Crowdfunding in the Culture Sector: Adoption, Effects and Implications

The culture sector experiences a number of challenges such as cuts in public funding in many countries and increased competition for donors and sponsors. Crowdfunding - obtaining funding from large audiences, in which each backer provides a relatively small amount - has therefore become a promising new business model for realizing a broad range of cultural productions. Despite its growing popularity, research dedicated to crowdfunding in the culture sector remains limited. To address this gap, the current project seeks to explore three important themes largely absent from the existing literature. First, we explore what influences the artists’ adoption of crowdfunding as a channel for fundraising. Second, we study how successful crowdfunding experiences influence artists’ long-term economy, reputation and aesthetic practices. Finally, we look on the implications of crowdfunding at a sector level, in particular how crowdfunding influences traditional funding mechanisms and artists’ aesthetic practices in general. The knowledge generated by the project is valuable for not only the academic community, but also other actors such as artists, crowdfunding platforms, public authorities, and public and private agencies providing financial support for artists. Moreover, crowdfunding in the culture sector can have consequences for the society at large. Will increased use of crowdfunding lead to higher cultural diversity and democratization of the culture sector? By participating in crowdfunding, citizens will take on a more active role in supporting cultural projects. They will get the opportunity to express their cultural preferences and help to realize cultural projects that otherwise would not be possible due to the lack of financial resources. Crowdfunding will also allow artists to engage more closely with their public. The project held a launch event in May 2021 at a digital conference "Crowdfunding for the cultural and creative industries in Norway" where several artists and other stakeholders from the cultural sector were present. The project also organized several international seminars with artists and crowdfunding experts. In 2022, a seminar was organized in Belo Horizonte (Brazil), while in 2023 two seminars in Bangladesh (in Chittagong and Dhaka) were organized. The project carried out several rounds of data collection, including an online survey with performing artists in several countries (Norway, the UK and Brazil) to assess their attitudes and intentions to use crowdfunding. A scientific article based on the finding from the Norwegian survey is under review in the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The project partners are now working on analyzing and comparing the results from the survey to identify any differences in attitudes towards crowdfunding in different countries. Preliminary results were presented at several international conferences. In addition, we conducted an analysis of crowdfunding campaigns published by Norwegian artists on Bidra and Kickstarter platforms. This resulted in a scientific article in the International Journal of Cultural Policy. Interviews were also conducted with several Norwegian and Brazilian artists who have experience with crowdfunding. The purpose of the interviews was to explore what role crowdfunding plays in the development of artistic projects. A scientific article based on the finding from this study is under review in the Journal of Cultural Economics. The project partners are now working on planning of follow-up studies, i.e. several interviews with artists and other stakeholders from the cultural sector to gain a deeper insight into the effects of crowdfunding on artists’ finances, reputation and the way they express themselves.

The culture sector experiences a number of challenges such as cuts in public funding and increased competition for donors and sponsors. At the same time, increasing digitalisation and emergence of alternative pathways circumventing traditional intermediaries brings new opportunities for self-production and self-release of artistic content. Crowdfunding - obtaining funding from large audiences, in which each backer provides a relatively small amount, instead of raising large sums from a small number of large investors and backers - represents a promising development in this regard by suggesting a new model for realizing a broad spectre of cultural productions. Despite its growing popularity, research dedicated to the role and impact of crowdfunding on stakeholders in the culture sector remains limited. This is surprising as crowdfunding may have critical influence on the balance between the commercial and non-commercial, the popular and the alternative artistic expression, aesthetic practices both online and offline, as well as the very structure of cultural funding. To address this gap, the current project seeks to explore three important themes currently either completely or largely absent from the existing literature. Instead of focusing on the success factors of crowdfunding campaigns mainly addressed in the previous literature, we shift the attention to fundamental questions about processes before and after crowdfunding practice. To do so, we focus on the following: identification of the factors influencing adoption of crowdfunding by artists (pre-campaign), the short- and long-term impacts of successful crowdfunding experience (post-campaign), and their implications at a sector level for aesthetic practices and traditional funders of cultural productions. This novel research agenda will be studied in Norway and can serve as a basis for replication studies in other national contexts with different traditions and institutional environments in the culture sector.