Zoshpit, Australia’s first niche music crowdfunding site will launch in January of 2013. Zoshpit enters an emerging niche crowdfunding space where competitors like UK-based Pledgemusic, US’s TuneFund, and the European site Sell A Band are rapidly gaining traction. To view a complete list of top crowdfunding sites for artists, click here.
Zoshpit will function similarly to other crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, promoting an all-or-nothing fundraising system where project backers will receive rewards or perks based on their funding tier. Zoshpit will take a 5% standard fee for successful fundraising campaigns.
It seems that music is undergoing a funding revolution. No longer do struggling musicians need to scrape together financing for a new album or give away a substantial portion of their music rights and earnings to record labels. Instead, artists can now go direct to their fans as both backers and word-of-mouth marketers.
At the moment, smaller, especially newer independent artists are taking advantage of crowdfunding sites. Just last week we reported on how sixteen year old Dymond Harding used Kickstarter to raise money for the release of her first music video. In addition, Mindless Self Indulgence, an Indie rock group has turned to crowdfunding for their latest album and currently have 4,768 ‘backers’ who have donated a total of $163,153.
However, it is foreseeable in the future that larger artists will turn to sites like Zoshpit to engage their fans. After seeing how Amanda Palmer raised $1,192,793 pledged by 24,883 people in 30 days on Kickstarter, many artists are beginning to recognize the benefits of crowdfunding ranging from maintaining your music rights to free press and social media marketing.
Is this just a fad? Or is the industry currently undergoing a transformation. Only time will tell.
This article was written by Salvador Briggman.
