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Crowd-funding hits the right notes

Is this the way to save the music industry?

ArtistShare is a crowd-funded record label

Record label ArtistShare operates a crowd-funding business model. Image credit Alex Blake

In an age of declining CD sales and illegal file sharing, some musicians are turning to new ways of plying their trade.

This will be the subject of a forthcoming public talk at Cardiff University’s Boyd Lecture Theatre. Dr Justin Williams of the University of Bristol will focus on jazz musician Maria Schneider and her work with record label ArtistShare, which allows fans to fund musicians and be rewarded in return.

“ArtistShare is pretty much questioning why the industry takes such a large cut,” he explains, pointing out that bands signed to the independent label can be paid up to 80% of the revenue they make, as opposed to around 10% with a major label after cost deductions.

This and more will be discussed at the talk on 3 December at 4.30pm.

 [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9WarpOsvnE[/youtube]

A BBC News feature on Maria Schneider and ArtistShare, explaining how the record label operates

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