Tuesday 26 November 2013

The Online Festival - Crowd Funder





As with everything in life we tend to outgrow things and The Online Festival is no exception. Over a year ago I wrote..... "where's the best place to go for a varied selection of unsigned bands I hear you ask.....where can I listen to anything from heavy rock, dubstep, electro-pop and acoustic flows......well it's The Online Festival of course.  

It's a one stop promotional shop for bands and individual artists to download their tunes and interact with each other whilst using its website and the social media phenom that is Twitter to promote them."







Since then The Online Festival. led by David Hubbard has made no small amount of effort to do just that by not only running the website and promoting online, but by organising three musical events and two compilation albums of artists featured on The Online Festival website. In order to take things to the next level The Online Festival are running a crowd funding campaign to raise the funds necessary to upgrade their website and online presence for the benefit of the musicians involved. 



Here's what David has to say.....



Ralph: The Online Festival already does a lot for it's members, what's the plan for the future?


Dave: "As the website has developed it has actually appealed to not only music fans but also the large amount of new bands, musicians, DJ`s and producers who are always looking for new ways to promote their music." 





"So as a result we need to improve and adapt our website accordingly so that it can become a lot more interactive for our members. At the moment we are limited as to what we can do because of the way the website was originally built. Our aim is to totally rebuild a big part of the site and to implement some new ideas which will hopefully appeal more to the artists who would like to use our site more to show off their music."


"We aim to improve our profile pages and redesign them so they can be used not only as a profile page but a place were they can link all their social feeds and online music together. This will help create a one stop bio page which can then be used to send off to record companies, radio stations etc. We also want to offer a better uploading and downloading service for our members music and videos with better options for leaving feedback as we know this is important. To go with this we will also be implementing a Weekly/ monthly chart so the more hits or plays the songs and videos get will reflect in the artists chart status. We want to try and link up with some record labels, recording studios and music hardware stores to offer some great incentives for topping the charts."



Ralph: What changes will we be able to expect? 


Dave: "The big change to the site will be the online festival internet radio which we aim to use as another totally interactive tool where our members get to do the broadcast. Basically we will be offering time slots to our members and they can then play whatever music they like to whoever is listening online. This is a great tool to use if you would like to show off your own music or maybe introduce people to a new band or musician you have just discovered."



"So as you can imagine to make all these changes it is going to cost us a lot of money and if we don`t make these improvements and changes now then we feel we can`t continue to help and support all the new bands/musicians and music people who have joined our site."


"We're asking people to please help us to continue building what we feel could be the largest online music community and help us to create a website that continues to grow and loves to support new music and new artists."




Ralph: What are the challenges facing you with this project?

"There are a number of challenges we face in designing this website and we are always open to new ideas and suggestions from potential donators and online festival members. We have set out a game plan on how to take this website forward but we do realize that there are always certain restrictions when it comes to website design. I have a website design and software company in place to help me build the new site and this will take a few months to take shape. Hopefully I can keep you all in the picture with screenshots and progress updates." 

"The big challenge if we do reach our funding target is to reach out and gain more members but I am confident that with a better looking and more interactive website this concept will appeal to a lot more people."


"So were looking to raise £15,000."


20131104120433-strobe_crowd
"This is the amount of money we need to get the website rebuilt professionally and make it look ,feel and work a lot better for our members. We have factored in for some fantastic rewards for your donations inc digital downloads, online festival merchandise inc special edition t-shirts and a very special compilation album on vinyl with songs donated from our members."



"If we don`t reach our target then people who pledge wont lose their money."


So the message is - If you love Indie music, whether as a fan or as a musician please give what you can to help this amazing project flourish in the years to come.  You can access the pledges from the links below...



£30GBP
Raised of £15,000 Goal
25 days left
Flexible Funding
This campaign will receive all funds raised even if it does not reach its goal. Funding duration: November 09, 2013 - December 21, 2013 (11:59pm PT).

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