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There’s a (relatively) new trend in the world of arts funding; sure, crowd-sourcing of ideas and funding for arts projects is an old idea, but now sites are springing up that seek to legitimise and facilitate the process. See, Unbound:
And its musically inclined brother in arms, PledgeMusic.
Both sites provide a means for artists to promote their work to ‘the internet’, in the hope that they will attract enough donations to fund a project. In the case of PledgeMusic, musicians upload songs; with Unbound, it’s a pitch plus excerpts.
Both sites allow artists to completely sidestep writing and music’s respective industries: publishing and record companies. Personally, I have my reservations about this as the future of all music and publishing – if art is published based on popularity, what happens to the musicians and writers who are making difficult, ambitious art that is perhaps a little more difficult to grasp on first impression?
However, it is an undeniably good idea, and one that will surely be adopted by the business world in due course.
I’ve looked and I can’t find a similar site aimed at entrepreneurs (if you’re aware of one let me know) – one that allows people with new business ideas to pitch for funding from interested parties – although what they’d get in return I’m not sure; assuming that people were able to donate any amount, a share in the business would be ludicrous.
Regardless of how it would work, there’s got to be one on the way. Such a site would be a great way for entrepreneurs to avoid the traditional venture capitalist route and place themselves directly in the hands of their future clients (B2C businesses at least).
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