Crowdfunding in the Cultural Industries

Abstract

Cultural production has stood at the forefront of crowdfunding adoption representing some of the first crowdfunding campaigns on record. This development emerged as part of comprehensive value chain reconfigurations in the cultural sector, which were triggered by the advent of digitalization on the one hand and the downsizing in public funds on the other. As a result, the emerging phenomenon here labelled as ‘cultural crowdfunding’ (CCF) has captured the imagination of researchers and practitioners. The study of CCF is of high relevance, as it presses creators to strike a balance between the commercial and the non-commercial, the economic and the cultural outcomes, as well as the authentic and independent versus the mass dictated and dependent. In this chapter we review earlier research on CCF and identify core themes and key studies representing such themes. Later, we outline an agenda for future research, while also suggesting some implications for practice.

Addressing Deficits With Crowdfunded Journalism

“…In the last decade, crowdfunding became increasingly popular as a way of funding projects in the cultural and creative industries, such as movie and music production (Bennett et al, 2015;Shneor & Munim, 2019). A recent survey of cultural crowdfunding identified journalism as a theme unto itself, alongside four other thematic clusters, demonstrating the growing prevalence of journalism within the cultural crowdfunding sector (Rykkja et al, 2020). The agency, autonomy, and direct access to audiences provided by the crowdfunding revenue model, and the growing size of cultural sector crowdfunding generally, indicates it will likely remain a recurring strategy for independent journalism for the foreseeable future, thus warranting the subject as a line of academic inquiry.…”

Introduction - Spring 2022

“…In the last decade, crowdfunding became increasingly popular as a way of funding projects in the cultural and creative industries, such as movie and music production (Bennett et al, 2015;Shneor & Munim, 2019). A recent survey of cultural crowdfunding identified journalism as a theme unto itself, alongside four other thematic clusters, demonstrating the growing prevalence of journalism within the cultural crowdfunding sector (Rykkja et al, 2020). The agency, autonomy, and direct access to audiences provided by the crowdfunding revenue model, and the growing size of cultural sector crowdfunding generally, indicates it will likely remain a recurring strategy for independent journalism for the foreseeable future, thus warranting the subject as a line of academic inquiry.…”

Status Artis: Research in the Law and Practice of Crowdfunding

“…60 Cultural production most often relies on reward crowdfunding and, in particular, music production -hence the term culture crowdfunding. 61 Some platforms do not vet the fundraising projects, thus creating ample opportunity for anyone to seek funding from the crowd. 62 However, even though crowdfunding creates an opportunity for the individual artist, one has to be aware that the growth of cultural crowdfunding is partly due to cuts in public funding.…”

“…62 However, even though crowdfunding creates an opportunity for the individual artist, one has to be aware that the growth of cultural crowdfunding is partly due to cuts in public funding. 63 The most successful campaigns relying on the reward-based model have mass appeal and it is therefore natural that they often are creative products or consumer products. 64 For those categories, rewards crowdfunding is a way to gain working capital and an initial demand test 65 while ensuring advance cover of the production costs.…”