Crowdsourcing

[Kingface]

I'm interested to know, what are people's thoughts on here about crowdsourcing, particularly for Music (e.g. for a band's new album or a tour)?

I have donated to a few projects via Kickstarter, a couple for the development of Video Games and some for Music.

The latest one I have donated to is for the recording of a new Obituary album. I originally saw this due to Napalm Death's official Facebook band page linking to it (the two bands have played together many times).

I couldn't help but notice a few people being extremely critical of the band for setting up such a thing and even some criticising Napalm Death for sharing it. To paraphrase some of the criticism, a lot of it is along the lines of "I pay enough for Music as is, band's should be funding their own work unless they aren't an established band already".

Personally I don't see the problem, if you don't agree with the idea of crowdsourcing, don't donate any money, it's as simple as that. The fact that many of those projects get way above their target funding way before their deadline tells you exactly why this avenue is becoming more common.

The internet is giving more and more people this unique chance to donate their money to help a band they love or a game series they love etc and clearly loads of people are interested in doing this, what's wrong with giving people the avenue to do so?

The only thing I would say if that I probably wouldn't ever donate to a band for the sole purpose of helping them go on tour. If I donate to help Band X go on tour and then they only play London then that's no good for me personally! But the option's there and nobody is forcing anyone to donate to these things.

 

[1928]

Crowdsourcing is a fantastic idea to me. Gives artists an easy, effective, and efficient way to promote themselves and get their material out there. I see no problems with it - to me, it's the right direction for a lot of artists to go. Very excited to see where this takes things! I think it's awesome for established and amateur musicians alike.

 

[Power_Metal_Dom]

I think we discussed this when it was being thrown about as an option for PQ and it came down to all agreeing it's a very useful tool for band and fan alike. I personally love the idea of funding the band directly and putting money directly into the pockets of those that deserve it most. With plenty of these things too - depending on how much you donate - you get a proportional something in return so the incentive is there to dig even deeper. For the band it's also a great way to guage interest without spending umpteen notes into the gamble of a traditional album release.

As for "I pay enough for Music as is, band's should be funding their own work unless they aren't an established band already" this is either a flagrant misunderstanding of the way bands work these days unless you're a superstar as we know from Steve's own self-funding, false economy stories OR it's simply not true that most fans these days pay enough. The overarching problem these days is that fans are not paying enough on actual music! Gigs & merch though I can't comment on but for too long now the fans need to pull their own weight; it takes two to tango.

 

[Yain]

Crowdsourcing is a great idea, no doubt about that. Its especially helpful for new bands or bands that struggle to fund themselves in some other way. I wonder why this could not work for Power Quest, since they were precisely the band that deserved a thing like this.....now that Power Quest is no more it might not be very relevant for them but I still wonder why it wasnt done when obviously Power Quest was not only unable to fund themselves but were actually losing money in the end.

I recall that this was discussed in the past, but I cant remember why it didnt work in the end for Power Quest or what was the conclusion back then. Perhaps not enough people were interested in taking part in it....maybe something like that, but thats just my assumption.

 

[Thematt202]

I'm too heavy, I'd squash someone. Oh, crowd sourcing! Must have misheard!

 

[Yain]

I'm too heavy, I'd squash someone. Oh, crowd sourcing! Must have misheard!

My bad, I thought Crowdsourcing and crowdfunding are the same things. I replied while thinking this is crowdfunding......sorry!

 

[BodomGaiden]

It is the same thing and you were right the first time. He is making a bit of a dry joke (which I lol'd a bit at) by making it seem like he read it as crowd "surfing".

 

[Thematt202]

Yeah sorry, was just being a dick.

 

[Marty_1994]

I won't listen to a band just because one of the members has made a name of himself/herself, when it comes to new projects at least. I guess this is what is happening with some bands, thus creating an "elite" and fewer names in the music industry. But in the end it's the consumers that hold the power, and our money that makes the music industry what it is. Maybe this "crowdsourcing" can change this and eliminating the elite, altough I don't know, is it a big thing? Is it growing? With the internet and all, more people get the chance to share their art, and crowdsourcing or something alike seems to me to be a good idea for more independent music to appear on the market.

I posted this on another thread but quoting it here since it's about this topic.

 

[Thematt202]

Nice post. I agree that this kinda evens the playing field.