Show me the money… up front! Fan-funding albums

Piggy Bank

You know how it is. You’re a musician with lots of brilliantly written new songs just aching to be set free on an unsuspecting world, but there’s just one catch. You can’t afford to record them.

In these tough economic times an increasing number of musicians and bands are turning to crowdsourcing, otherwise known as fan-funding, to pay for their next musical projects.

The concept is straight forward. The musician asks fans to pledge donations towards a target amount of cash, with each sized donation earning the donor a special reward. The rewards can be anything from advance copies of the completed album, or exclusive bonus tracks, to one-off living room gigs or a chance to perform on a song for the more generous donors.

Gavin Kaufman fan funding

Local musician Gavin Kaufman (above) is trying this approach with the help of sponsume.com – check out his campaign at itsdowntoyou.com where he’s trying to raise the dosh to record his new album.

Other crowdsourcing websites include Kickstarter (where US singer Amanda Palmer raised £774,000), PledgeMusic, and RocketHub.

Fan-funding isn’t a magic answer, and there are a number of things to consider first if you’re thinking of taking this route. Chris Singleton from Prescription PR sums it up nicely in his blog post ‘Getting your fans to fund your album‘ which includes nine things to consider before you take the plunge.

If you’re an acoustic musician or band from the Greater Merseyside area and you’d like to get a mention for your fan-funding project then drop us a line and we’ll let everyone else know – you never know, you might just get some new fans out of it.

Further reading on fan-funding albums:-

UPDATE 14TH AUGUST – Check out musician Roxanne de Bastion’s take on fan-funding and other fun stuff in her blog post HERE.

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