Crowdfunding campaign inspired by Gabriel & Dresden goes live over the weekend. Help us bring Trance Utopia Sessions, Vol. 3 and Vol. 4 to life!!! We are in this together - trance family - music lover
One of the big inspirations for this recent crowdfunding campaign came from an artist and DJ that helped my DJ career early on by having me on his Groove Radio 103.1FM show - Dave Dresden of Gabriel & Dresden. https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-independent-electronic-dance-music-trance
We also got booked together a lot at the same nightclubs in Hollywood and that is how we first met on Cahuenga Blvd. at a venue dedicated to all things entertainment. We would later be booked together again at the infamous Godskitchen nightclub.
After reuniting following their 2008 split, Josh Gabriel and Dave Dresden wanted to make their first artist album together in more than a decade. The problem was economic: they couldn’t afford to stop touring and spend months in the studio, and they weren’t getting meaningful album financing from labels.
They launched a Kickstarter on November 21, 2016, asking for approximately $30,000.
The response was extraordinary:
* Goal: $30,000
* Raised: roughly $73,000–$75,000
* Backers: about 700
* They reached the goal in roughly 48 hours
* The money allowed them to take substantial time away from touring
and concentrate on the record.
So they raised well over twice their original target.
And this is the really interesting part for you:
They sold experiences, access and participation—not just music.
Their rewards included things such as:
$10-ish
* Digital album
$50-ish
* More extensive digital material / demos / stems / acapellas
$75
* Album + VIP access/meet-and-greet at a show
$5,000
* Private Gabriel & Dresden party
$10,000
* An opportunity to co-write and co-produce a track with Gabriel & Dresden, including a 50/50 publishing split and time at their studio. They also offered signed physical products, vinyl/CDs, studio material and other personal experiences.
That’s an important distinction:
They weren’t crowdfunding a product. They were crowdfunding access to Gabriel & Dresden.
That is one reason the campaign could generate much more money than simply pre-selling 700 albums.
⸻
2. The campaign actually changed the album
This is perhaps the most interesting part of the story.
The Kickstarter supporters weren’t treated as anonymous customers.
Gabriel & Dresden described having supporters involved in the process,
including people receiving progress updates and feedback
opportunities. Some backers even participated directly in the studio.
In other words:
Fan → customer
became
Fan → supporter → participant → part of the story.
That emotional distinction is huge.
The duo themselves later said that the feeling of making the album
together with their supporters became one of the reasons they wanted
to crowdfund another album.
And the album subsequently became The Only Road, released by
Anjunabeats in December 2017.
The crowdfunding therefore didn’t replace the record label.
It effectively got the album made first, and then the finished project
attracted label support.
That’s a fascinating independent-artist model.
⸻
3. The campaign created a second career cycle
The Kickstarter wasn’t the end result.
It helped create a chain:
Fan funding → studio time → album → Anjunabeats signing → releases →
touring → festivals → larger audience
The Only Road eventually generated substantial streaming and touring
exposure. Anjunabeats describes the album as reaching 17 million
streams worldwide, followed by touring that included events such as
Creamfields, Burning Man, EDC and Tomorrowland.
So crowdfunding effectively became career capital.
They weren’t simply saying:
“Give us $30,000.”
They were saying:
“Help us create something we couldn’t otherwise create.”
That is much more compelling.
⸻
4. Remedy — 2018
Then they did something particularly important:
They did it again.
In October 2018 they announced another Kickstarter for their third
album, Remedy.
This time the target was approximately $100,000, because they wanted
enough money to take around six months away from touring and dedicate
themselves to writing and producing the album.
And the second campaign actually did better financially.
They ultimately raised more than $120,000, according to a 2020
interview with the duo, with roughly 650–669 Kickstarter backers
depending on the reporting source.
The fascinating thing is that their number of backers didn’t
dramatically increase.
Their monetization per supporter did.
That tells you something very important about crowdfunding.
⸻
5. Why the second campaign worked
By 2018 they had already proven the model.
A fan could now reasonably think:
“I supported these guys last time, and they actually delivered an album.”
That’s powerful social proof.
And they had another advantage: the first campaign had created a community.
The duo told Dancing Astronaut that their first campaign was inspired
partly by Amanda Palmer’s famous philosophy of directly asking fans
for support. They also said the first Kickstarter was initially
terrifying because they didn’t know whether fans would respond.
After the first campaign succeeded, they had something they didn’t have before:
evidence that their audience would financially participate.
⸻
6. Remedy was even more explicitly collaborative
This is where the model gets really interesting.
The official description of Remedy calls it a collaborative project
involving the 650 Kickstarter backers who helped craft the project.
And the duo later explained that they loved the interaction with
supporters enough that they deliberately repeated it.
They weren’t merely raising production money.
They were creating a direct artist-to-fan ecosystem.
The result was Remedy, released on Anjunabeats on January 17, 2020.
—
This is what Dean P and I are attempting to do with our new crowdfunding campaign via the record label website and GoFundMe.
I am not sure if we are selling ourselves short with a goal of only $6,000 right now because the actual costs are much higher, but I wanted to make it attainable for our existing fanbase and tribe to contribute.
What do you think?
Should we add additional tiers and would you be interested in a private party in your backyard?
Please support the campain directly on GoFundMe here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-independent-electronic-dance-music-trance
Also, other ways to donate:
Zelle - donate directly through Zelle - use email: anahatalovepr@gmail.com
Donate with WISE here:
Donate with PayPal here: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/jimcarsondj
(PayPal: vibechangerrr@gmail.com)
Donate directly with Zelle using anahatalovepr@gmail.com
Email after your donation and let us know your email address if you don't hear from us in over 24 hours so we can send you the music!
Comments