Crowd funding — it’s a great way for everybody who loves new music to support making more of it.
I’ve got a crowd funding campaign going right now, Spindrift Commissioning Guild: Duo and Trio, for two new pieces for two Massachusetts chamber ensembles. It’s a RocketHub campaign, with fiscal sponsorship from Fractured Atlas (making contributions tax-deductible, which is a good bonus to help in promoting the campaign).
But, when I mention it to people who aren’t creatives themselves, most have never heard of crowd funding. I thought Kickstarter was pretty well-known, but it seems that’s only among other artists, performers, and composers.
The big non-profits have well-funded campaigns to get us all to give money. Public radio has an all-too-familiar model, and they guilt-trip us regularly. Other charities with lots of name recognition fill my mailbox with solicitations.
But what if I want to support a friend’s creation? Well, I probably can’t fund a whole commission or recording session. That’s usually too much to ask of just one supporter. So what about a commissioning group? You could get together with other fans that you know and offer to support a particular project, specifying your own theme, or on a theme planned by the artist.
Maybe you don’t know a group of fans with money to spare. One way to find artists’ projects that are already planned, are the crowd-funding web sites. Crowd funding web sites let the artist — composer, performer, all types of artists — set up a project with perks or premiums, just like the big charities. You can find projects on websites like Kickstarter, RocketHub, IndieGoGo, and one I just discovered – USA Projects.
So, audience members, music lovers, fans, you too can support the creation, performance and recording of new music. Crowd funding makes it easy to band together, with power in numbers, to fully support new musical creations. Be a Santa Claus for new music!
If you go directly to these web sites, finding a project that you like can be time-consuming. The usual way that you learn about projects is because you are on the mailing list of the artist. That limits the ability of the artist to get the word out, so I thought I’d make a list of projects looking for funding now that might interest the new-music supporter.
On USA Projects:
On Kickstarter:
- Orlando Cela : Recording of compositions using extended techniques – funding ends today
- BMOP Sound : Recording Concertos by Thomas Oboe Lee
- Swede & Amber record voice & guitar music of John Duarte
On RocketHub:
- Deanna Witkowski: This is NOT “jazzy Chopin”
- Spindrift Commissioning Guild : Duo and Trio, new chamber music by Pamela Marshall (that’s me)
If you’ve got a project out there needing funding, please add a comment about it.
This year, next year, always, be a Santa Claus for new music!
Thanks for posting my Rockethub project, Pamela! I'm looking forward to checking out your project now!
Women's Work the concert series in New York for women composers is raising money for the three concerts in March at:
https://www.fracturedatlas.org/s/campaign/542.
There's a video there and all the info about who's performing what. This year we're doing it at the Players' Theatre in the Village instead of Greenwich House. Please help if you can. And come hear the music!–Beth
(from Beth Anderson, posted by Pam)