Crowdfunding Listed as Pivotal Moment for Music in 2012

Coming from the pages of ReadWrite Play and sharing the headline with “Death of SOPA” and “Bit Torrent Goes Legit” – Crowdfunding for Music makes the list of Pivotal Moments in Music for 2012.  Declaring the moment when Amanda Palmer rocketed to success on Kickstarter as the turning point for musicians desperate for funds to produce their music;

2012 was the year that independent musicians, desperate for a new business model, started taking the crowdfunding craze seriously. In an age when revenue is harder and harder to come by for musicians, many turned to fans to help fund the recording of their album, production of music videos and other projects.

There were plenty of successful campaigns, but none got more attention than that of Amanda Palmer. The singer took to Kickstarter to fund the release of her album and ended up blowing past the $100,000 goal to rake in more than $1.1 million. Suddenly, crowdfunding looked like a viable model for musicians. 

Amanda Palmer had a campaign goal of a paltry $100,000.00.  Yet she raised over $1,000,000.00.  Wow.  ReadWrite was savy enough to note that “About half of all music-related Kickstarter projects fail to reach their goal.”