With the expected signing by President Obama of the JOBS bill containing provisions for crowd investing, a new crop of funding sites are set to emerge. However, for indie musicians the use of crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter and PledgeMusic will continue to be a more viable approach to project funding and presales. Here are some crowdfunding sites that feature or include musicians that have yet to be covered at Hypebot.
To be perfectly frank, in most cases it's probably advisable to go with an established, well-known platform with a history of successful funding. Nevertheless, it's good to have a sense of the landscape and you may find that less established crowdfunding platforms take an approach that fits your style.
MUSIC FRIENDLY CROWDFUNDING SITES
Feed The Muse - "Helping Artists Fund Their Dreams"
Feed The Muse is a project of the MilkBoy Group based in Philadelphia. Their background is in indie music so, though Feed The Muse is presented as a platform for all the arts, the current projects are mostly music-focused.
The artist gallery could use some work. A random assortment of projects is presented with a search engine option. Creating a browsable directory would be a stronger solution for project discovery.
Oocto - "Collective Action for Musical Projects"
Oocto is based in France and though some of the homepage text is in English, it's clearly a project for French speakers. In an interesting twist, in addition to crowdfunding, they also announce opportunities to get involved as a service provider or a volunteer.
NewJelly - "Fund Your Project"
NewJelly is headquartered in Norway with the intent to build a worldwide platform. Based on press mentions, it looks like they were launched back in the first half of 2011. At this point their project list shows only three projects successfully funded.
StartSomeGood - "Igniting Ideas, Investment & Impact"
Start Some Good is focused on social change so it's an example of a crowdfunding site that doesn't feature the arts but is appropriate for certain projects. For example, Suna Studios has an ambitious project to "Help Us Build Secure Professional Music Spaces" in Vancouver, BC.
TuneFund - "A Funding Site Dedicated to Musicians"
TuneFund doesn't seem to have any users. They don't identify who they are. And they're paying for artist referrals. This could be totally legit and well-meaning but, given the wide range of alternatives, appears to be one to avoid.
More:
- PledgeMusic's Benji Rogers On Going Beyond Fan Funding To Power Album Campaigns
- Artspire: Making Crowdfunding Campaigns Tax Deductible, Eligible For Grants
Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch) maintains a business writing hub at Flux Research and blogs at Crowdfunding For Musicians. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.
