This week I thought I might “get out of the building” and talk to musicians I worked with about various funding options to get some feedback on views of crowdsourcing or grant writing or other ways to fund creative projects.
Some interesting comments came up, here are a few;
“i don’t like asking people for money before I have something to give them”, this was a response to why don’t you use kickstarter or something for your next recording project?
“well…gone are the days of getting a label deal, and even if you do land one they still make you pay part of it, it becomes a cost sharing venture rather than a traditional record deal.”
“you could be one of those people that writes 6-8 grant apps a year and hope you land at least one!”
“I’ve written a lot of grants over the years and feel fortunate enough to have landed a few”
“crowdsourcing websites are overcrowded now and there is too much crap out there so ultimately either no one gets their money or you just don’t get noticed!”
…and my favourite quote of the week “do it just like the old days, gather the troops together and build the f**n barn!”
I see a common theme here and that is the obvious statement of if you want money for something you need to work for it. People do win lotteries, get lucky breaks fall into an amazing opportunity at times but the percentage of people that obtain funding for their projects do it through hard work, persistence and have a good product that they believe in and get people to believe in. The person that feels guilty asking someone for money to go record a CD will likely spend more time saving his own money and writing grants to help fund the project. The person that has some web presents, marketing ability and isn’t afraid to ask will get funding through a solid web based crowdsourcing campaign. Then there is the hard working fella that will gather the troops and find a way to fund the project together.
The other theme I see here is that making your own music is difficult to do by yourself. You will need the help and support of a community. This I like. Put together a solid idea, present it well, believe in it and people will get behind you, either through grants, donations, working with you or something else!
I hope?
Wait, wait, wait.
When we were told to get out of the building? Just kidding.
From the different side of things, I’ve been doing the same (but not musicians, and instead, those who do more of what I want to be doing).
To comment on some of your comments:
– Did the first person not understand that with Kickstarter, you do offer incentive at each level? Or did they mean the album/recording/whatever they would be creating?
– Knowing we would be writing more is nothing new to us, though it must have been refreshing to connect with those who have scored grants that they need.
– I agree they are overcrowded–that is why I do NOT like indiegogo at all, but I think, at its core, Kickstarter still is doing the right thing.
Regarding your comment: “The other theme I see here is that making your own music is difficult to do by yourself. You will need the help and support of a community.”, Oh, I totally agree. Unfortunately, I’m clearly reaching out to the wrong people; so far, I haven’t had the support I honestly thought I would get. Yet.
I hope, too!
So the moral is – do it like we always used to do (i.e. sheer hard work) and stop expecting the interwebs to do all the work for you.
Young people today (God, now I’m sounding old and grumpy – no comments required, thanks!) seem to think they can use technology to make up for lack of talent or sheer laziness.
Sooner or later, things will revert to how they used to be and, to be successful, people will realise that hard work and perspiration is the only way they will reach their goals. Perhaps that’s something we should be teaching in schools – along with a work and business ethic that isn’t dependent on a totally unrealistic sense of entitlement that seems to be the pervasive mindset…
This is common sense, but the Internet can certainly be effective.
But you’re right about “young people today”, and that isn’t just your age; many of us in the class bypass the age where Internet and texting were a part of our norm.
I don’t think that “young people today” are lazy; I think that, often, it is ignorance. They don’t KNOW how to approach it another way.
I don’t think things will revert, actually, at all. I think they will evolve and make things easier and more effective on the Internet end.
I agree with you Laurie that things will most likely not revert to the old way of doing things. The internet is the future, whether we like it or not. Our challenge is figuring out how to use it effectively, rather than assuming it will do our work for us. This I am still working on 🙂
If every artist was a producer of art as well as broader artistic opportunity, opportunity would abound, and so would cultures of artists. The challenge to support your art should only be the beginning of a broader vision to feed the web of opportunity that is available to artists.
Heidi, I wonder if you could elaborate a bit more on what you mean by: “The challenge to support your art should only be the beginning of a broader vision to feed the web of opportunity that is available to artists.” I like where you are going with us, but I am curious to hear more about what you think this looks like 🙂
I am not a performer myself and am more interested in developing arts organizations than creating my own art, so I am interested in all of your perspectives from the other side.
I’m not sure I agree with Heidi here.
As an artist, I only very reluctantly do the production side. It’s not what I’m about, nor, I believe, should I be about more than creating my art. There are others out there whose talent is production and who have a keen business and marketing mind – those are the people to do the production side of things.
The important thing is to make that connection and build a relationship with someone who respects you, and you can trust to do the job with your best interests in mind.
To go back and answer Laurie’s question, the first guy just really has a hard time asking people for things. He is the first person to help you or give you the shirt off his back, but he has a hard time asking for help. It is this kind of person that has a difficult time in borrowing money to get work done, even when the people you are borrowing from want to give you the money to support your work!
As for finding the support you need, that will come, just like my calculus teacher used to say “ya gotta believe!”
Brent, in my (lacking) experience, I think these are the guys you want to connect with. They will offer and help you and guide you and, in turn, you can help them (whether they realize it or not). You might learn and gather the most from them.
Heidi are you thinking that by putting your art/creative output/expressing yourself/call it whatever out there into the world (community for our class) that it might help to feed others creative output and spark more artists to do the same thereby building what we talked about in the fall, cultural capital?