Seven nominees at the 2015 Grammys were funded primarily through Kickstarter, a crowdfunding platform, according to Billboard. This is another step up from 2014, when four albums featured during the awards program were funded by the site. The list of the albums nominated are as follows (followed by the award for which they're nominated).
Back on The Controls by Lee "Scratch" Perry (Best Reggae Album)
Dreams & Prayers by A Far Cry (Best Chamber Music/Small-Ensemble Performance)
"Hold Up Wait A Minute (Woo Woo)" by Antonique Smith (Best Traditional R&B Performance)
Just Say Hi! by Brady Rhymer & The Little Band That Could (Best Children's Album)
Shine For All The People by Mike Farris (Best Roots Gospel Album)
"All My Tomorrows" by Jeremy Fox (Best Arrangement, Instrumentals and Vocals)
The Legacy by Jo-El Sonnier (Best Regional Roots Music Album)
As you may have noticed, not too many of these nominees come from well known performers, albeit Lee "Scratch" Perry is a notable figure in the reggae scene. Still, this could be changing in years to come as acts such as TLC have started to turn to Kickstarter for album funding.
Funding also varies widely between the seven albums listed. Antonique Smith's album Speechless was easily the most popular project, bringing in just more than $50,000. That said, it also got help from the biggest single donation among all the projects here, as one generous contributor wrote a $7,500 check for the project. Most had at least one big donation but some just benefitted from a wide pool of donors. Jeremy Fox's benefactors "only" gave $44 on average, but it added up to the $7,100 he needed to get the project off the ground. And hey, with a Grammy nomination, it must have been enough.
Music is one of the most popular categories on Kickstarter, bringing in more than $34.1 million for 4,000 projects during 2014.
