ForMyBand goes online
Raise funds for your band!Since May 2008 it is possible to invest in a band's future success. The artists get the chance for a professional album production and worldwide marketing. Each investing supporter gets a share of the artist`s next album profits. Robert Kunze, chief developer at ForMyBand, explains how it works.
Please explain us how investing in a band works.
On Formyband.com, each website visitor can invest in musicians, such as bands, DJs or solo artists. If you think an artist has the potential to hit it big one day, you can deposit any amount of your choice to support this artist. In return, you will participate in the artist’s later album sales. After a number of supporters have invested a certain amount of money, it will be used to produce the band’s next album.
If you want to participate as an artist, read on here.
The money will be invested in the next album of a band. What happens exactly with the invested money?
If enough money has gathered by the investments of a lot of supporters, we will finance the production and professional marketing of the band’s next album. The album will be sold and the album revenues go back directly to the supporters and the band itself. Thus many profit and not only few.
Can I also invest with small coins?
You can invest in musicians starting with 1 euro. We want to enable as many people as possible to support hopeful artists. Of course, bigger amounts are welcome as well. The more money one has invested in a band, the greater the later participation in the artist’s income will be.
How large is the return on invest?
The more albums a band sells, the more money will flow back to the supporters. Should the band be very successful, one can get a multiple of his/her investment paid back. In addition, we give supporters various tools to promote artist´s music and to boost the sales.
If I invest in a band, can I also download their music?
Of course, you can. Every supporter can download the later album, even if he has invested only 1 euro. That way, we intend to win even more supporters to promote the artist’s success.
We have heard about musicians sometimes spending their money for other things than album productions. How do you make sure the investments are not spent on parties?
The artists do not receive the money in person. Instead we pay all their bills making sure the invested money is used only for studio production or marketing. The supporters’money is used very specifically and is always kept safe.
Isn’t it a risk to invest in a band not knowing whether they will really succeed once?
We aimed to reduce the risk for every supporter. You can withdraw from your investment any time or you can simply move it to another artist which seems to be more promising. So you can easily try out investing. Only if the band has reached their investment goal, a withdrawal is not possible any more. But why should you withdraw, when the band is starting to produce their new album?
How did you come up with this idea?
The idea emerged out of a practical problem. Some founders of ForMyBand were musicians and were looking for possibilities to get the studio costs of their next album financed. So the idea of a web page helping musicians to get successful by sharing the profits emerged.
Don’t you bypass the mechanisms of the established music industry?
We believe it corresponds to the zeitgeist giving musicians more autonomy and bringing together fans and musicians. The internet offers fantastic possibilities for this. Just imagine how it might be, when a musician is be promoted by thousands of supporters working together on the artist´s success because all of them profit together! We are sure this will produce a big momentum and we are looking forward to a moment, where fans and musicians build up the future of music together.
