Research Paper First Draft

Byron Mason II, Matthew Harvey

Crowdsourcing: First Draft

With the music industry so saturated, many artists have to use interesting tactics to gain funds from their fans. With the use of crowdsourcing, artists interact with their fans in the wackiest ways to get funds that they need.

There are a myriad of ways that crowdsourcing has fulfilled the necessities of many musicians. For instance, in order to gain funds for their EP covers, music videos, and other needs, musicians have gone as far as giving fans who donate haircuts, heart to heart conversations, and even giving fans some of their hair. The positive feedback and abundance of funds that musicians have received only proves how effective their methods of crowd sourcing music are. It also shows

        As said in the article Crowdsourcing and the Evolving Relationship Between Artist and Audience, the relationship between the musician and the audience is constantly changing due to technological advancements. (Linver) This is very true because with the computer and it’s paths for communication, there is absolutely no length that musicians will not go in order to get funds for their music. Sometimes it’s not always easy to get said funds, but it does help to have thousands of adoring fans that will almost do anything just to get close to the celebrities that they admire. The American rock band, the Hold Steady uses their loyal fans to their advantage when they launched a campaign so that they could fund a covers EP. According to the Guardian’s Music Blog, each member of the Hold Steady will choose a song to cover. Once completed, the exclusive EP will be sent to the Hold Steady’s fan club, the Unified Scene. In order to get more fans involved in the band’s project and gain funds, the Hold Steady has put up some “tempting” offers on the table. A fan who pledges has the chance to interact with the band in some very interesting ways. They can get a phone call from the band; get a haircut from Tad Kubler, the guitarist for the band, of even go on a jog with one of the lead singers Craig Finn. The article also states that the band is already close to getting all of the funds they need, proving how crowdsourcing music and interposing crazy interactions with fans can have such a positive effect. (Wright)

        Interacting with your fans by giving them haircuts and jogging with them is one thing, but actually making your fans apart of music and music videos is another thing. C-mon and Kypski, a popular Dutch band from Utrecht pulled off this feat. According to 10 Cool Crowd Sourcing Music Video Projects by Amy-Mae Elliot, C-mon and Kypski integrated the movements and poses of fans with their own in the music video. It’s very cool. The band members put up a website where using their webcams fans can copy poses done by the band. In the video, the one of the band members will do a pose and then the video will cut to fifty people doing the same pose. It is indeed a great way to interact with fans and gain funds at the same time. The article states that 19,618 people have collaborated with the project since the website was put up and the video is updated every hour. (Elliot) The truth is, that in order to stay relevant and successful, musicians need their fans in order to stay relevant and successful. Even Tim Westergren, the man who revolutionized music with Pandora agrees with this statement. During an interview with Founder’s Forum, Westergren said that in the near future, musicians will be a lot closer with their fans in order to complete certain tasks. (Gerber)

        Although the musicians are really the main forces pushing behind the crowdsourcing of music, the only reason they have a chance to share their music and interact with fans is due to the organizations that put their music out there. Grooveshark, an up and coming music streaming site is shedding light on an abundance of artists. (Scotti,)

 One other way crowdsourcing can affect an artist's ability to make money by changing the artists style to extremes, these extremes can decrease an artist's marketability crowdsourcing can affect an artist's ability to make money by changing the artists style to extremes, these extremes can decrease an artist's marketability depending on the crowd. Marketability is a prime factor in becoming a successful music artist. To be marketable an artist's music must be able to be applied to many mediums, in other words iTunes downloads and YouTube views are not enough. Your music must be what's popular and in the now, at least popular enough for other companies, organizations, or even artists to become interested in it. Crowd sourcing can affect these opportunities by forcing the artist to edit the appeal in their craft.

       One thing that many listeners and critics forget about the music industry is that, what we listen to is another person trying to make a living. It is very hard to see behind the lavish lifestyle of many artists but a lot of musicians are struggling to stay afloat. The main reason is that it becomes harder and harder to keep your same general fan base interested all the while trying not to sound repetitive and dry. One popular and everlasting way to escape this realm of uncertainty is through other artists.

         Features, or collaborations are when two or more separate musicians, bands, groups, producers, etc.; come together and build a piece of music. This is a strategy that has been implemented since the early 20th century when musicians such as Louie Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald would perform on stage together. The tradition has long since snowballed its way into a regularly occurring event that helps artist share the spotlight and essentially exchange fans. A prime example would be 1986's hit single, Walk This Way, a collaboration between incomparable rock band Aerosmith and legendary hip hop collective Run DMC. The song was a crossover between the sounds of 70s hard rock and 80s flourishing hip hop. This opened up many listeners to a realm of music many had never seen, it brought listeners of rock over to the new styles of hip hop, and brought hip hoppers into the vast history of rock music. This synergy of culture and exchange of fan base added fuel to the flame that was Run DMC, and successfully revamped the career of declining rock band Aerosmith. This exchange also gave rise to an early effect of crowdsourcing music, the new listeners of hip hop requested a different sound, and those new rockers wanted a new vibe. As a result, artists were forced to conform to the listeners ear, giving hip hop and rock new elements.

       The last example was a bit early. Nowadays with the internet existing -allowing for worldwide communication- crowdsourcing music has given major changes to the industry. Here's what popular music crowdsourcing site Crowd Audio had to say about crowdsourcing production: "If you’re a musician, Crowd Audio gives you access to a community of audio engineers eager to mix and master your music, giving it that professional sound". One might ponder With all these benefits, what could go wrong with crowdsourcing?" Well the simple answer is bias. Bias can get in the way of people's opinion of the music and sometimes damage the crowdsourcing process, depending on the crowd. Marketability is a prime factor in becoming a successful music artist. To be marketable an artist's music must be able to be applied to many mediums, in other words iTunes downloads and YouTube views are not enough. Your music must be what's popular and in the now, at least popular enough for other companies, organizations, or even artists to become interested in it. Crowd sourcing can affect these opportunities by forcing the artist to edit the appeal in their craft.

         One thing that many listeners and critics forget about the music industry is that, what we listen to is another person trying to make a living. It is very hard to see behind the lavish lifestyle of many artists but a lot of musicians are struggling to stay afloat. The main reason is that it becomes harder and harder to keep your same general fan base interested all the while trying not to sound repetitive and dry. One popular and everlasting way to escape this realm of uncertainty is through other artists.

         Features, or collaborations are when two or more separate musicians, bands, groups, producers, etc.; come together and build a piece of music. This is a strategy that has been implemented since the early 20th century when musicians such as Louie Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald would perform on stage together. The tradition has long since snowballed its way into a regularly occurring event that helps artist share the spotlight and essentially exchange fans. A prime example would be 1986's hit single, Walk This Way, a collaboration between incomparable rock band Aerosmith and legendary hip hop collective Run DMC. The song was a crossover between the sounds of 70s hard rock and 80s flourishing hip hop. This opened up many listeners to a realm of music many had never seen, it brought listeners of rock over to the new styles of hip hop, and brought hip hoppers into the vast history of rock music. This synergy of culture and exchange of fan base added fuel to the flame that was Run DMC, and successfully revamped the career of declining rock band Aerosmith. This exchange also gave rise to an early effect of crowdsourcing music, the new listeners of hip hop requested a different sound, and those new rockers wanted a new vibe. As a result, artists were forced to conform to the listeners ear, giving hip hop and rock new elements.

       The last example was a bit early. Nowadays with the internet existing -allowing for worldwide communication- crowdsourcing music has given major changes to the industry. Here's what popular music crowdsourcing site Crowd Audio had to say about crowdsourcing production: "If you’re a musician, Crowd Audio gives you access to a community of audio engineers eager to mix and master your music, giving it that professional sound". One might ponder With all these benefits, what could go wrong with crowdsourcing?" Well the simple answer is bias. Bias can get in the way of people's opinion of the music and sometimes damage the crowdsourcing process.