About |
ArtistShare is a fan-funding website and record label for musicians and other creative artists which allows them to fund their projects utilizing a "fan-funding" model to allow the general public to directly finance, watch the creative process of the recording, and in most cases gain access to extra material from an artist. According to Bloomberg News, the company’s chief executive officer, Brian Camelio , founded ArtistShare in 2000 with the idea that fans would finance production costs for albums sold only on the Internet and Artists also would enjoy much more favorable contract terms.
A United States based company, ArtistShare (2000/2001) is documented as being the first crowdfunding/fan-funded website for music followed later by sites such as Sellaband (2006), SliceThePie (2007), IndieGoGo (2008), Spot.Us (2008), Pledge Music (2009), and Kickstarter (2009).
In 2005, American composer Maria Schneider's Concert in the Garden became the first album in Grammy history to win an award without being available in retail stores.[1] The album was ArtistShare's first fan-funded project. Schneider received four nominations that year for the fan-funded album and won the Grammy for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album.
Schneider is quoted as saying "At the time we set out to make this record [Concert in the Garden], no company in the industry was doing anything like ArtistShare. ArtistShare, led by Brian Camelio, has done more to change this industry to benefit artists than anyone else up until this time."