The Roaring Crowdfund Highlights Highs and Lows of the Music Industry

On January 11, Berklee Online, the online school of Berklee College of Music, launches The Roaring Crowdfund, a brand new five-part podcast series about four very different musical acts, following their progress through crowdfunding campaigns on Kickstarter, PledgeMusic, and Indiegogo. Listen to the trailer for The Roaring Crowdfund here.

In examining the issues these musicians face, host Pat Healy gains insight from top brass at these major platforms, as well as other popular musicians who have had crowdfunding experiences, both negative and positive. Lending expert commentary are artists like Ted Leo, Gift of Gab of Blackalicious, Meredith Graves, Brian Rosenworcel of Guster, Mark Kelly of Marillion, and Mike Doughty of Soul Coughing. Berklee Online instructors like John Kellogg, entertainment attorney and director for Berklee Online’s Master of Arts in Music Business program, also weigh in.

The four main acts profiled in The Roaring Crowdfund are Emily Keener, a singer-songwriter from Cleveland who recently made it to the top 12 on The Voice; hip-hop artist Dutch ReBelle, named 2018 Best Music Artist by Boston Magazine; Johnny Chops, an Austin-based rocker who makes a living as a sideman for country rockers the Randy Rogers Band; and Stono Echo, a Jacksonville-based hip-hop duo using vintage soul beats and gospel melodies to make something new. Each of these extremely talented acts has struggled in different ways to meet their goals, and what The Roaring Crowdfund does most successfully is champion independent musicians and their difficult plight in the current landscape of the music industry.

The first two episodes of The Roaring Crowdfund will debut on Friday, January 11, with new episodes to be released every Friday through February 1. The first episode introduces the four artists and many of the experts, and gives an overview of crowdfunding and its history. Subsequent episodes delve into the artists' campaign videos, perks and rewards, marketing efforts, campaign results, and the future of crowdfunding.

The Roaring Crowdfund’s creator and host Pat Healy is senior writer/editor for Berklee Online. He is also the host of Berklee Online’s popular podcast, Music Is My Life, and a writer and editor on the Disgraceland podcast, which iTunes and The A.V. Club named one of the best podcasts of 2018. Healy has interviewed hundreds of musicians, and written extensively about music for Pitchfork, Spin, Paste, the Boston Globe, and many other publications.