[youtube]http://youtu.be/TjhuNFP1gD8[/youtube]
In recent months, crowd-funding has been drastically changing the way the music industry operates. Canadian prog group Protest the Hero funded their upcoming album entirely through an incredibly successful Indiegogo campaign. Within a few days, the band had exceeded their goal of $125,000, with the current amount of money raised being almost three times that amount. Perhaps inspired by their success, Cali band Huntress also decided to turn to fans for extra tour support during their appearance on this summers Rockstar Mayhem Fest with their own Indiegogo campaign. Today, Huntress exceeded their $15,000 goal by over $1000.
Says Huntress vocalist Jill Janus:
“What has been most rewarding for me is truly getting to connect with our fans…I’ve found a new respect for the power of the music enthusiast. There is a stigma that goes along with crowd funding, we were very careful in the presentation — we kept our humility. We aren’t pretending to be more than we are, we’ve had some amazing opportunities handed to us. But Huntress is still in the infant stages of this business…The fans are lifting us to the next level. Napalm Records has been tremendous for Huntress, but they are an indie label and I can’t bleed them dry. The fans are my blood, there’s no end to the life they supply. I adore them. I live for them.”
Check out the Indiegogo page for the full details on why they need the crowd money, but it is surprising to find out how little help some of the smaller acts get from their record labels and how much of a financial strain it is for them to go on tour. While they have managed to scrape together a bit more than they asked for from their Indiegogo page, they will not exactly be living in luxury during the tour. In fact, the band will be sharing a bus with tour mates Battlecross, who launched a campaign of their own for support during the tour. Like Huntress and Protest the Hero, Battlecross fans also came through and helped them exceed their $25,000 goal. Both bands were not asking for anything gratuitous- they just asked for the bare minimum of what they needed to pay for things like gas and a crew, offering perks in return for fans who contributed such as signed albums or chances to hang out with the band.
There is much more that can be said about Indiegogo/Kickstarter and the impact it is having on the music industry, but for now, it is good to know that up-and-coming acts can get everything they need from the fans without being indebted to their label. While the Battlecross campaign has ended, the Huntress campaign still has a few days left, in which contributors can snag cool perks such as having the band record any song you want just for you, or guitarist Blake Meahl’s customized 1979 Vandura van.
