Footnote:
In: Galuszka, Patryk. 2021. “Between donation and investment: a study of a crowdfunding platform that aimed at being an independent record label.” In The Road to Independence. The Independent Record Industry in Transition, edited by Victor Sarafian, 243-262. Toulouse: Presses de l'Université Toulouse 1
Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments May 13, 2021 erstellt
Description:
For a few years crowdfunding has been successfully employed to finance independent artists. Usually artists ask for donations to finance release of an album or a tour. This paper concentrates on different use of crowdfunding: the idea that whole crowdfunding platform could operate as an independent record label. Such idea was implemented by Polish-based crowdfunding platform MegaTotal in 2007, and although the whole project was terminated in 2017, its story provides very interesting case study of the intersection of music independence and crowdfunding.In particular, the chapter uses empirical data (virtual ethnography of the platform’s forum and interviews) to discuss factors that led to failure of MegaTotal. The chapter analyzes how contributors using MegaTotal reconciled seemingly contradictory economic motivations and socio-cultural motivations in a situation where the rules of a platform enabled its users to ‘invest’ in artists’ projects. Although this mechanism made it possible to release independently over one hundred recordings, it also contributed to conflicts between the platform founders, contributors and artists, which finally led to platforms’ demise. The analysis conducted contributes to the discussion about the active roles played by media users and broadens our knowledge about crowdfunding, which, despite its increasing popularity among popular music researchers, is still an insufficiently researched issue