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Chris Griffy

CROWDFUNDING RADAR: Maya de Vitry, Rio Tripiano, and David Wax Museum

CROWDFUNDING RADAR: Maya de Vitry, Rio Tripiano, and David Wax Museum

Most months, all three of my featured campaigns come from Kickstarter. That's because Kickstarter is, by far, the biggest crowdfunding platform around for music. But there are others, including some unconventional ones, which deserve attention as well. This month they get it as all of my featured campaigns

CROWDFUNDING RADAR: Pete Mason and Mark Serlo; The Neighbors; and Ethan Setiawan and Fine Ground

CROWDFUNDING RADAR: Pete Mason and Mark Serlo; The Neighbors; and Ethan Setiawan and Fine Ground

Most crowdfunding campaigns offer many of the same perks. Outside of a pre-order of the album, you might get a t-shirt, koozie, sticker, handwritten lyrics or even a house concert. But offering backer perks beyond the usual can be a great lure to get your fans to pledge

CROWDFUNDING RADAR: Christa Joy and The Honeybees, Township & Range, and Ro Myra

CROWDFUNDING RADAR: Christa Joy and The Honeybees, Township & Range, and Ro Myra

I've written before about crowdfunding and vinyl as a sales driver, but this month two of my three featured artists gave me a reminder of just how important and expensive it is. In one of those cases, the artist did a breakdown of where her funding goal was

CROWDFUNDING RADAR: Three Worthy ‘World Music’ Campaigns

CROWDFUNDING RADAR: Three Worthy ‘World Music’ Campaigns

If there is any genre of music with even less concrete definition than Americana, it's ‘world music.’ At its core, world music is really just roots music that doesn't come from America, England, or Ireland. I've seen everything from traditional folk music to country

CROWDFUNDING RADAR: New Albums from Pug Johnson, Charissa Hoffman, Omar Ruiz-Lopez

CROWDFUNDING RADAR: New Albums from Pug Johnson, Charissa Hoffman, Omar Ruiz-Lopez

Over the years I've featured all kinds of crowdfunding campaigns in this space. From artists promoting their first album to those raising funds for their 20th. But I've always had a soft spot for folks running their first campaign. Crowdfunding is hard anytime and it doesn&

CROWDFUNDING RADAR: Chris Pierce, Wyatt Edmondson, The Longest Johns

CROWDFUNDING RADAR: Chris Pierce, Wyatt Edmondson, The Longest Johns

In the grand scheme of the crowdfunding landscape, music campaigns are small fry compared to tech, games, or visual arts, running from a few thousand dollars for a single up to $50,000 for a more established artist looking for higher production values. For contrast, a reboot of television series

CROWDFUNDING RADAR: Rachel Sumner and Traveling Light, Seth Kibel, and Marc Gunn

CROWDFUNDING RADAR: Rachel Sumner and Traveling Light, Seth Kibel, and Marc Gunn

The slow winter months in the crowdfunding landscape provide fewer artists for me to choose who gets featured here. I usually try to theme each month's column, picking three artists who have a similar style, type of perk, etc. that tells a story about the world of crowdfunding.