Yesterday, PledgeMusic announced their partnership with Sonicbids. We’re extremely excited to bring you all of the tools of PledgeMusic to your Sonicbids artist account. Artists will now have the chance to connect directly with fans to help fund tours, recording, and more with PledgeMusic campaigns. And PledgeMusic will even make the first pledge at $50 for any Sonicbids artist that starts a campaign. To learn more about this amazing new partnership, check out the press release here, and read below for more info on using PledgeMusic from it’s CEO and founder, Benji Rogers.
This process CAN work and be a success for all involved.
I am often asked: “What has made it work so far?” and to be honest it's a combination of things that I'll outline below here that culminate in what Malcolm Dumbar, who runs PledgeMusic, would say is basically: the right act with the right campaign.
The right act starts with the music — that something special, and this crosses all genre lines and can come from anywhere in the world. Then comes the tricky part - how to get the music heard. The PledgeMusic platform was designed to make it easier for artists to achieve the highest success for where they are and so therefore that right campaign.
The artists who succeed tend to be the ones who understand that it’s not about the price of a CD or a download or about reaching their goal amount on the first day, but about those 4-8-12 weeks in which they essentially reward the fans for their participation in the journey to getting the music out and into the world. On the PledgeMusic platform this is the updates section.
The Damnwells ran one of the most amazing campaigns we’ve seen, and having met Alex and the chaps recently I understood why. They are in this for the long haul. They know and care about and nurture what they have built and have, in my opinion, given the fans an amazing journey as they have moved along through the Pledge process. Their fans, many of whom we spoke to as the campaign unfolded, were very supportive of what The Damnwells were doing. It went beyond just the great music and to, I think, the core of what makes the whole following of a band so fun.
At first we thought we had some billing errors, but were informed that in fact it was the fans’ intention to Pledge more than what the exclusive cost. I watched as fans on Twitter cheered the band on from 75%-85% and beyond. It really made us feel that we had all accomplished something when the project not only met its target amount but also went over it to where it stands at almost 200%.
In fact, one of their fans recently told me that he wanted to get all his music this way from now on. Who wants just a CD or a download after that?
So what works is if the fans get rewarded for their participation in the making of something, then all the band has to do is get on with what they are best at which is making music. Using our tools make this easier to share in the process. A couple of updates a week, some good email communication, and the willingness to go that little bit further, pay off time and again and we have tried to make it as little work and as much fun for all involved as possible. I remember that there were a few raised eyebrows when the words “Everybody Wins!” appeared in our business plan, but that was the goal, and in the case of every successful Pledge so far, I can honestly say that with the exception of a T-shirt sizing fiasco and a couple of differences of opinion, everyone has won.
Nothing makes us feel better than when we see one of our artists doing well and when we get to hear the music that in some way we helped to get put out into the world.
Loving your work and thanks,
Benji Rogers, founder & CEO of PledgeMusic
