artistShare

March 5th, 2009 in Music, by Head Honcho

http://www.artistshare.com

Maria Schneider won a Grammy award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album in 2004 for her album Concert in a Garden. But there is one thing unique about this triumph – her album was distributed exclusively over the Internet. This success was only made possible through artistShare.

Normally, an artist would have to have their projects funded in the recording industry and go through labels, distributors and retailers. This somehow results in issues with property rights and problems with the artist’s share of the success of their albums. Brian Camelio, the founder of artistShare, created an alternative for this through crowdsourcing.

artistShare is a new paradigm, a platform for artists to “take control of their creative output and can, through the participation of their friends and fans, realize their artistic visions with art and inspiration the only motives.” This was launched in 2000 and may be one of those crowdsourced sites even before the term “crowdsourcing” was coined.

To simply put it, artistShare allows fans of artists to show appreciation by funding their recording projects and, in return, get involved in the creative process and some other benefits as a fan. For example, Maria Schneider’s fans made payments that ranged from $9.95 to $18,000 and in exchange got benefits ranging from a download of the album to “an executive producer credit on the album; an invitation to a recording session; a case of signed bottles of Maria Schneider Riesling; special access to some concerts; a bird-watching session with Schneider in New York’s Central Park; and some other goodies.”

The artists, through artistShare, get 85% of the sales for downloaded products. The company takes the rest. This is, of course, a much more favorable contract term and with the success of the site, you can conclude that it works.

One main point that moves artistShare is the fact that fans are able to see or peek into the creative process of the artists that they like – the ideas while being formed, how the song was made, up until the final recording of the album. This is a good model that is used by artistShare and creates a different experience for the fans.

The site is on the roll with its successes which includes another Grammy Award in 2008 for Best Instrumental Composition by Maria Schneider for “Cerulean Skies”. All these successes could be summed up in the CEO’s words – “As long as there are artists and fans to appreciate that artist’s work, there will be artistShare.”