Fan Funded Forum

Pledge music is a UK based site that provides artists the functionality to fund projects through fans. Fans are only charged once the target amount is reached. Pledge music also helps raise money for charity. Pledge charge 15% of the amount funded for using the service, this includes transaction charges. At the moment the site is not the best looking or easiest to navigate, however it seems that they have the fundamentals correct and with great functionality in they have a great basis to build upon.

Pledge Music was set up by Benji Rogers, a London Based musician who has been recording and touring since 1999. He was joined by Malcolm Dunbar whos career spans over 20 years, with A&R Director positions held at three majors and two leading independents including Island, Warners/East West, Mother/Universal, V2 and Sanctuary. With career sales in excess of 40 million units, Malcolm has been responsible for the signing and development of hit artists such as Lloyd Cole and The Commotions, Julian Cope, Orange Juice, The Christians, Tanita Tikaram, Longpigs, Bjork, Idlewild, Liberty X, The Datsuns, Dolores O’Riordan, The Rakes, Estelle and many more.
www.pledgemusic.com

Check out EES Pledge Campaign

ArtistShare allows artists to fund their projects outside of the traditional recording industry model. It utilizes a “fan-funding” model to allow the general public to directly finance, watch the creative process of the recording, and in most cases gain access to extra material from an artist. It was founded in 2000 by Brian Camelio, a musician/producer, it is one of the first models of its kind for the purpose of funding artistic works through the Internet.

Artists post projects which announce the creation of a new artistic work. The project consists of “Project Experience” which is the documentation of the project and “Participant Offers” which are priced from low to high. “Paticipants” (fans) buy Participant Offers of various levels in order to finance the project and gain access to the “creative process” behind the scenes. Depending on the level of participation the fan receives anything from a signed finished CD at the end of the project to an invitation to the recording studio. Artistshare charges a set up fee from $595 and a subscrition from $12.95 per month.

Artistshare has been successful with many Jazz and Country artists and since 2004, ArtistShare fan-funded releases have received a total of 4 Grammy awards and 14 Grammy nominations.
www.artistshare.com

A brief overview of Fan Funding in Sport

MYFOOTBALLCLUB.COM
MyFootballClub.com launched in August 2007, to recruit at least 50,000 football enthusiasts from across the world to purchase an English association football club. On 23 January 2008, 95.89% of MyFC members had agreed to the purchase of a 75% share in Ebbsfleet United F.C., thereby authorising MyFC’s purchase of that club. With its purchase of a majority share of Ebbsfleet United, MyFootballClub became the first online community to fully run a professional sports club in history.
www.myfootballclub.com

Projects that are similar to MyFootballClub exist in both England and in at least 11 other countries. Biggleswade United inaugurated myBUFC in September 2007, which aims to put the management of that club in the hands of paid-up members. The People’s Club was launched in October 2007 and is a similar scheme looking to allow fans to acquire and run a lower-level English football club.

Projects outside the UK include:
Brazil: MTDF, or “Meu Time de Futebol,” was launched in January 2008
Denmark: Mitsuperligahold, which was launched in August 2007
France: Web F.C. allows its members, called “entraînautes,” to vote on strategic and tactical decisions relating to a lower-level French club in the Ligue de Basse-Normandie.
Germany: Deinfussballklub.de was launched in April 2008
Israel: Web2Sport currently operates Hapoel Kiryay Shalom
Italy: Squadramia, which was started in January 2008, is an online community that seeks 20,000 members to buy an Italian football club. In late 2008 the web comunity purchased Santarcangelo Calcio 1926
Japan: Fujieda MYFC is a team playing in the Japanese regional leagues funded by online subscribers.
Poland: KupimyKlub.pl is a Polish project, was launched in May 2008.
Romania: Clubulmeudefotbal started on 7 July 2007
Russia: MyFootballClub.ru started on 1oth Jan 2007
Spain: miclubdefutbol.com was launched in January 2008
United States: MySoccerClubUSA aims to start a club from scratch and SaveTheVictory.org, is attempting to purchase the now-defunct San Francisco-based USL club, California Victory.

A brief overview of Fan Funding in Films

INDIEGOGO.COM
With over 2300 projects funded IndieGoGo is the king of the Fan Funding sites for independent film makers. It is free to post projects and the project owner pays a 9% marketplace fee and 3% transaction fees on funds raised. The project owner retains all rights.
www.indiegogo.com

Individual Films
www.ageofstupid.net
www.mymilliondollarmovie.com

Here are some other film funding I am not sure if they are active
www.biracy.com
www.indiemaverick.net
www.filmriot.com
www.aswarmofangels.com

Also check out Kickstarter a really well presented generalist Funding site – currently invite only for US based projects but looks sure to grow and become an interesting player

Related
OPENINDIE.COM
A site for screening independent films that is interestingly being Fan Funded through Fan Funding site Kickstarter
www.openindie.com

As Fan Funded Music grows then more and more sites will launch to assist artists… We will be creating a list of start up sites here that we will be watching their development…

KICKSTARTER.COM
I really like this creative pledge based site that is extremely well executed. It is by no means limited to music and you can raise funds for any creative project. The financials are handled by Amazon and fees are payable. They charge 5% of the amount funded which seems unsustainable and may change when they eat up their investment. The main draw back with this site is that currently you need to have a USA bank account and address in order to start a project, I am told this is due to restrictions imposed by Amazon. They say that they hope this will be updated soon but they don’t know when.

This is what Kickstarter has got right:
“Kickstarter turns fundraising into a social game, where people have to work together within a time limit to reach a common goal. Already, we’re seeing that projects develop their own viral momentum… Once a project hits 25% of its goal, success is almost guaranteed. (94% of projects that hit that mark eventually hit their goal.)”
www.kickstarter.com

FEEDTHEMUSE.COM
Funding through donations.  Artists can design their own campaign and what the money is used for…i.e. recording, promotion, touringing…
www.feedthemuse.net

THEHECTORFUND.com
Hector set up this donation site
www.thehectorfund.com

MUSICSLU.COM
Here is a different and novel approach, artists solicit pledges for their music, when the target has been reached they make it free for all under a creative commons license. Nice Design and interesting integration with Facebook.
www.Musicslu.com

EDIT: SELLABAND UPDATE
“SellaBand Opens up Fan Funding for All”

Sellaband is a music website that allows artists to raise the money from their fans and the SellaBand community in order to record a professional album. It was set up by Johan Vosmeijer (ex Sony/BMG), Pim Betist (ex Shell), and Dagmar Heijmans (ex Sony/BMG) in August 2006. Their offices are located in Amsterdam, Netherlands, but it’s a German company that started in Bocholt, Germany.

On April 8 2008, SellaBand raised EU€3.5 million (US$5 million) in their Series A round led by Prime Technology Ventures.

For Details of the new Flexible SellaBand where Artists keep all Rights
http://www.fanfundedforum.com/2009/09/new-sellaband/

In the old model: Any artist can sign up for SellaBand, they set up a profile and uploaded some of their music to attract “Believers” from their fans and the SellaBand community. Parts sold at US$10 each. The total to be raised was set at either US$50,000 or US$100,000 ($10k is the new minimim) and will cover all costs to record, mix, and manufacture their album. Any band that is able to sell 5,000 (or 10,000) “parts” is then provided with a producer, studio, and A&R to record an album. Artists are also free to select their own team of recording professionals and studio.

Among the Producers that have worked on SellaBand albums so far are Tony Platt (AC/DC, Bob Marley), Attie Bauw (Scorpions, Judas Priest), Peter Denenberg (Spin Doctors, Deep Purple), Steve Bush (Stereophonics, Corinne Bailey Rae), Mick Glossop (Van Morrison, Waterboys), Malcolm Burn (Patti Smith, Emmylou Harris) and Greg Haver (Manic Street Preachers, Super Furry Animals).

Partnerships

• December 2007 a partnership with Amazon.com was announced. this was initially for the UK but has been successfully repeated with Amazon in Germany and USA.
• March 2009 SellaBand announce a deal to launch in USA with Chuck D’s music company BTN (Bring The Noise) Management in which the former Public Enemy front man will function as Sellaband’s “US ambassador.”
• June 2009 Sellaband.de launched. The first sister site is presented in conjunction with partner MerchandisingMedia GmbH.
• October 2009 SellaBand announce new flexible model where Artists keep all rights

As the first open commercial fan funding site SellaBand has become something of a blueprint for fan funded sites.

www.sellaband.com

A French language community record label which makes it possible for Net surfers to directly produce its artists. MMC sees itself as an alternative to traditional labels enabling artists that have a direct relationship whith their fans to take control of their career and see better return on their creative efforts. MMC select which acts they will fund and once funding has been achieved work in the same way as a traditional label. They have distribution from Warners.

The original target for artists was 70,000 Euro at 10 Euro per share but this has since been raised to 100,000Euros in order to provide a greater marketing fund.

Investors recieve 30% of proceeds (but no copy of the album), Artists receive 20% of proceeds and the rest goes to MMC. The artists share is considerably less than other fan funding sites however, as mymajorcompany operates in a similar way to a tradtional label and handles all marketing, it is probably best to compare the deal with a traditional deal: MMC is certainly more profitable for artists, not least because there is no recoupment before they start earning.

16 Artists have been put up for funding so far, 13 of which raised 70,000, one artist has raised the new total of 100,000 and two others are still working towards 100,000.

The first artists to reach the total Gregoire, raised 70,000Euro in a month and a half from 347 investors. The album You + Me was released in 2007 and achieved considerable success in France.

Stephan Courbit, the former owner of Endemol, has invested 3 million euros to the young label, in exchange for 49 % of the capital. With ambitious projects of internationalisation with England as a key target.

www.mymajorcompany.com

CASH Music (Coalition of Artists and Stakeholders) is a non-profit organization founded in November 2007 by Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses and Donita Sparks of L7 along with Hersh’s manager and husband Billy O’Connell and Sparks’ manager Bob Fagan. Other participating artists include Xiu Xiu, Adam Gnade, and Alex Moulton. The organization takes an open source approach to music production and distribution.

The goal of CASH Music, according to its site, is to provide “a way for audiences and creators to exchange creative perspectives and ideas.” Songs featured on the site are released under the Creative Commons license to download or be remixed. The site offers subscriptions ranging from $10-30 per quarter to one-time payments of up to $5,000, each with corresponding benefits. Artist participation is currently by invite only.

Currently fans can invest in individual artists projects for example Donita Sparks offering the pulic a chance to participate in the profits from the sync licensing of the track He’s Got The Hone, investors could be making money whenever the track pops up in a film, commercial, or TV show. Each investor will participate by investing $100 (limited to 100) and sharing in one-half of one percentage point of the sync license royalty checks.

CASH Music are developing open tools and solutions for the music industry with early public releases scheduled for Q3 2009.

www.cashmusic.org

With this Polish take on the fan funding site there are several possible targets. The lowest one is just for recording two songs and is $1500, the highest for recording an album $15,000. Income from the project is divided between artist and believer.

The site was launched in 2007 and 30 artists have reached budget.
www.megatotal.pl

“Bandstocks empowers both music fans and artists by encouraging them to take control and collaborate directly with one another.”

Bandstocks are offered to fans to raise the necessary sum of money to make and market an album. while fans, in return for their investment, receive both acknowledgment and a share of the proceeds to reward their commitment.

Investors receive 30% of net receipts, a credit on the album, Free download of the album and the right to a discounted limited edition of the album and other priviledges.

Artists recieve the fund generated from the sale of bandstocks to record and market the album. Artists recieve 50% of receipts for 5 years when the copyright reverts to them.

As well as providing funding and a smooth administrative framework, Bandstocks also offers a menu of services which include manufacturing and direct selling of premium packages through an online shop, specialist vinyl distribution, digital distribution through all major third party services, manufacture and physical distribution of CDs and other products through our third party partners and online and offline marketing services.

A huge restriction is that unfortunately only fans based in the UK can invest in artists.

www.bandstocks.com