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Artists stand to score through crowd funding

document Crowdfunding

Artists stand to score through crowd funding
By STEVEN CHUA

Gone are the days when selling Girl Guide cookies was the favoured way to raise cash for a cause. Why hit a single door at a time when you can

reach millions on the Internet?

That’s the principle of crowd funding, which describes a group of people giving money for swag or perks to support a cause, usually through an Internet donation site. The idea has been successful in some cases. Local entrepreneur Brian Vidovic collected over $60,000 from money pledging site indiegogo.com. But Sokap.com founder David Geertz said it’s usually a flop for artists and entertainers. “For new artists, I think (for the) majority of them it’s not working,’’ said the 43-year-old White Rock resident. Local filmmaker Jason Johnson agreed. “I don’t think I’ll do it again,’’ said Johnson, who used money pledging site indiegogo.com to help finance his movie April, an independent film currently in production. He raised over $1,000, but fell short of his target of $5,000. Johnson called the results “not bad’’ but said he didn’t get “as much as we wanted but…enough to get us up and going.’’ Most donors in his case were friends and family, so reaching out to the millions on the web wasn’t necessary. Geertz says this is a painfully common occurrence for new artists. His solution would be to turn crowd funding donors into investors and give them distribution rights instead of prizes. Sokap.com aims to sell territories for amounts that artists can determine.

For example, a person can shell out $100 for the Richmond area. Anytime a song is downloaded from that area, Sokap will give that person a cut of the item’s selling price. The bottom line? People are now invested in the new artist’s work, and will start to promote it because they get a cut. “The (artist) wins, they get an audience they never had…while (the buyer) has figured out an easy way to fundraise without selling chocolate bars,’’ Geertz said. “They could instead promote new artists.” Sokap.com is officially open for business starting the first week of September.

Summary
Why hit a single door at a time when you can reach millions on the Internet?

That’s the principle of crowd funding, which describes a group of people giving money for swag or perks to support a cause, usually through an Internet donation site.

Description Local entrepreneur Brian Vidovic collected over $60,000 from money pledging site indiegogo.com. But Sokap.com founder David Geertz said it’s usually a flop for artists and entertainers.

“For new artists, I think (for the) majority of them it’s not working,’’ said the 43-year-old White Rock resident.

Tags: Crowdfunding, Crowdsource, Crowdsourced, Crowdsourcing, Sokap.com

Posted by Fiona Mares

Aug 22, 2012 10:51 am GMT Viewed 599 times

Author: STEVEN CHUA Source

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