Crowdfunding from the perspective of music fans — participation or exploitation?

Abstrakt

Crowdfunding as a new form of financing culture is a relatively new phenomenon, but it is becoming more and more popular. The spectacular financial success of projects such as Veronica Mars, however, opens a discussion about the situation of the investing audience — the fans. The crowdfunding model is based on the active participation of fans not only at the level of funding, but also at the level of decision-making this refers to the discussion of the cast, storyline, track list, etc.. As such, crowdfunding should lead to the dissolution of the boundaries between artists and their fans, but there are still certain doubts about who is the real beneficiary of big budget projects, and therefore it is unclear whether fans are becoming the objects of manipulation and exploitation.The paper aims to outline a framework for the discussion on the crowdfunding model and to show the ambiguity of the new situation of fans within this model.