Four things a new artist can do for a year before launching a campaign
As an independent artist in the online community, it’s hard not to notice all the active and successful crowdfunding campaigns happening all over the social networks. In fact, I was quite taken with a podcast interview with Benji Rogers, the founder of PledgeMusic. I felt that he was personally imploring me to indulge my fans who wanted desperately to have a hand in furthering my music career and be appreciated for it. I was so jazzed that I overlooked a fundamental problem.
I was very new in my chosen genre of kids/family music and had a mailing list of barely over 100 at the time but was doing well on Twitter, seeking out and connecting (somewhat) with relevant followers among the parenting blogger community. So I contacted PledgeMusic and had some phone calls and e-mail exchanges with a project manager who mutually figured out with me that we could try a very small campaign and be meticulous about making videos and updates to share with social network in order to entice some participation among potential fans.
As the campaign wore on and I was only being supported by relatives and a handful of fellow artists, I had learned an important lesson: in order for your fans to desperately want to have a hand in your career, you must have fans first!
I was mistaken in my hunch that if I ran an attractive and positive campaign, I’d pick up new fans along the way via social media and the PledgeMusic community. The most important thing I learned is that you must have a sizeable core of passionate fans before you begin a campaign. This leads me to share my experience with you about how you might prepare a year …read more
Source: The DIY Musician
