Who to trust?
Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project by raising small or large amounts from a number or people. It’s a great way to raise funds for you as an independent musician who’s working on a music project as it would still give you creative control over your music. This at the same time, building deeper connections with fans.
There are a lot of crowdfunding platforms out there but we’ve gathered the top websites that you can use to kick-start your crowdfunding.
Indiegogo - Founded in 2008, Indiegogo is known as one of the first sites to offer crowdfunding.The website allows people to raise funds for their campaigns and charges 5% on the total contributions. This is on top of the 3% processing fee per transaction.
The Indiegogo community has realized over 800,000 ideas since it was established.
Users have the option to select either fixed or flexible funding. Fixed means all contributions are returned if you don’t meet your goal. Flexible means contributions can still be kept even if the creator does not meet its campaign goal.
Patreon - A membership platform which allows creators to get paid, Patreon helps creators build direct relationships with their fans by allowing their fans to get exclusive content, merchandise, community or previews of their creative content through a monthly subscription. It is usually popular for vloggers , podcasters and bloggers.
Currently, Patreon has different membership plans - Lite, Pro and Premium and has flexible processing fees - Standard and micropayment.
Kickstarter - based in New York, Kickstarter is a public benefit corporation that acts as a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. With a mission “ help bring creative projects to life” , they have received more than $4.6 billion pledges from 17.2 million backers to fund 445, 000 projects on music, video games and other food, art related and other projects. Everyone can submit their projects however, they have to be approved by the site first before one can put your plea pledges, photos and videos. Once it’s approved, the project creator can set the amount and the time period - say, for 30 days. If the amount is reached within the time period, the project gets the funding.Otherwise, the project receives no donations and no money is collected from the donors. Does kickstarter collect a percentage from the pledges?
If a project is successfully funded, kickstarter applies a 5% fee from the collected funds. A processing fee of 3-5% will also be applied. However, if the project does not meet the goal, no fee is collected.
Go Fund Me - A profit crowdfunding platform, Go Fund Me allows people to raise funds for events, projects and challenging circumstances . You start with it by telling your story and setting a goal. Then you can share the link to your friends or family members or on your social media pages. Once donations start to pour in, you can manage it by accepting, thanking the donors and withdrawing your funds.