A message from our founder:
Starting at the age of 14, I went on the road every summer, performing across all 50 states as a drummer. I eventually earned a full scholarship and music degree, but after an injury, I took to teaching jazz music, becoming the youngest teacher to perform at the International Band and Orchestra Clinic in its 50+ year history. After spending over 10 years in education as a teacher and Director of Fine Arts, I saw many friends and students get signed to record deals, only to find the financial and business interests of the musician often take a back seat to label balance sheets. Moreover, the artists’ vision and uniqueness were often stripped in an effort to further mitigate risk. Overall, the experiences of these performers were somewhat grim. After significant research, I found this experience to be indicative of the types of record deals new artists sign. For those artists who pursued the independent route, they found both their lack of business acumen (or money), and the noisy abyss of YouTube, Spotify, and other online venues to be nearly impossible to overcome. I joined with two brilliant minds to to solve this problem; one with significant tech startup experience and the other with over a decade of experience working for a major label.
We founded Bandvest, a platform offering artists a viable alternative to access the cash and skill needed to scale themselves and cut through the noise without a punitive record deal!
We were proud to found Bandvest in 2019, and look forward to continue working with talent to accelerate their career.
Bandvest solves the three greatest problems artists face, (1) money, (2) the noise of online platforms, and (3) the need for a creative contemporary business strategy in the modern music marketplace. Crowdfunding has revolutionized the ability for small businesses and inventors to take a product to the market without incurring extensive debt. The only issue is, this doesn’t work as well for musicians. Musicians don’t deliver goods, but content. It feels a little cheap for a musician to beg friends and fans for money. Also, sites which allow musicians to ask fans to subscribe to their “channel” for exclusive access to content push artists outside of their core strengths: writing and playing music.
We are a seamless & brand sensitive tech solution for artists to raise startup funds, and then hire fans to promote their content– aiding artists in building a business around their music and breaking through the noise of 40k daily Spotify uploads. We have partners in every area of the music industry we connect artists with, if desired, to ensure they build a business around their art, growing revenue to maintain the career they deserve.
Bandvest does all of this while allowing fans to join the music industry alongside their favorite artists. Nobody knows how to promote a musician, better than a fan. We have built technology which enables fans to work for the artist, and earn money when the artist succeeds!
BANDVEST was founded by musicians, who understand the challenges artists face in funding and scaling their careers.
Artists + Fans. In Business Together.
