The Revolution in Consumer Finance and Private Capital Markets.
This history includes rewards, donation, debt, and equity platforms in the USA.
By David M. Freedman and Matthew R. Nutting
Crowdfunding is a method of collecting many small contributions, by means of an online funding platform, to finance or capitalize a popular enterprise. Crowdfunding gained traction in the United States when Brian Camelio, a Boston musician and computer programmer, launched ArtistShare in 2003. It started as a website where musicians could seek donations from their fans to produce digital recordings, and has evolved into a fundraising platform for film/video and photography projects as well as music.
ArtistShare’s first crowdfunding project was Maria Schneider’s jazz album “Concert in a Garden.” Schneider offered a tiered system of rewards. For a $9.95 contribution, for example, a backer got to be among the first customers to download the album upon its release in 2004. Fans who contributed $250 or more (in addition to receiving an album download) were listed, in the booklet that accompanied the album, as participants who “helped to make this recording possible.” One fan who contributed $10,000 was listed as executive producer.
Schneider’s ArtistShare campaign raised about $130,000, enabling her to compose the music, pay her musicians, rent a large recording studio, and produce and market the album (it was sold exclusively through the ArtistShare website), which won a 2005 Grammy Award for best large jazz ensemble album. (Continued)
Read the complete history of crowdfunding
Freedman and Nutting are the authors of Equity Crowdfunding for Investors (John Wiley & Sons, NY, 2015)
© 2020 David M. Freedman Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
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