This is the 11th fundraising blog in a series aimed at helping musicians find the different paths towards achieving funding for their recordings. This is primarily to assist those involved in the Freedom Solutions Recording Plan or FSRP.

It takes a creative approach to fundraise money. Ask any professional fundraiser or non-profit organization. You have to have the drive, creativity and the ability to take a lot of no's before even a single yes.

There are a lot of other avenues to finding funding besides just going directly to individuals. This is key since most people will exhaust all options with the individuals they go to directly before they have achieved their full budget.

Visit the previous fundraising blogs that are posted each Wednesday for different ideas and approaches on how to obtain the capitol you need for your project.

The post production blast…..

Many of the artists that fundraise their budgets find it easiest and most manageable to break it down into four segments.

Segment one – Preproduction. All the costs to get the Freedom Solution Recording Plan under way, which includes the costs for the business plan, the fundraising set up and the beginning of preproduction.

Segment two – The Recording. This includes all the costs around the recording, from the very start to mastering.

Segment three – The Postproduction. This includes the preparation and creation of all marketing and promotional materials.

Segment four – The Duplication, Press Release, Advertising and Launch.

For the groups that have completed the first two segments, they now have a great album on hand. Often times, they have raised the money to get them to the point of finishing segment two. The masters are in hand and now the postproduction needs to happen.

The problem at this point is patience. Many make the wrong decision and do not raise or find investors, for their postproduction needs and release, in the proper way. Shortcuts are all too often at this point. Artists get excited to release quickly, they don’t release in the right way, and the chances of success are cut down exponentially.

Just as much effort needs to be applied to the postproduction segments, and the money you have set into the plan needs to be raised, to make it happen the right way.

Many people get confused at this point and do not approach fundraising or finding investors in the best way possible. The artist took the right steps with the plan before, talking about what they were going to do and how they were going to do it, as well as showing a detailed plan to find initial funds to cover the first two phases, which really are the longest and most expensive elements.

Now in the postproduction side, not only do you still have the plan, you have the product. You have the album you made, you have the proof of the budget you were able to stay at. You have shown that you are well past the 75% point of doing exactly what you set out to do.

This fact alone can be a major help in finding the final financing you require. Take the approaches you used before and add the elements of the actual recording that a potential investor or donor can hear.

Proof of concept is almost reached.

With the business plan and the recording, you can show what you have done and how you have reached the ¾ mark, doing it the right way. This will bring a higher level of confidence than earlier in fundraising because you have already executed a majority of the plan.

Some investors and donors feel safer about giving or being involved in a project that is almost done, as opposed to giving in the early almost starting phases. When you show that you are looking for the exact funds to put out the release in the right way, as well as marketing, promoting and advertising it, you show that your ducks aren’t only in a row but they are already quacking. (ok bad pun, sorry).

The money you are asking for is to put out the album that you have already completed in the best way possible with the most chance for success. Investors and donors that might have turned you down earlier may give at this point, and people that wanted to see progress first now can see that you are almost there. You still have to apply the different elements of the various fundraising approaches mentioned in previous blogs, and it is still going to be a challenge, but now you have a great deal of extra ammunition, information and an actual product to go after that final capital that will bring the whole project to fruition.
 

 

© Loren Weisman