Written by Kyle Kraft of Krafty Entertainment
Krafty Entertainment is a music business development coaching company dedicated to providing guidance to musicians (and their teams) on how best to grow your audience and properly monetize it. Krafty Entertainment’s founder Kyle Kraft has over 20 years experience in assisting both developing and established artists in substantially growing their net income from their music. Interested in working with us? Let’s talk!
So you’ve decided that crowdfunding is right for you, congratulations! I’ve helped artists I work with run dozens of successful crowdfunding campaigns that have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, and have learned a lot along the way. I’ve also learned A LOT from Ian Anderson, the creator of the Run A Successful Crowdfund course, who analyzed the data for hundreds of music crowdfunding campaigns and also interviewed the people who ran those campaigns. By doing so he got a thorough understanding of what works for music-specific crowdfunding (which is very different than crowdfunding for say a gadget that anyone might be interested in), and has helped numerous artists have successful campaigns as a result.
If you haven't already done so the best way to provide yourself with a thorough understanding of how to be successful with crowdfunding for music is to take theRun A Successful Crowdfund course (formerly known as Launch and Release by Ian Anderson) which you can get FREE access to for a month at:
https://indepreneur.io/product-crowdfund?coupon=kraftysentme
In order to get the free month of access to the How To Run A Successful Crowdfund course (along with access to the dozens of other digital music marketing courses, workshops, and other resources Indepreneur offers as part of their IndiePRO membership) click the “FREE w/ IndiePRO” button, then “Join IndiePRO”, then change the membership type from the annual IndiePRO+ membership it is set to on default to IndiePRO monthly, then enter the coupon code KRAFTYSENTME where it says “Have a coupon code?” in the bottom right of the page and you won't be charged for the first month. You do still have to enter a credit card number, but you won't be charged until the second month. If you don't see the value in it before then you cancel without any obligation, but I'm confident that if you actually engage in their courses, workshops, and other resources and start implementing some of the strategies they recommend you will see the value in remaining a member.
Here’s some additional recommendations to help you make the most of your next crowdfunding campaign:
Before the campaign launch:
BUDGET:
Aside from accessing the Run A Successful Crowdfund course (as outlined in the above paragraph) which I HIGHLY recommend everyone who is interested in crowdfunding take in order to help you ensure your campaign is successful as possible, the only other money you should expect to need to have to spend specifically in support of your crowdfunding campaign (and only IF you have a significant following on social media) is to have a small budget set aside for targeted social media advertising to reach ONLY the people who have already engaged with your social media pages and content, as well as your website (assuming you have a Meta pixel installed, and who are on your email and/ or customer lists.
Unless you are a legacy artist with a large pre-social media audience, spending money to try to reach people who haven't recently engaged with your social media pages or content during your campaign is VERY UNLIKELY to result in people supporting your crowdfunding campaign (whether via social media, a publicist, or any of the many less than stellar “promoters” that will contact you once you launch the campaign), so is generally not worthwhile.
Spending much (if any) money on hiring someone to help you make your campaign video(s) is not necessary, or even likely to substantially increase the amount of money you raise. The most important part of your campaign video is that you do an effective job of conveying your reasons for making music in a compelling and sincere manner, which you can do by speaking to a camera on a smartphone or computer.
TIMING:
If you already have the project you are seeking funding for recorded, you still should not set a release date or touring in support of the release until you actually launch the campaign. Proper planning and preparation of a crowdfunding campaign often takes substantially longer than many people expect, especially for artists who haven’t crowdfunded using the principles taught in the Run A Successful Crowdfund course before. Rushing to launch a campaign that isn’t ready to meet a release date or any other deadline has a high likelihood of having a substantial negative effect on the amount of income you are able to raise as well as the amount of engagement you are able to build with your core supporters, so is not a wise idea.
If possible before you start the campaign aim to have at least one (but ideally two) song(s) from your project fully recorded, mixed, and mastered, as well as your album cover and t-shirt artwork finished so that you can use those as tools to maximize people's interest in contributing to the campaign. People are inclined to buy what they can see, so the more visuals you have ready for the rewards you are offering people to support the campaign the better.
If possible it would be ideal for you to publicly launch the campaign at the same time as you release a new music video or live performance video, since videos are a key tool to help get the attention of your existing supporters. If the cost of getting a video made is substantially delaying a campaign you would otherwise be ready to launch, have a friend or family member shoot a video of you performing using a phone. You don't need to spend money to get a solid performance video, just some time.
Expect that at the very least it is going to take you several weeks (but you would be better off to allow for months) of putting in dozens of hours both to properly educate yourself on how to maximize the success of a crowdfunding campaign (by taking and acting upon the recommendations in the Run A Successful Crowdfund course), and to plan and prepare a successful campaign before you launch it. Do not try to rush educating yourself about crowdfunding or the planning and preparation of the campaign, as doing so will only reduce the amount of income you’re able to generate from your campaign by doing so.
Avoid having any part of your campaign run during the month of December or early January. Most people have more expenses during the holidays than other months (and need some time in the new year to make income after the holidays), advertising (if you’re doing any) usually costs more in December since retailers are trying to sell people stuff for the holidays, and most people are busier than usual during the holidays (and therefore less likely to remember to support your campaign even if they intend to). Waiting until at least mid-January is a much better time to start a campaign.
Try to make the campaign start and finish mid-month, or at least not right at start or end of a calendar month when a lot of people in North America are the least likely to have as much expendable income due to rent being due at the start of the month. Unfortunately lots of people live close to their financial limits, so you would be wise to schedule your campaign start and finish as far away from when rent is due as is possible.
Due to the substantial benefits of “pre-loading” your core supporters by sending them a preview link for your Kickstarter campaign before it is launched for their feedback (this is important and will help you generate more income, so don’t skip it!), you should plan to have a week between the time you think your campaign page is fully set up and when you actually launch the campaign. That way your core supporters’ time won’t be wasted making suggestions for things you are already planning on doing but just haven’t yet and they will also be as likely as possible to support once you reach out to them again when you have launched the campaign.
Ensure your schedule during the first 3 days of the campaign and last 3 days of the campaign are as open as possible so that you can do as much outreach to your supporters (ideally including lots of one on one communication) as is possible. If you have a day job, try to schedule at least some if not all of those days off. Adjust the start and finish of your campaign however many weekdays needed to maximize the time you have to spend in both of those CRITICAL time periods for the campaign.
Many people spend less time on the internet on weekends, so assuming that is true with your supporters (you can check your social media analytics to confirm) you would be best to make the campaign live on a Monday to share with your "inner circle" for initial contributions, and announce it publicly on a Tuesday so that you have as much of the rest of the week as is possible to secure contributions before things slow down on the weekend. By the same token, it make sense to finish the campaign on a Friday so you have as many weekdays as is possible in the final week to invoke scarcity and secure support while people are most like to contribute if they haven’t already.
If you have a strong hometown following it would be beneficial to plan a free show/ pre-release listening party/ meet & greet/ bbq etc in the second week of your campaign to allow you to connect face to face with as many of your supporters as is possible, without detracting from the value of the tickets from the album release party you should at least consider trying to include as part of your rewards.
If you are based in North America and aiming to finish at midnight on a given day schedule your campaign to end at 11:59pm pacific time so that you don’t confuse people who see your campaign finish date on when they have to contribute until, and so that as many potential supporters on the west coast of North America have a chance to get contributions in before the deadline as is possible.
Ensure you have the best understanding possible of the social media networks you ALREADY have a following on, and specifically their sharing algorithms and advertising set ups. If you have lots of Facebook followers ensure you understand current best practices for having your posts reach as many of your supporters as is possible (posting images or videos as opposed to plain text or links in the post, maximizing engagement by asking questions, etc) and how to run ads with posts JUST targeting your supporters (spending money trying to get people you don’t already have a connection to isn’t effective for music crowdfunding purposes unless you have a large pre-socials fan base). If you are getting lots of views on YouTube set up pre-roll ads (aka Google Display ads) before your own videos of you talking about your crowdfunding campaign, etc.
Create all graphics (representing rewards, goals, headers, promo images to post on social media, counting down the last 7 days remaining, last 12 hours remaining, etc), shoot promo videos (describing specific rewards to try to help upsell people, conveying last chance to support for last week, etc) in advance of launching. Having all promotional content created in advance will allow you to spend more time on outreach and one-on-one communication with your biggest supporters in particular during the campaign.
Compile a prioritized list of the names of each of the people you anticipate might support your campaign, and ensure you have their email addresses AND phone numbers on hand before you start. This list will be your guide for the one on one outreach you should do multiple times during the campaign. This list should include your personal supporters, as well as anyone who you’ve sold any music-related products or merch to or who have come out to a show of yours in the past.
If you have an email mailing list of fans (which ALL artists should have for the success of their careers, but is not necessary to making a successful crowd funding campaign happen though it will definitely help) ensure you have it fully set up (ideally using an automated mailing list service like Drip, Mailchimp, Constant Contact, etc). Be ready to send emails to your mailing list and especially your past customer list, as you are going to want to send out at least one email a week to ALL of your supporters during the campaign.
SET UP:
Email your mailing list as soon as you are starting to work on your campaign with relationship nurturing emails (providing value) with a link to a video or song you haven’t already sent the mailing list, news and/ or details on upcoming performances you haven’t already shared with the list, and so on. Maybe also hint that you have some big news coming soon, so suggest they stay tuned! You would be wise to make sure that you send out multiple emails to your mailing list in which you are providing content and information that your subscribers would be interested in in advance of the campaign, so that they are used to hearing from you recently via email before you ask them to support your crowdfunding campaign.
Emphasize the fundraising nature of your campaign if you don’t have a huge (as in hundreds of thousands of supporters) fan base, and price the rewards at fundraiser prices. You can do so because the people who will support this campaign are your biggest supporters who want to help you, and therefore are willing to pay more than “street value” for the rewards you are offering, which they can always buy at street value after the campaign if they don't make a contribution during the campaign.
If you're considering using Indiegogo for your campaign DO NOT use their flexible funding model, use their fixed funding model. While the fixed funding model requires you to meet the official goal in order receive funding (which is not a problem if you set the official goal at a realistic amount and then have stretch goals as outlined in the Run A Successful Crowdfund course), using the flexible funding model eliminates a lot of the potential upside of a crowdfunding campaign. For more on this read: https://launchandrelease.com/7-ways-indiegogos-flex-funding-hurts-music-crowdfunding/
Ensure that all mid and large reward levels have the lesser rewards included so you don’t have people contributing less because they wanted something that wasn’t available at the higher reward level. Be sure to list all parts of each reward bundle in each reward, don't say "plus everything listed above". Listing all of the reward items helps communicate value.
Unless you have A LOT of fans (again in the hundreds of thousands) skip including rewards in the single digit dollar figures. Start your lowest reward level in the double digits, that will help you set the bar higher and help you raise more money.
Kickstarter doesn't offer accepting payments via PayPal or with crypto, so you may need to set up some separate means of transactions if you have someone who wants to pay with PayPal or crypto as opposed to using a credit card. Should you receive contributions with those methods of payments, you may want to make a self-contribution via your official campaign platform to increase your social proof (even knowing that will cost you the percentage that the platform will take of that).
Plan to go out as much as is possible during the campaign so that you can talk to your supporters in person about it, since in-person communication is the most effective way to convince people to support.
Draft one-on-one template emails (which you will add the name of the person you are sending it to as well as a personal comment related specifically related to that relationship at the end) that you are aiming to send to people who haven’t contributed to the campaign for each week the campaign is taking place, as well as the week before the campaign for the people in your “inner circle” that you are going to send the campaign page preview link to.
Aim to make at least 3 public posts per week on social media about your campaign and forthcoming release its in support of. Try to make as many of those posts as possible be sharing interesting content ie details on collaborators, producers, track titles, song concepts, behind the scenes videos, snippets of songs, artwork etc. Try to ensure that all of those posts have at least an image if not a video as well as any text you are going to include. Draft as many of those posts ahead of time as is possible to minimize the time you have to spend on that during the campaign.
Set up scheduled social media posts in advance of the campaign so you have more time during campaign to dedicate to other more personal outreach.
Try to review the social media feeds of your key supporters that you think are your top priorities to reach out to prior to contacting them about the campaign. Not only will that potentially give you some personalized stuff to mention in your one-on-one communication, but it may also help you recognize if you should deprioritize following up with them about supporting your campaign if they are tied up with serious things in their life that are taking up a big chunk of their time.
Unless you have a fan base in the hundreds of thousands DO NOT hire a publicist or other marketing/ promotion company to promote your campaign, that is a waste of money and time for a music crowdfunding campaign by an artist with a limited fan base.
Premiere all new content your are releasing during the campaign exclusively (for at least a few days) on the campaign page, as doing so will get as many of your supporters as possible to the campaign page and help maximize the number of backers you get.
During the campaign:
Do as much one on one outreach to your biggest supporters as is possible in person, via a video call, on the phone, via text, email, or social media direct messages. Ideally you should be following up one on one with people who haven’t contributed at least once per week (and definitely in the first few and final few days of the campaign) to let them know how the campaign is going, and how excited you are about it and what you will be able to do as a result of it. While you should ask for their support if they’re able to, maintaining your relationship with them should remain your primary goal.
Thank campaign supporters by name tagging them on social media when you reach your goal and each flex goal, but don't mention the amount of their contribution. Doing so will show their friends that they have supported and potentially get their interest in supporting as well if they already are a supporter of you or your music.
Ensure you emphasize to your supporters that sharing the campaign only helps if they are personally sharing with someone else who has a connection directly to you, as people with no direct connection are VERY UNLIKELY to support. Even go as far as emphasizing that their making a contribution to the campaign is A LOT more important than their sharing, since sharing with people with no connection to you or your music gets almost no additional contributions – both in the project description and in videos.
Ask people to communicate with other supporters of yours one on one about the campaign as opposed to sharing it on social media if they can’t afford to contribute, as again sharing with people who aren’t already supporters won’t actually help a music crowdfunding campaign (despite the common incorrect perception to the contrary).
Livestream on platforms you have engagement on at the end of the first week of the campaign, since this is an opportunity to engage more people after the initial launch period as contributions to the campaign will slow down until the last week of the campaign (when the strong psychological principle of scarcity will be able to used). Continue to livestream as you deem effective, especially in the final days of the campaign when the scarcity of opportunity to support will help you get more people on board.
Try to set up another hometown meet & greet/ BBQ/ etc (at a retailer, park, community center, etc) the last weekend of your campaign before the final weekdays, so that you can try to maximize in-person engagement with people before your final push in the following days.
Continue the one on one outreach for the entire duration of the campaign! It’s possible to generate the majority of the income in the final few days of the campaign, so don’t lose steam because things slow down in the middle of your campaign - they will! Leveraging the scarcity of it being people’s last chance to support the campaign can go a long way, so be sure lean heavily on that!
After the campaign:
Be sure to allow for plenty of time to fulfill your rewards and be sure to promptly respond to all inquiries, keep in mind these people are your biggest supporters so you MUST treat them accordingly!
There is almost always a small amount of “errored backers” whose credit cards aren’t able to be processed at the end of a Kickstarter campaign due to people changing card numbers, having maxed out cards, etc. Kickstarter contacts these people to try to get updated payment info, but not always successfully. Be prepared to also reach out to errored backers yourself to arrange alternate means of payment in the week immediately following the campaign as that is the last chance you have for their credit cards to be processed via Kickstarter.
Kickstarter usually sends your share (after they deduct their 5% fee as well as the credit card processing fees which should equal about 4% of the total money raised) of the money raised 14 days after the end of the campaign, so be sure to plan to allow for time for the money to arrive and your bank to release the funds before you commit to paying for anything using those funds.
Once you are ready to fulfill physical rewards you will need to send surveys to your backers in order to get mailing addresses, shirt sizes, etc. Kickstarter has it set up this way to avoid having rewards sent to the wrong address, wrong sizes sent, etc as people move and gain or lose weight even in the short amount of time between when they contribute and when rewards get fulfilled.
If you are fortunate enough to have over a hundred campaign backers who have selected physical rewards that need to be mailed to your supporters (aka fulfilled) you may want to look at using a shipping fulfillment partner/ company who can not only minimize the days of work (which should not be underestimated) that are often needed for reward fulfillment but in some cases can even ship your rewards for cheaper than you can yourself due to discounted shipping and packaging prices they may be able to get.
Be sure to keep your supporters posted with updates on how you are making use of the funds you raise and the results of using the funds. You want to keep these people as engaged as is possible as they are the most likely to support a campaign for your next project as well, as if you do it right this process is definitely repeatable.
Please also check out the recommendations I've put together for reward price levels for a crowdfunding campaign!
Again the definitive guide to crowdfunding for music is the Run A Successful Crowdfund course (formerly known as Launch and Release by Ian Anderson) which you can get FREE access to for a month at:
https://indepreneur.io/product-crowdfund/?coupon=kraftysentme
In order to get the free month of access to the How To Run A Successful Crowdfund course (along with access to the dozens of other digital music marketing courses, workshops, and other resources Indepreneur offers as part of their IndiePRO membership) click the “FREE w/ IndiePRO” button, then “Join IndiePRO”, then change the membership type from the annual IndiePRO+ membership it is set to on default to IndiePRO monthly, then enter the coupon code KRAFTYSENTME where it says “Have a coupon code?” in the bottom right of the page and you won't be charged for the first month. You do still have to enter a credit card number, but you won't be charged until the second month. If you don't see the value in it before then you cancel without any obligation, but I'm confident that if you actually engage in their courses, workshops, and other resources and start implementing some of the strategies they recommend you will see the value in remaining a member.
Additional resources:
Suggested podcast episodes to listen to about music crowdfunding:
The keys to successful crowdfunding for musicians (Creative Juice podcast episode 292):
https://indepreneur.io/podcast/ep292-the-keys-to-successful-crowdfunding-for-musicians
Six critical steps to a successful music crowdfunding campaign with Ian Anderson, creator of the Run A Successful Crowdfund course (Musician Monster podcast episode 30):
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3vAShAlpi80UkKBEGpClz7?si=dcf6cfc5e1a84758
An Artist’s Guide to Crowdfunding Domination with Ian Anderson, creator of the Run A Successful Crowdfund course (Crowdfunding Demystified podcast episode 149):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW4d9xISBC4
How Jamie Alimorad raised $20,000 via Kickstarter (The Miews podcast episode 88):
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-miews/id872641650?mt=2&i=1000342522577
How to raise $50,000 for your next music project via Kickstarter (The Miews podcast episode 38):
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/miews-shaine-freeman-music/id872641650?mt=2&i=318777616
Videos about and related to music crowdfunding:
2 public Launch and Release videos:
www.youtube.com/@launchandrelease2179
3 more public Launch and Release videos:
www.youtube.com/user/LaunchAndRelease/videos
De La Soul on raising $600,874, and why crowdfunding isn’t begging and better than a record deal:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5VslWglQrM
Amanda Palmer on raising $1,192,792 (yes $1.2 million!) via Kickstarter:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMj_P_6H69g
Using the “why”, not the “what” to motivate people:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp0HIF3SfI4
Kickstarter for Musicians: Getting Started
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufcABU2oGlQ
Additional reading about music crowdfunding:
http://noisey.vice.com/en_ca/blog/rel-mccory-rapper-gas-money-brampton-kickstarter-interview-2016
www.djbooth.net/news/entry/2016-09-02-kickstarter-10-step-guide
www.musicthinktank.com/blog/tag/crowdfunding
www.kickstarter.com/blog/behind-the-music-projects-resources-edition
This information was compiled by Kyle Kraft of Krafty Entertainment. Whether you are an artist who is in the early stages of building your career and have next to no money to invest into it looking for the best paths to generating income, are an artist that has established a following and are interested in getting assistance with securing funding to further your career, or are an artist or collective with an extensive fan base that would like assistance with increasing the efficiency of your business development, we can help you.
Want to read more articles written by Kyle? You can do so here.
If you want to get recommendations on how to build your music business as well the inside scoop on opportunities to grow, hit us with your info and we’ll send you occasional emails.
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