are now and plans for the future. Not only can your contributors invest in your company, but through crowdfunding, they can express through you what they need and want from you. Lastly, this process is just simpler and easy as it gives your supporters a more accessible format, giving you more time to work on your products. Crowdfunding, gives you a chance to really be the entrepreneur as it gives them a platform to build and showcase yourself through this resource. By investing in crowdfunding, it gives you an opportunity, in front of people who support you and gives them more ways to help your business or company grow.
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| Amanda Palmer, of the band, The Grand Theft Orchestra, promoting her self through crowdfunding |
There are many other music artist who used crowdfunding as a way to promote themselves on their journey to emerging in the music industry. A prime example is Amanda Palmer, and the Grand Theft Orchestra. From April 30 to May 31, 2012, they used crowdfunding to generate 1.2 million dollars to support for their efforts to pay fees and other things for their record label. To do this, they used a popular crowdfunding platform, called Kickstarter, one that a lot of emerging artist use as well. This platform allows musicians to talk to their fans about upcoming tours, and financial contributions of support, usually no more than two dollars. Though, crowdfunding is very beneficial, some people may disagree because of those who haven’t been so successful through the process. The Physics, a hip-hop group from Seattle, raised $11,721 through crowdfunding, while another group called Afro Jersey used it to raise about half of their goal of $21,000.
The big question was would I use crowdfunding, and based off of the information I learned, I’d have to give in to doing it. It is not one hundred percent certain that this will work, but one’s effort would always be appreciated. I would use the Kickstarter website. From their I would link all my new music projects and new ideas through the site. I would also sell clothing, with my name and popular sayings in my music, to help promote my self. My fans would be able to pre order new songs, in anticipation of their release. Nonetheless, I will give my fans and loyal supporters a chance to be a part of something special, something an artist in the old days wouldn’t be able to experience. I would show that I AM THE FUTURE.
The headline of the article is descriptive. Rather than just stating that crowdfunding is paving the way to musical success, Juwann should have added why it does and in what way. After the headline, there is a photograph that does not explain what the article is going to say. Juwann should have added one or two paragraphs of text to introduce what he was going to say before the photograph. The first paragraph could have been broken up into separate shorter paragraphs. He did make use of his personal connection and related it very well. He spoke about his own love for music and how he exemplifies it. Throughout the article, there was only one link to supporting evidence. He clearly defined his main points about how crowdfunding works and how it ultimately benefits the music world. I would personally add more musical blogs that speak about certain genres of music that use crowdfunding. I would link them into my article for readers to view so they can see different perspectives on the topic.
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