Crowdfunding Music : A look at crowdfunding as an alternative source of funding for independent creators within the recorded music industry
Abstract
With larger crowdfunding campaigns getting the media hype for crowdfunding going,
crowdfunding is often touted as the future of creative project funding. With examples like
Amanda Palmer always being presented, is crowdfunding the future and saviour of funding
for recorded music projects? This is what this thesis is trying to answer, to see if
crowdfunding is a suitable alternate way of funding projects. The subject is an oftendiscussed
one, but a subject that has not seen much academic research. The success of
Amanda Palmer can often be put down to her already having fans from previous work with
The Dresden Dolls. But that is exactly what you need to be able to crowdfund a new release:
fans. A crowd. Through interviews with three subjects in different points of the music
industries and/or the crowdfunding industry, and some interesting statistics this thesis
concludes that there is a future for crowdfunding as an alternative way of funding music, but
not in hundreds of thousands to a million dollar range like with Amanda Palmer. Most
successful campaigns live in the $1000 to $10,000 range, which is a pointer to the true
power of crowdfunding: smaller artists being able to activate the small fan base they have
acquired through gigging and other releases to get them to fund new projects, from
albums/EPs, to tours, to books. Crowdfunding is a tool for smaller artists to fund new
ventures without record label support and doing it by themselves.
Description
Master's thesis Music Management MU501 - University of Agder 2017