Another good option, if you don’t want to club people over the head with Kickstarter or Rockethub, is Senzoo. Senzoo allows you to have a simple menu drop down on your band website that will prompt folks to donate if they choose. For me, it seems a little more tactful than doing a fan-funding campaign, which is already getting a little played out.

http://senzoo.net/

Thanks for the shout out!
BTW your link to Pandora how too is broken

The mere fact that Senzoo calls itself a donation platform is enough for me to cringe. As a singer-songwriter I am not asking for a donation! I am offering a fair exchange.

That’s why sites like RocketHub (and a few others too) are so appealing to me. They offer a fixed timeframe cyber-event, where I can offer special rewards in return.

I commented on the last podcast, and I’m glad there are some alternatives. I’m really concerned about the tacky factor, so Philip, I appreciate your addition here.

Hey guys, happy upcoming 100th episode!

I’m the one who did the Justin Bieber video with my girlfriend. The sound quality of the call wasn’t great because of Skype but I’d just like to say that my name is Björn and that you can find the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg_-DUQPuIw

Since I made the call I have managed two cover music blogs to feature it (Cover Me and Between Thought And Expression) just by emailing them and because of that a couple of Brighton news blogs reported about this local phenomenon gaining interest in the big world (tipped of by my email). We also posted the video on Justing Bieber fan sites and also on anti-Justin Bieber sites. Strangely a lot of Justin Bieber non-fans preferred our song and fans saw it as a compliment to the artist but to us it’s more plays and exposure, wherever they come from.

I’m very sorry if you guys were under the impression that I was going to be sending you stripper grams. What I meant to say was “slipper” grams. (Ties in with the story about being too old to make it….)

Thanks for the info! But Pandora needs to get it’s act together, and allow the likes of me, from the UK, membership. How hard can it be to include Europe?

best wishes -
Sean

Do you love chocolate-dripping marshmallows? This is YOUR album. Download free now. http://www.seantwright.com/come.cfm

Another great episode. Love listening at the gym or while doing marketing / business type work with various music projects. I’m intrigued by Fan funding but I don’t think I have enough of a following to do such a thing.

Just clarify for me, because mid-roundtable I got confused… If your Kickstarter or Rockethub campaign fails, nobody gets paid, right? The credit cards thru Amazon don’t get charged. You don’t see any money, nor does the service, and the fan doesn’t lose any money. Also was reading on the kickstarter site that you may not contribute to your own campaign, or at least that the $ may not come from one of your own credit cards/bank accounts. http://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq#IPledToMyOwnProjFromAnotAccoAndNowMyAmazPaymAccoIsCanc

I can still see that one might not want to do a campaign again immediately, if it fails… one might want to wait to give one’s fans a little break, and evaluate what went wrong, plan a better campaign in the future.

-mark shilansky

Thank you guys for highlighting this topic. I myself used Kickstarter several months ago and was completely unsuccessful. I thought I gave a really cool “rewards menu” which included the original Pro-Tools project file for 3 of the songs on the album so that the top donors could create their own mixes. I also gave a very passionate appeal to potential donors for why I felt funding my next CD was important for striking a blow against the music industry and I set what I felt was a fair goal.

In the end, I only had a pledge for $25.00. A disaster. I wonder if I should try again on Rockethub, but I’m a little hesitant from my last attempt at crowd funding.

Here was my kickstarter project:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/acidjazzproject/lets-take-back-the-music-industry?pos=1&ref=search

Mano,

I checked out your site, and I think I have one pointer for the next time you try a fan funded campaign. I think where things could have been better is with the rewards menu. You didn’t have many options and the $100 option didn’t have much value for the money. I would highly recommend listening to episode #98 again as Brian from RocketHub really outlines how to put together a good rewards menu. It was one of the things I struggles with and after that interview, felt like I had a better grasp on the concept. You can see our RocketHub campaign here – http://www.rockethub.com/projects/224-it-takes-a-village-to-make-an-album

Kevin,

Thanks so much for taking the time to check out my page and respond with tips. I watched your campaign and your rewards menu IS fantastic.

Once you reached the $50 range you began to offer things that I simply can’t because I am a solo artist recording at home and I have no band. So I can’t really perform for people or invite them to the studio, because for me, the studio is my Mac.

So any rewards I offer really would have to be things I can offer from the confines of my living room (when my children aren’t wrecking the place).

I do like the idea of putting pictures of contributors in the album art. I may steal that one.

If i try again I’ll let you know.

Thanks again.

Hi there

I just recently raised the money for my first music video via IndieGoGo. Even if you don’t reach target you still get the money you raised so far – which is awesome!! They take 9% of money raised unless you reach target then they give back 5%. So I only ended up paying 4%.

My project http://www.indiegogo.com/katiethompsonz

First off though I managed to raise $50,000USD for my next album via Sellaband – just got back from the UK from recording it (NZ is home).

http://www.sellaband.com/katiethompson

I recommend crowd sourcing only if you’re dedicated and have a plan.

KT