BTTV BLOG

Crowdfunding is all the rage these days. Here’s six tips on how to do it the right way:

1. Identify Your Allies – Crowdfunding is a team sport. Success will require help from your friends, family and wider network. Make a list of your teammates, including direct collaborators, high impact financial contributors, and broadcasters (press contacts and social leaders) who can spread your project to wider circles.

2. Create a Great Project – Make sure that your project is worthy of your time and other people’s attention. Why is your project important to you? If your answer is powerful enough it will resonate with you and others.

3. Be Creative With Rewards – The rewards serve as the foundation for the exchange – so be creative when putting the rewards together. Having the various price points is key to effectively monetizing your network. The different levels of rewards let all those who wish to be involved participate in your crowdfunding campaign – based on their financial means. $20 is the most popular price-point, $50 is the average, and the $100 level is the 3rd most popular. Every reward should be fun to read and must contribute to your brand as a musician. Think of what you can offer beyond the obvious – i.e. if you are a musician that can bake cookies you can tap into your culinary skills to develop original rewards.

4. Prime the Pump – No one wants to be first on the dance floor – it’s equally true in Jr. High School and in crowdfunding. Your first wave of contributions will demonstrate that your project has the momentum necessary to reach your fundraising goal. Before your project goes live, ask your closest friends and supporters to contribute early.

5. Spiral Outward – After securing your first wave of contributions, reach out to wider circles of friends. Thank supporters publicly, via social media, and celebrate the milestones you pass. Keep your connections talking about your progress and encourage them to spread the news through their respective networks.

6. Meet the Press – Once your project has momentum, follow up with the broadcasters mentioned above. With the social proof of your network’s support, your project is ready to meet a larger audience.

via DIY Musician

Curious about how Kickstarter and crowdfunding really works? Here’s a sweet inforgraphic:

via Musformation

Awesome. It’s like enjoying a personal concert and hanging out with your favorite artists through your computer. Not as cool as in real life, but if their halfway across the country, it’s pretty cool. For fans, I can see this being really rewarding. For bands, the worst thing that can happen is you make a few bucks. Seriously.

_____

StageIt attempts to solve the live online music riddle by allowing any artist with a broadband-connected laptop, microphone and webcam deliver live, non-archived events (not archiving them simplifies the copyright situation), offering their fans inexpensive access to backstage moments, private jam sessions, and crowdsourced interviews. Taken together, the StageIt experience sits somewhere between reading a band’s blog and watching them perform live — both in terms of what fans experience and what they’re willing to pay.

StageIt sessions are is always live, never pre-recorded, so the site’s paying customers know they can chat with the artist, request songs live, and that they’re experiencing the artist’s appearance as part of a group — a welcome remedy to the usually-solitary experience of listening to digital music.

via Evolver.fm

Is this the new record label? In a way it seems like it could be. A safer bet from a business side knowing that the band already has people who are into them and willing to shell out a few bucks to support their art. Things continue to shape-shift…

——-

With the goal of fully leveraging their Pledge system as an A&R platform, PledgeMusic has launched a record label and publishing company. Indie starlets The Damnwells are the first act to sign on with PledgeMusic Recordings; they will retain all rights, ownership, and publishing. In turn, PledgeMusic Recordings will provide the group with the guidance and expertise that they may have traditionally looked to a label for.

After a site campaign, wherein the group raised close to 200% of their goal, The Damnwells proved the viability of their music. Due to their sophisticated data collection and monitoring, PledgeMusic knew that The Damnwells had a loyal base of followers that were interested in actively supporting their music career.

Read more @ Hypebot.

Almost a year ago Sellaband, the number one crowd-funding website for musicians went bankrupt. The website was then acquired by a German company and now Public Enemy managed to raise $75,000 despite all the problems of the past. Is this the future of music business? It very well may be.

Okay, so you have a band. You will not get signed unless you know someone who will push you in. Even if you make super music traditional publishers just don’t sign bands any more. No one buys CDs any more. Why would anyone? Publishers are without money. Artists realized long ago that money is rather in playing gigs than selling CDs. Your band is in trouble unless you find a way to raise sufficient funds to finance a record. Sellaband provides a platform for that. Bands sing up and start raising money, “believers” invest in them and hope that the band will succeed in selling a lot of CDs and generate revenues. When the budget is reached the band will spend the money on studio time, promotion, gigs, etc. and of course every investor will receive a CD. Revenues are shared depended on how much you invest.

Read more at  Crunchgear