What Others Are Saying...
We’ve studied over 300 music Kickstarters and tested our Music Crowdfunding System on real artists. You'll raise 2x the money in half the time (even if you don't have fans).
This book applies the Pareto Principle to help you focus on the 20% of actions that will get you 80% of the results, allowing you to build your project effectively while maintaining your day job, recording schedule, and gigs.
You can do your own research and fumble through it on your own, but it will cost you time you don’t have, and you’ll raise less money.
Get started today and master this repeatable process to raise 10x more money than releasing your next record the traditional way.
WARNING: This system does not contain cheap or spammy tactics for “getting exposure” to your project. What you will learn are the proven ways to build and then roll out your campaign in an authentic way that will make people appreciate you and your amazing story. (So they pledge immediately.)
An Interview With The Author...
Interview conducted by: Salvador Briggman, Crowdfunding Expert.
When I was young, I thought the life of a “starving artist” sounded cool and in some way, meaningful.
Whether it’s musicians, painters, or writers, we’re taught to romanticize art and all of the sacrifices that artists give up to produce their work.
As I grew older, I came to realize that the “starving artist” norm isn’t an ideal. It’s not healthy, and it’s not a life that leads to happiness.
Vincent van Gogh lived a horrible life and he wasn’t really recognized until well after his death. The same goes for great writers like Edgar Allen Poe.
Wouldn’t it be great to gain recognition now?
What if you could actually make money doing what you love?
That’s the topic of today’s conversation and why I brought Ian Anderson of the Launch and Release blog onto the podcast.
Ian and I go way back. We both entered the crowdfunding industry at the same time (2012). I admire the effort and quality that he puts into his work.
In this interview, he shared the crowdfunding advice that has helped hundreds of campaigns raise more than $1.6 million online. He’ll teach you how to grab attention, get more backers and transform your career.
⬇⬇⬇⬇ You can listen to it below. ⬇⬇⬇⬇
Ian Anderson is the founder of Launch and Release and the author of the Artist's Guide to Crowdfunding Domination. His advice and experience as a musician has helped hundreds of campaigns raise more than $1.6 million online
Crush Your Kickstarter Campaign
When we came up with the idea of analyzing 100 music Kickstarters, there was no turning back and there was no half-assing it. It was in our DNA not only to follow through with interviewing, analyzing, then writing about each of the 100 campaigns, but we also tracked and compiled all of the data for later analysis. We contacted or analyzed around 160 campaign creators but only wrote about the ones that provided the most useful and actionable lessons.
CHAPTER 1 - Pg. 11
CRUSH IT
Over the past few years, we have not only applied what we’ve learned to hundreds of music campaigns, we’ve also applied our concepts to genres beyond music and we have seen the same results in other creative genres like film, design and publishing.
The methods presented in this book are applicable to any creative genre because they address the core issues inherent to in psychology of and the mechanisms underlying crowdfunding.
CHAPTER 2 - Pg. 19
Crowdfunding Statistics Point The Way
It is possible for each of these things to make a difference. But assuming this is your biggest mission is a huge mistake. “Exposure” through social, digital or traditional media is NOT the primary means of gaining backers for most campaigns, and you can tell just by looking at the facts of the crowdfunding landscape. The problem is that most standard crowdfunding advice you’ll see misinterprets or confuses the issue of where backers come from.
CHAPTER 3 - Pg. 29
The Mindset of a Successful Campaign
In order to ensure you get the most out of this system, we must discuss these blocks up front and do our best to remove fear and doubt before moving forward. A positive mindset will help you to understand the principles and practices much more readily than a doubting mind. One huge hurdle that you must overcome prior to launching your crowdfunding campaign is to convince yourself that it’s okay to ask other people for their money.
CHAPTER 4 - Pg. 50
Step 1: Find Your True Purpose
People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it.
This statement couldn't be any truer for a crowdfunding campaign. As a matter of fact, the entire premise of crowdfunding revolves around this idea! Surprisingly, many campaign creators do not understand this. They think the campaign revolves around their music, their film, their food product or their amazing idea for a smart lightbulb that teaches math to kindergartners while they sleep! But most campaign creators miss the fact that...
CHAPTER 5 - Pg. 60
Step 2: Know Your Backers
You don't want to end up having 24 people pledge $2,581 when your goal was $5,000 or 121 people pledge $5,216 when your goal was $20,000. Not only is this a public embarrassment, it's a big hit to your ego. After all, this can make you feel like you don't have much worth to your fans and that nobody really cares. This is the stuff your worst dreams are made of, and it's totally avoidable. These six categories of your Circle of Influence will prevent this and each require a different channel of communication and a different style of communication....
CHAPTER 6 - Pg. 65
Step 3: Fail-Proof Goal
In this step you’ll use your Circle of Influence inventory numbers to derive a Funding Estimate. This estimate is a simple approximation of the monetary worth of your human connections and will give you a safe, conservative number to build your successful campaign on. This is the “safe” part of building your campaign. By assuring that your minimum viable project costs less than your funding estimate, you are alleviating a substantial amount of risk and uncertainty. In essence, you are assuring yourself of a successful campaign and an opportunity to actually do your project and ship it to the public!
CHAPTER 7 - Pg. 80
Step 4: Magnetic Rewards
We have literally watched thousands of these campaigns and closely observed or participated in hundreds and the evidence supports this notion. Crowdfunding backers as a wholeare willing to pay a premium pricefor rewards packages above and beyond the real-world value. It turns out that 80/20 relates pretty well to how crowdfunding campaigns are funded! In the crowdfunding dataset that I’ve amassed over time, you can see 80/20 occur. This graph shows the cumulative percentage of people who have pledged compared to the cumulative percentage of funds raised....
CHAPTER 8 - Pg. 93
Step 5: Pitch Perfect Video & Campaign Description
What most people in this position end up with is a video that is just barely “good enough” because they think, “Hey, it’s done, isn’t it? That’s better than NOT having a video.” This is a BAD scenario to be in because, other than actually talking to everybody in person, your video is your number-one tool for communicating to your potential backers. Fortunately, there is a way to prepare, structure, and organize your video approach to minimize procrastination, anxiety, and over thinking. By using a three-part pitch video framework, you’ll squeeze every ounce of potential out of your video in a fraction of the time and with almost no stress.
CHAPTER 9 - Pg. 103
Step 6: The Perfect Storm
There are three main sections in understanding and building your campaign’s marketing plan:
- The Elements in Play — the four marketing pillars of crowdfunding and the psychology that will increase their leverage.
- The Rockstar Tactics — Facebook techniques, email list techniques and one-on-one scripts for phone, email and in-person communication.
- The Schedule of Action — a check list of what to do and when to do it. You'll get all that in this section!
CHAPTER 10 - Pg. 122
What to Expect During Your Campaign
But before you hit launch, make sure you know what’s going to happen between now and the end of your campaign. If you don’t handle these things correctly, you are setting yourself up for a struggle through your entire campaign. Launch Checklist: Your campaign is ready to go and you have reviewed what to expect during the forthcoming campaign. You’re almost ready to hit start button! Now, let’s review the steps for the early part of your campaign...
CHAPTER 11 - Pg. 128
Frequently Asked Questions
Most people considering a crowdfunding campaign assume that they need to get in front of “more people” to expand their Circle of Influence and maximize the amount of money they can raise. Many people conclude that they should wait to crowdfund while they procure fans so that they can raise more money. But not only is this a potentially endless loop, there is an opportunity cost to waiting. Here are the most common questions asked by campaign creators or people seriously considering running a crowdfunding campaign....
CHAPTER 12 - Pg. 148
Getting Stuck: Common Problems
Getting stuck while creating your campaign can happen to anyone. The most common reasons often have to do with events in the campaign creator’s personal life that turn into distractions or justifications for procrastination: work, breakups, busy schedules, lack of money, etc. Following the six-step framework will help you avoid many problems that could arise while preparing your campaign. So let’s move on to some other common problems that you may run into. Here are the two most common mindset problems to watch out for....
What Students Are Saying...
Learn From Industry Veterans
More Than Music
Together, Levi and I have experienced the frustration and tail-chasing of being a new band starting from scratch. But between these experiences and our in-depth study of music crowdfunding, we’ve been able to help people skip the guesswork and go straight to raising money and launching their careers.
Over the past few years, we have not only applied what we’ve learned to hundreds of music campaigns, we’ve also applied our concepts to genres beyond music and we have seen the same results in other creative genres like film, design and publishing. The methods presented in this book are applicable to any creative genre because they address the core issues inherent to in psychology of and the mechanisms underlying crowdfunding.
Progress: a Pre-order Pays for Levi's Fourth Record
The Clintons’ (Levi's band) fourth record paid for itself before it was released by using a pre- order strategy. On top of that, the band was making really good money playing throughout Montana and popularity was growing.
Levi knew he was onto something and, if he could fine-tune this process, the Clintons could make records indefinitely without spending their own money! Every artist’s dream, right?
Crowdfunding Helps the Band Capitalize on Their Following
In 2011, after the band had slowed down quite a bit, Levi decided to use Kickstarter to fund their seventh record. At this point he was about as experienced as it gets for a DIY band manager, but the thought of launching the campaign still terrified him. He was paranoid that fans might not care because the band hadn’t been very active with shows or sending emails.
Reluctantly and hoping it wasn’t too big of a risk, he set the initial goal at $5,000. In hindsight, this low goal amount sounds pretty absurd for a band that had been around over a decade, had 6,000+ Facebook fans, over 3,000 people on their email list, and had done two pre-orders that each did well over $10,000.
The campaign raised $5,000 by the end of the first day and went on to raise just over $21,000!
Bundling and Touring Leads to Profitable Fifth Record
In 2008, the Clintons (Levi's band) released our fifth record using a bundling approach that Levi had seen some larger artists use. The pre-order consisted of four bundles ranging from $15 for CD and download to $120 for the premium bundle. This resulted in around $16,000 of online sales and $17,000 of live show merchandise sales. In total, the band grossed almost a quarter of a million dollars that year between merchandise and booking fees. This was an absolute miracle to Levi. Many label artists can’t count on that type of income, yet he had somehow figured out how to do it without leaving the state or playing more than 65 shows.
