This article discusses five new roles that fans can play: sponsors, co-creators of value, stakeholders, investors, and filters. These roles are elements of new types of relationship between fans and artists, which are manifestations of the emergence of what can be called a "new economy of fandom." The new economy of fandom is understood here as a condition in which empowered fan communities use the democratizing potential of new social media to communicate and cooperate with artists, without the mediation of the traditional recording industry. The emergence of the new economy of fandom may lead to a redefinition of what it means to be a fan. It also requires finding new theoretical frameworks that will help analyze new types of relationships between artists and fans. The article argues that concepts of value co-creation, and "prosumption" may help explain the ongoing changes.

This article analyzes the application of crowdfunding to finance the production of music recordings. The analysis is based partially on a case study of a crowdfunding platform located in Poland (MegaTotal). The case study illustrates how pooling contributions of crowdfunders and redistributing risk makes it possible to release records that would not be released by a traditional recording company. The analysis of quantitative data shows that one of the most important factors for success in the process of capital accumulation via crowdfunding is the involvement of a significant number of backers who make repeated contributions to a project. Additional factors that may help a project succeed are also discussed, such as engagement in communication with potential backers and offering bonuses to contributors. In this way, crowdfunding helps overcome one of the structural problems of the traditional recording industry.

This article uses empirical research conducted on MegaTotal, a crowdfunding platform operating in Poland, in order to demonstrate the complexity of the relations between project initiators and contributors in equity/royalty-based crowdfunding. The presented research shows how differences among crowdfunding models have an impact on relations between project initiators and contributors as well as the collection process for funding by comparing MegaTotal and Kickstarter. The article proposes an analysis of these relations depending on crowdfunding type, the size and structure of the pre-existing fanbase, and the project initiator's opinion on the role played by contributors. Our research shows that elements both suggesting that crowdfunding empowers fans and that it can be used as a means of exploiting them may be found in the analysed model of crowdfunding.

The article analyzes the phenomenon of crowdfunding from the perspective of its democratizing influence on the music market. Crowdfunding enables artists to finance the release of their records, which theoretically allows them to enter the music market without the intermediation of traditional record labels. By using empirical data, the article shows that the democratizing influence of crowdfunding is limited. This results partially from the difficulties of dealing with promotional activities traditionally conducted by record labels. In other words, neither crowdfunding platforms nor contributors have the power, connections, or know-how of traditional record labels.

Crowdfunding is an online collective action initiated by people or institutions to gather funds from a large number of contributors, usually using mediation of crowdfunding platforms to facilitate contact and flow of resources between parties. The success of Kickstarter and similar services shows that crowdfunding has great potential. This paper presents an empirical study of the crowdfunding phenomenon. It analyzes the motivation of individuals involved in supporting recording artists with voluntary payments in exchange for equity stakes. Specifically, the paper focuses on the motives driving individuals who use MegaTotal (http://www.megatotal.pl), a Polish crowdfunding platform, to contribute financial resources to selected musical projects. The analysis leads to the conclusion that individuals involved in crowdfunding are partly driven by motivation that has not been typical of fans in the history of popular music.