Music Biz Crowdfunding: Alt-Fest, Neverland Ranch, Hard Rock Hotel, Hearo.fm, Rob Zombie
Crowdfunding is going strong not just for album releases and the like but also for music business endeavors. Such projects range from supporting festivals and movies to crowd investing in businesses to more tongue-in-cheek efforts such as purchasing Neverland. But possibly the most important news here is that Rob Zombie avoided crowdfunding till now because he misunderstood it and bought into one of the many myths of music crowdfunding. Now he's conducting a campaign that looks like it will bring him closer to his fans. That's why it's important that we don't confuse people with misrepresentations of crowdfunding.
Alt-Fest Cancelled
Last year Alt-Fest successful crowdfunded double their goal raising £61,762 to help put on an alternative music, art and culture festival in England near Kettering.
But festivals are complex and expensive. For a variety of reasons you can evaluate for yourself, Alt-Fest has been cancelled.
Let's Buy Neverland Ranch!
In what appears closer to a conceptual art project than a sincere campaign, though I'm not impugning anyone's sincerity, ex-Spin editor Mark Blackwell is organizing a crowdfunding campaign to buy Neverland Ranch.
The GoFundMe campaign has raised $430 in 9 days on the way to $75,000,000.
Conceptual art? Nah, just funny. Read the text on the campaign for a potentially humorous experience.
Equity Crowfunding: Hard Rock Hotel & Hearo.fm
Earlier this summer Hard Rock Hotel Palm Springs used equity crowdfunding to raise over $1.5 million from 85 investors who now own around 15% of the hotel.
Music discovery platform Hearo.fm intends to raise $1 million via equity crowdfunding.
Their campaign is not yet live but they are taking "reservations" for people who want a heads up when they do start.
Rob Zombie Finally Learns About Crowdfunding
Some musicians haven't crowdfunded music projects but are turning to fan support for other kinds of projects. Rob Zombie, famous musician, is of course also now known for making horror movies of which he's long been a fan. He's finally crowdfunding a new movie and, since Rolling Stone won't link to the new RZ-31 site where the campaign is taking place, I won't either!
Isn't that annoying? Just trying to learn to roll like the big dogs.
Wait, maybe they couldn't find it cause it's actually on FanBacked.
But here's something that should be noted. Zombie says that he finally made the connection between fans' desires for things like props from the movies and crowdfunding rewards and so he "realized a crowdfunding campaign is not a guy on a street corner with a hat asking for money."
Now if you read the whole Rolling Stone piece you can see that this is a campaign that's going to bring Zombie closer to his fans and the rewards are a big part of that. He's thinking very creatively about what fans dig in a way that it sounds like he just hasn't been able to fully address in the past.
So Rob Zombie fell prey to a myth of music crowdfunding that could conceivably have kept him from ever finding this new way to connect with fans.
That's why I always go hard when people misrepresent crowdfunding or any other empowering approach that allows musicians to connect directly with fans and build independently.
Who Knew?
According to Vocativ:
"The most successful musician to crowdfund her music is Australian singer Alison Palmer, who raised more than $1.2 million on Kickstarter."
More:
- Dear PledgeMusic: It's Time To Stop Misrepresenting Music Crowdfunding
- 10 Myths of Music Crowdfunding
- Trend Watch: More Music Tech Startups Are Turning To Crowdfunding
Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch) also blogs at DanceLand. Send news about music tech startups and services, DIY music biz and music marketing to: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.
