Music Pledges

[Old_Ben]

I was just wondering how many of you lovely folk have either used or bought music via a pledge system like www.pledgemusic.com or indiegogo or equivalent?

My band has used it to some success in the past and are planning on using it for our latest album!
I'm curious as to what you all think about this style of music creation / sales.

Edited June 23, 2015 by Old_Ben

[CamdenRob]

How does it work?

[Old_Ben]

The basic idea is that fans of a band will preorder an album/ep to help fund said album/ep with other incentives/items for sale too, such as studio visits or private gigs;
www.pledgemusic.com

[CamdenRob]

[quote name='Old_Ben' timestamp='1435051242' post='2804876']
The basic idea is that fans of a band will preorder an album/ep to help fund said album/ep with other incentives/items for sale too, such as studio visits or private gigs;
www.pledgemusic.com
[/quote]

oh I see... sounds like a good idea.

Sadly none of the bands I have been in have ever had any fans, so I don't think it'd work for us.

Edited June 23, 2015 by CamdenRob

[madshadows]

I've bought music using [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]www.pledgemusic.com and it's been great, great way to support musicians you like and help them make records, artists I've bought stuff for include Ricky Warwick, James Maddock J R Richards (Dishwalla singer) and Ginger Wildheart.[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]John[/font][/color]

[tony_m]

If the two campaigns by Eureka Machines I've pledged on are anything to go by, it can work stunningly well, as they've smashed through the 100% mark on each in hours and gone on to hit 526% and 392% of target in total. I guess it probably helps that they've got a pretty fanatical fanbase!

[timmo]

I have supported it. I think it is a good idea, especially if you like the band in question.

[TimR]

Marillion pioneered the crowd funding idea.

https://www.virgin.com/music/how-marillion-pioneered-crowdfunding-in-music

One of the bass players here has done it too but I'd have to do a long search.

[BigRedX]

Old Ben - I thought from one of your previous threads your band had a record deal? Shouldn't the record label be paying for all of this?

IME crowd funding works if you already have a large and fanatical fan base. The majority of artists/bands who can make crowd funding work for them managed to build up this following before 2000, when people in relatively large numbers were still prepared to pay for music.

The statistics that I've seen say that the best you can expect is for 1 in 50 of your Facebook followers to pledge £5. If you think that you have a large enough following to make these figures cover the costs you require then go for it. Remember though that there is nothing so sad as a crowd-funded venture that doesn't reach it's goal and your success or failure is out there for all to see.

[Lozz196]

The latest SLF CD which I`ve just bought is a pledge album. When I first heard of these I thought it a bit odd that bands who`ve been around for years, have a following, and all do it for a living are getting other people to pay for their recordings rather than do it themselves. Then I thought, well if people are going to do it, then why not.

[ambient]

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1435053149' post='2804896']
Marillion pioneered the crowd funding idea.

[url="https://www.virgin.com/music/how-marillion-pioneered-crowdfunding-in-music"]https://www.virgin.c...unding-in-music[/url]

One of the bass players here has done it too but I'd have to do a long search.
[/quote]

I was about to say this, you beat me to it.

[Old_Ben]

@big red;
No we don't have a record deal, wish we did a label would be helpful! I've seen loads of big name bands even use a pledge system; Megadeth for example are nust finishing one I believe! I think some record companies see it as a way of not needing to advance bands and therefore encourage thier acts to do this kind of system, so if we did have a label they probably wouldn't realistically give us loads of money to make a record.
We have had a successful campaign on our last album which we hope to reproduce this time round!

[BigRedX]

Old Ben, I think it was because you mentioned that you had a producer and were doing some pre-production rehearsals for your album that I assumed that there must be a label backing you. Obviously not.

If you been able to make crowd funding work for your last album and hopefully you'll have grown you fan base since then, you shouldn't really have any problem getting it to work for you again. Pick your pledge levels and rewards sensibly and you'll be set. You do have to give the people who are going to pledge VFM and the unsuccessful campaigns don't offer this.

However I'm very suspicious of the people promoting crowd funding. Almost all of their examples of successful crowd funded records are from artists who have been around for a long time and built up their following from the days when record labels picked up the record production costs and did a reasonable amount of promotion or have built a reputation by working with someone who is already well known.

[Twigman]

We're doing it right now to fund our planned US tour in March....first time we've used it...the pledge campaign went live yesterday.
http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/sad-lovers-and-giants