{"id":29,"date":"2011-12-21T16:56:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-21T16:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/spblog\/2011\/12\/21\/be-santa-claus-for-new-music\/"},"modified":"2015-05-29T15:26:39","modified_gmt":"2015-05-29T15:26:39","slug":"be-santa-claus-for-new-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spindrift.com\/blog\/be-santa-claus-for-new-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Be a Santa Claus for new music"},"content":{"rendered":"

Crowd funding — it\u2019s a great way for everybody who loves new music to support making more of it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve got a crowd funding campaign going right now, Spindrift Commissioning Guild: Duo and Trio, for two new pieces for two Massachusetts chamber ensembles. It\u2019s a RocketHub campaign, with fiscal sponsorship from Fractured Atlas (making contributions tax-deductible, which is a good bonus to help in promoting the campaign).<\/p>\n

But, when I mention it to people who aren\u2019t creatives themselves, most have never heard of crowd funding. I thought Kickstarter was pretty well-known, but it seems that\u2019s only among other artists, performers, and composers.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But what if I want to support a friend\u2019s creation? Well, I probably can\u2019t fund a whole commission or recording session. That\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Maybe you don\u2019t know a group of fans with money to spare. One way to find artists\u2019 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<\/a>, RocketHub<\/a>, IndieGoGo<\/a>, and one I just discovered – USA Projects<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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!<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

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\u2019d make a list of projects looking for funding now that might interest the new-music supporter.<\/p>\n

On USA Projects:<\/p>\n