Crowdfunding for Musicians
Master the art of crowdfunding as a way to build a more engaged, supportive fanbase for your musical career.
Making music for a living is every musician's dream. Crowdfunding could be part of the answer. Crowdfunding is one of the most effective and rewarding ways to raise money for your next project, while building a sustainable community around your music in the process. But it takes creativity, artistry, and lots of careful planning!
And that's why Jay Coyle, co-founder of Music Geek Services, project manager for Sloan, Barenaked Ladies, and other great bands, and former marketing exec at EMI Nashville, is here to help you through it! Learn how to choose the right crowdfunding platform, plan your campaign, determine a timeline and monetary goal, craft your story, create a pitch video, structure your rewards, promote your campaign, and more.
So, who’s ready to get their project funded? Get started now with this free course.
Jay Coyle
Music Geek, Business Consultant, Educator
Jay is a manager, consultant, teacher, and music geek who has managed or contributed to dozens of successful crowdfunding and direct-to-fan initiatives. After a stint in Marketing and Special Projects at the EMI CMG label in Nashville, Jay turned his focus toward consulting in a Direct-to-Fan & Fan Engagement role when he founded Music Geek Services in 2009. He's worked with such notable acts as Barenaked Ladies, Sloan, the Presidents of the United States of America (PUSA), Mindy Smith, John Oates, the Figgs, Veruca Salt, Odds, Holly Williams, Jeremy Fisher, Carbon Leaf and Jars of Clay. Jay also makes time to teach Music Marketing and Music Business Strategies courses to a new era of music business students for Berklee Online.
Build a sustainable career in the music industry
By the end of this course, you’ll be able to confidently conceptualize, plan, and implement a crowdfunding campaign to support your music.
Cultivate a Supportive Community
Understand Campaign Basics
Explore & Embrace Best Practices
Craft a Compelling Story & Materials
Are you an educator? If so, you can access educator discounts. !
Course Outline
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Section 1
Introduction
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Section 2
Pre-Planning
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Section 3
Planning Your Campaign
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Section 4
Developing Your Campaign
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Section 5
Creating Rewards
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Section 6
Getting from Launch to Target
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Section 7
Alternative Path: PledgeMusic
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Section 8
Post-Campaign
MORE INFORMATION
Who is this course for?
Anyone can take this course at any time, though it is designed and developed for artists looking to raise funds for an upcoming project. Crowdfunding can be used for any imaginable type of project, though the most common music-related ones tend to be recording or printing an album, a film or music video, a particularly costly tour, and to replace stolen gear or cover medical bills.
What are the requirements?
You can take this course with no prior knowledge about crowdfunding, music business, or even music... though you'll definitely get more out of it if you have a musical project in mind.
How long does it take?
You can go through the video and readings in this course in a few hours. If you're setting up a crowdfunding campaign from scratch as you go through this course content, we suggest starting to plan your campaign about a month in advance of its launch.
What can I expect to get out of it?
You'll learn the basics of putting together a crowdfunding campaign, applicable to most available platforms, and what it takes to ensure your campaign will have succesful results. We'll bring you up to speed with current best practices around designing, developing, and implementing your campaign.