After a brief stint as a Mariah Carey impersonator in grade school, Kate soon realized her talents were better suited behind the scenes. As a fresh GWU grad, Kate landed back in Boston and set her sights on living the New England dream of wearing boat shoes, finding sales at J Crew and working in the music industry. When not sharing stories about her love of hard cider and frozen yogurt, Kate is sneaking Top 40 on the office stereo – because honestly sometimes you just need a little GaGa in your life
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Chances are you’ve heard a fair amount about the success artists have had using crowdfunding platforms. In fact, right now artists like indie queen Amanda Palmer and fan favorite Ben Folds are both running successful campaigns. Before you get started on a campaign for your band, check out these 5 steps to a badass campaign.
Make Fans
If a tree falls in the woods, and there’s no one there to hear it, will it make a noise? Same thing goes with crowdfunding. Even if you set up a sweet campaign, you need fans to find out about it and engage or else you won’t meet your goals (aka raise funds). Spend time building up your fan base online, whether that’s through Facebook and Twitter or through an email list that you reach regularly. These fans (and super fans) are going to make or break your next campaign.
P&B
While we can all use a bit of extra cash, crowdfunding campaigns are most successful when they are tied to specific projects and budgets. Budget out what you’re working on this year, a new record or upcoming tour. Taking into consideration the cost of a project and the size of your base, determine the project and goal for the campaign.
Exclusive Silliness
When deciding what the rewards would be for donating, keep it fun and thoughtful. Put together a list of things you can give your fans (including some fun ones – we recently came across Sonicbids’ Lovely Bad Things promising to get a tattoo on a band mates bottom for a significant donation). Do you have exclusive content (or better yet, can you create exclusive content like unreleased tracks or handwritten tabs).
Don’t skimp on the video.
Crowdfunding sites typically ask you to create a video to let fans know why you need the funds. Consider this as your elevator pitch – you have 1 minute to convince music fans from all over to support you. Make sure the video shows your bands personality. Fans want to feel connected with you and your music.
Keep it coming.
Document both your success and your project throughout the campaign. Whether it’s posting pictures each day or creating weekly recap videos, be sure to share your reactions and your work with your fans. Chances are, creating great content will get you more fans as well! #Winning
Have you completed a crowdfunding campaign or are you thinking about creating a campaign? Leave us the dirt in the comments!
Nice article. Crowdfunding is fascinating. Right now my main problem is that I’m involved in several guitar efforts including my Blues band, my jazz combo and my solo jazz guitar work. I need to get my arms around something and I think it’s the blues band which is the most exciting but hardest to book of the group.
Any ideas or dialogue on how I can do this for my blues group?
You can see us on Gaetano Letizia & the Underworld Band on facebook.
Thanks for any input.
Gaetano
Good tips. The video is THE most important.
What do you do if you are trying todo a cross-over to the latin jazz world from the Salsa fan base clubhouse?
Anyone?
I agree and disagree with this idea. It’s great to include your fans into the project and makes it feel like they are more involved. The other hang, your still “asking” for money to complete a record. Again, it’s good and bad. I would try it but I’m sure not sure how I feel about it.