The rise of fanvestors: A study of a crowdfunding community

Authors

  • Patryk Galuszka University of Lodz
  • Victor Bystrov University of Lodz

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v19i5.4117

Keywords:

crowdfunding, crowd-funding, creative industries, music industry, record label, fandom, fans, online communities

Abstract

Crowdfunding is an online collective action initiated by people or institutions to gather funds from a large number of contributors, usually using mediation of crowdfunding platforms to facilitate contact and flow of resources between parties. The success of Kickstarter and similar services shows that crowdfunding has great potential. This paper presents an empirical study of the crowdfunding phenomenon. It analyzes the motivation of individuals involved in supporting recording artists with voluntary payments in exchange for equity stakes. Specifically, the paper focuses on the motives driving individuals who use MegaTotal (http://www.megatotal.pl), a Polish crowdfunding platform, to contribute financial resources to selected musical projects. The analysis leads to the conclusion that individuals involved in crowdfunding are partly driven by motivation that has not been typical of fans in the history of popular music.

Author Biographies

Patryk Galuszka, University of Lodz

Assistant professor at the Institute of Economics at the University of Lodz, Poland

Victor Bystrov, University of Lodz

Assistant professor at the Institute of Economics at the University of Lodz, Poland

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Published

2014-04-25

How to Cite

Galuszka, P., & Bystrov, V. (2014). The rise of fanvestors: A study of a crowdfunding community. First Monday, 19(5). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v19i5.4117

Issue

Section

Articles