Save Yourself the Time, Money, and Reputation: Crowdfunding A Musical Project Isn’t Worth It

• Running a crowdfunding online account such as Kickstarter is “a part-time, if not a full-time, job”
• Starting a crowdfunding campaign can be very expensive
• Potential failure is a huge hit to reputation 

Crowdfunding is a current trend among up-and-coming musicians where people can make online pledges or donations to help fund musical projects, such as fees for using a recording studio, travel costs for going on tour or having a concert, or hiring a producer to get an album mastered.

Kickstarter is one of many online websites that allow musicians to crowdfund projects. Though it may seem like a quick, easy way to make money, starting a crowdfunding project can take a lot of time and effort, which cuts into time that musicians could spend working on their music. On top of that, failure to meet a deadline for a monetary goal or project completion can negatively impact the musician’s public image.

Time spent starting and running a crowdfunding campaign could be better used working on music

Setting up and running a crowdfunding account online requires hours of time and attention everyday. An article by Salvador Briggman reveals that being in charge of a Kickstarter account is “a part-time, if not a full-time, job.” Andrew Levin and Justin Altus, founders of Snapshotr who used Kickstarter to start their company, say they spend hours daily responding to up to 50 emails from pledgers. Terra Roche, a member of the band Afro Jersey, also spends a ton of time working on her crowdfunding. In an article on NPR music, Roche reveals she needed a three-ring binder with lists of amounts and people who donated to keep her crowdfunding campaign organized. A musician’s main focus should be on their true job, which is making and performing their music. Spending too much time worrying about funds can have a negative effect on the quality of a musician’s music.

Failure to reach a goal or release an album on time is damaging to a young musician’s confidence and reputation

When a recording group starts a crowdfunding campaign, they are often inexperienced and don’t know how much they should ask for. On Kickstarter, if a campaign fails to reach its monetary goal by its deadline, all the pledgers get their money back and the campaigners are left with nothing. According to Sam Tall, CEO of Under the Window Records and a music business student at New York University, failure to meet a goal often “demotivates talented [musicians]” and allows them to believe “they’re not worth anyone’s time.” Though Tall agrees that crowdfunding has been an important part of the music industry for the past couple years, he believes that the practice is “on its way out” because there is still room for growth for more traditional business models.

            Failure to meet deadlines can also damage reputation. All failure is public; that is, all of their pledgers will know if a group fails to reach their donation goal. As a result, it will be much more difficult for the group to attract investors for any other future projects. This could also happen if a group is successful in meeting their donation goal, but cannot meet their project completion deadline. A study on the dynamics of crowdfunding by Ethan Mollick reveals that over 75% of founders who fulfill their obligations to funders deliver their products later than expected. This ties in with the vast amount of time founders spend advertising for donations instead of working on their product. If a band releases an album months after they announced they would during their crowdfunding campaign, they would lose support and be less likely to fund future albums and other projects.

Getting the train rolling on a crowdfunding campaign is awkward

            Besides potentially being reputation-damaging, starting a crowdfunding campaign can be embarrassing. People are not just going to stumble across a groups’ Kickstarter page and make a donation; the group needs to actively go out and promote it. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research states that over 31% of start-ups’ funds come from friends and family, which makes failure even more embarrassing because of the personal relationship the group has with many of its pledgers.  Terra Roche failed to meet her goal of $21,000, and said that she felt “strange” asking her friends on Facebook for money.

          

            A couple groups have had success with crowdfunding, such as Amanda Palmer and here band, The Grand Theft Orchestra, who created a Kickstarter account with a goal of $100,000 and ended up raising close to $1.2 million. That $1.2 million was able to circumvent the revenue fees and artistic control of a major label. However, these success stories are few, so if you are an aspiring musician, save yourself the trouble and follow a more traditional path.