In recent weeks I have had many discussions on the subject of financing. For independent musicians, raising the capital to make a good record is one of the hardest parts of being a musician.
Previously, your options included:
1) Borrow $ from family or loved ones. (Always fun.) 2) Sell precious bodily fluids. (Blood or not). 3) Get a job. (Not for everyone.) 4) Win the lottery. (If you don’t scratch you can’t win).
However, there are now some pretty good alternatives to this list…
Take a look at a website called Kickstarter. I am not affiliated with this site other than that I have used it in the past. This site allows you to create a project, drive people to your specific page, and raise money for that project from people who “support” it.
This is not just for musicians. In fact, there are many types of creative projects found on the site. The key here is that they are an impartial third party. If you don’t reach the goal you set for your project, then you won’t get any of the money you’ve raised.
To entice people to finance or “back” your project, you can offer various levels of incentives. For your record, these could include…
1) A copy of the record,
2) Long notes or some kind of brochure or a poster/visual art piece of some kind,
3) An exclusive show for sponsors,
4) Copies of their other releases,
5) A hang out session or a guitar lesson.
So this all sounds too good to be true, right? Throw a page and KAPOW Batman, you have a record!
Well, not so fast Robin…
You still have 2 big hurdles ahead of you…
1) Get traffic to that particular web page
2) Get that traffic to reach their thin wallets and pull out their worn out debit cards and enter their digits and SEND YOU SOME MONEY so you can keep making the next Yankee Hotel Foxtrot…
Here are some tips,
1) Video – Always, always, always make at least one video, preferably 3 or 4 released in a few weeks. I had a short conversation with one of the Kickstarter founders and he told me that the percentage of people who reach their goals far outweighs those who don’t have video.
2) Promote – This goes without saying, but you should see this fundraising project as the biggest gig you’ve ever played. Emails, flyers, posters, Facebook, press releases and word of mouth apply. The beauty of having multiple videos gives you reasons for people to keep coming over without being annoying or sounding like you’re begging.
Desperation here can be deadly.
3) Incentives – Have good incentives. Be creative with what you are going to give back. Most of the best incentives (like a $500 internal presentation?) are very cheap to make, create, or perform. More personal incentives tend to work better than extravagant/expensive ones.
Remember that the idea is to try to connect with people who want to help you.
Alright, one last thought on the matter… These types of tools can be effective in really measuring the interest your community has in your music. Isn’t it better to know that you won’t sell 5,000 records before paying to make 5,000? Isn’t it better to know that your audience is crazy about the t-shirt incentive but doesn’t care about the posters?
I think so.