Not too long ago, if you wanted to do something like make a single, album or EP it was basically down to the artist, family and friends to pay for it.
Now these days we can just fundraise for whatever we want to make our dreams and ambitions come true.
Fundraising is a slippery slope because it can give you everything you want to get ahead in life but there is drawbacks to it all and some of them ain’t pretty.
Seeking funds can make or break your reputation, If you make what you declare you’ll make with X amount of dollars then people will have absolute faith in your career and perhaps spread that faith to others who are trying to get their projects off the ground.
People who donate may feel they are now friends with you and also in a way they are your shareholders and if you don’t do what is promised things will crash faster than a novice behind the wheel of a Formula One car.
Some donors may think that giving you a heap of money entitles them to friendship and high praise and if you don’t give them both and you thought to be ‘screwing them over’ they can screw you over too.
It has happened, just the other day we were witness to the breakup of a partnership between artist and fan and it could be very damaging to the artist in the future because this person was very active in promoting the artist (solicited and unsolicited help).
So artists have to be careful all the time, be careful in what they say and be careful in what they do and keep things as professional as possible.
It is not a one way street because there are risks for donors who give their money.
Donors must be aware that there is time to time there are people who take money and they run, in the gaming industry there is a thing called Early Access where people can develop a game and people pay for the game’s development and some people either abandon the project or rush release it so it is considered a fulfilment of commitment yet the gamers are left with a piece of junk and there is nothing they can do about it.
So choose wisely artists and fans, artists should always make sure they don’t promise people the world for their donation and make sure that nobody thinks a donation is the price of friendship and donors have to make sure they know exactly what they are paying for.