Music
How do you fund a music album or EP?
Price the studio, mixing, mastering and pressing, set a goal your listeners can fill, and offer rewards only backers get. All or nothing.
Short answer
Add up what the record costs to make and deliver: studio days, mixing, mastering, artwork, pressing and postage. Turn that into a goal your listeners can fill, and offer rewards only backers get, like the album before release day, their name on the sleeve or a ticket to the launch show. Set the deadline before you have to pay the studio. If the goal is met you claim the funds; if not, every backer takes their pledge back.
Key facts
- One campaign for one record: a story, a goal, a deadline and up to five reward tiers.
- Sign up with email or Google. No label, no company, no approval queue.
- Backers get rewards, never royalties, a share of the record or any financial return.
- All or nothing: pledges wait in escrow until the deadline.
- Fans who share your link can earn up to 18.5% of each pledge they bring in, the share you set.
- Each pledge pays 1.5% plus a flat $0.99.
What does it cost to make an album?
Five lines cover most records: recording, mixing, mastering, artwork and the physical copies. Then add what the rewards cost to make and post, the line people forget.
- Recording: studio days, an engineer, and any session players you pay.
- Mixing: usually priced per song.
- Mastering: per song or for the whole record.
- Artwork: the cover, the photos and the sleeve layout.
- Pressing: CDs, vinyl or cassettes, if you want something to hold.
- Rewards and postage: mailers, shipping and the extras you promise.
Get real quotes before you set a goal. A guess on the studio is the line that breaks a budget.
How big should the goal be?
Big enough to finish and deliver the record, and no bigger. Add up the quotes, then a margin for fees and surprises.
Say the quotes for a five song EP come to this: 4 studio days at $250 is $1,000; mixing at $120 a song is $600; mastering at $50 a song is $250; artwork $300; 300 CDs $450; rewards and postage $500. That is $3,100, so a goal of about $3,500 leaves room for fees and one bad day in the studio.
Then check it against your fans: $3,500 is 140 people pledging $25 on average. If you can't say where 140 listeners will come from, record fewer songs or press fewer copies. The goal planner does this sum with you.
What rewards work for an album?
The record itself, early, plus things only a backer can have:
- The digital album a week before release day.
- A signed CD, vinyl or cassette.
- Their name in the thank you list on the sleeve.
- A handwritten lyric sheet for one song.
- A ticket to the launch show, or a listening session before it.
- A house concert for the top tier, played where the backer lives.
- Studio diary videos while you record.
A campaign takes up to five tiers. The smallest pledge is $10, so the first tier starts there; make it digital, so it costs you nothing to deliver. Rewards are all a backer gets: never royalties, never a cut of streams. The reward tier planner shows what each tier leaves you after costs.
When should you launch the campaign?
When the songs are written and people can hear one. A demo, a live video or a rough mix gives backers something to say yes to.
Put the deadline before the day you pay the studio: the funds reach you only after the deadline, and only if the goal is met. Pick a length you can push every day, with a clip, a lyric or a studio photo for each week of it.
How do you reach your listeners?
Start with the people who already come to your shows. Mention the campaign at every gig, put the link on a QR code at the merch table, and send it to your mailing list before you post it anywhere else.
Then switch on the share reward. You set it from nothing up to 18.5% of each pledge, and whoever shared the link gets that share, paid by the program in the same transaction. Fans, the bands you play with and your local venue all get a reason to post it. How to share your campaign plans the first week.
What does CoFunders charge?
Writing and previewing a campaign is free. Opening it costs $5 on the free plan, and each pledge pays 1.5% plus a flat $0.99. The share reward you set comes out of the pledge too.
The percentage fee on a pledge follows the plan of the account making it. It's taken when the pledge is made, so it isn't returned if the campaign misses its goal. Paid plans aren't on sale today, so the published fee is the free plan's fee.
Every fee is on the pricing page.
What if the goal is missed?
If the goal isn't met by the deadline, you take your pledge back from escrow with one tap, and nobody has to approve it. What comes back is the amount held for you: your pledge minus the fees taken when you backed (the platform fee, the flat fee, any tip and any share reward the campaign pays).
For a band, that means nobody pays for a record that can't be made. Come back with a smaller plan: fewer songs, a digital release first, the vinyl later.
How do you start?
Start with a draft: writing and previewing it costs nothing.
- Sign up in the app with email or Google.
- Write the story of the record, the goal, the deadline and the rewards.
- Set the share reward and publish.
- Share the link at your next show and with your mailing list.
How to set a crowdfunding goal, from the free course, goes deeper on the sums. Everything you can fund has a guide for each kind of project, and every other question is in the answers.