Fan-funded Music - Criticism

Criticism

As a business practice, fan-funded music is not without its criticism. Fan-funded music has gained popularity in the past few years however, money raised through these platforms still is only estimated to make up 1% of the amount spent on albums and tours. Many bands start off with fan funding to finance their initial album but then get signed to a record label. Major labels are signing artists with successful fan funded campaigns using the campaigns as a filter before investing in them. Other, more well-known bands have used fan funding to distance themselves from their label contracts and manage their own music. There has yet to be a band that has used fan funding to fully finance their career.

Some claim that artists overestimate the cost of recording an album and dishonestly solicit more money than they need via fan-funding. With advancements in digital technology, recording equipment has become increasingly compact and more affordable. It is no longer a requirement for an artist to need a large recording studio that houses oversized equipment. This increase in accessibility that the everyday musician has today has made it possible for artists to record their own albums from their homes. Since there are no restrictions for what artists can ask for, it is not unheard of for artists to inflate the expected costs and then keep the extra money as profit.

Critics also point out that the fan-funded music model has turned bands into marketers and sales personnel. Artists must be able to develop personal marketing strategies in order to get the money to even begin working on their music. Artists must put lots of time and effort into creating a campaign that engages their fans and gets them to donate to their project. This can prove difficult for any artist to create a campaign that does not come off as " shrill and desperate-modern-day pan-handeling by entitled go-getters." (source)? While fan-funded platforms are accessible for any musician, they have become over-crowded with both artists and anyone with an idea. "For every legitimately exciting pitch there are dozens of musicians, filmmakers and designers pleading for funds to complete ill-conceived projects." With so many options fans become a victim of too many choices and choose not to donate to anyone.

Running fan-funded campaigns cost bands a large sum of money. They must pay for video production for the video that every campaign has, a producer and an engineer to mix and master their album, and fulfill all of the rewards promised to their fans as well as the shipping on them. Often the money made off these projects ends up going to paying the costs of running a successful fan funded campaign. For example, a large portion of the $1 million dollars that Amanda Palmer raised went into funding her Kickstarter project itself. Artists such as Palmer have huge fan bases to appeal to for money, but for the average artist raising that kind of money isn't a reliable method.

Fan-funded music has become increasingly popular, but the platform is young and not fully developed. Fan-funded music has a long way to go before it can be used as a sole source of funding for an artist's career.