A new study by the University of Pennsylvania claims that crowdfunding platform Kickstarter has helped get 8,800 companies off the ground and given full-time jobs to 29,600 people as well as part-time jobs to 283,000 more since it launched in 2009.
It adds that over 60,000 different projects have been successfully funded in the past seven years and, collectively, this has generated $5.3bn for creators/communities. Billboard offers a breakdown of what it has meant for the music community. “For musicians using Kickstarter, only 5 percent said that their projects helped ‘a lot’ in securing a record deal, with 8 percent for publishing deals and 5 percent regarding distribution deals. That said, over 53 percent of respondents reported that their campaign helped ‘a lot’ in owning the rights to their work, and 14.5 percent said it helped when going on tour.” Of course, getting a Kickstarter project off the ground is not the same as creating a long-term sustainable business, so it would be more interesting to look at this in terms of longevity and years of successful trading. Another lens to look through it would be the profitability of companies and what that means in terms of ROI on the original sums raised. That might tell a very different story.
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