Written by People have always made art. And there have almost always been a few people able to make a living from their creativity, too – but at different times in history, the underlying business structure has looked very different.
At the moment, we’re seeing the ongoing democratisation (in theory!) of the arts brought about by the internet. Now, so the theory goes, anyone can make and share their work online, find an audience, even independently start earning an income from it. Which is, technically, true. And it’s brought a lot of performers and creators to the fore who might have missed out back when the system relied on record labels or publishing houses to develop new talent.
But the thing is, the system we now have means that you – as a creator – have to also be an expert in marketing, graphic design, finances and accountancy, distribution, contracts, and allll the admin that goes along with your work. There’s no reason that a brilliant songwriter should also happen to be brilliant at doing their own tax return – but here we are. And it’s easy to give advice like ‘invest the money to bring in expert help!’ but realistically, most creative people just don’t have the spare budget for that. Which is why everyone’s figuring it out themselves and doing their own marketing at 1am with a laptop balanced on their knee.
This is where crowdfunding can come in.
If you can make the case to your fans about what this funding will help you achieve and help them experience – whether that’s money to record a new album in a proper studio, money to employ a virtual assistant to help you stay on top of admin and online sales, money for a rights specialist to help you release the out-of-print gem everyone always asks about – then you can run a crowdfunding campaign for it. If you can make it clear the change this will create, not just for you but for your fans and audiences, then crowdfunding can be a really powerful way to free up your time to do the parts of your work that you love.