Kolase is a crowdfunding platform for musicians, record companies, event organisers, and fans to pool resource for their projects
Indonesian crowdfunding platform Kolase on Thursday announced that it has secured a US$750,000 seed funding round from PT Global Basket Mulia Investama.
Kolase is a crowdfunding platform that focusses on projects in the local music industry. The platform enables musicians, record companies, event organisers, and even fans and communities to raise funding for various projects.
The project categories ranging from album, live shows and concerts, charity, music video, books, brand extension, and tours.
The startup will use the funding to focus on user acquisition, by increasing traffic and educating the Indonesian public on the concept of crowdfunding. It also plans to subsidise the first 1,000 campaigns on the platform.
Launched on February 1, Kolase is a product of PT. Kirai Adiwarna Nusantara (KAWAN).
The startup was founded by professionals in the music and entertainment industry.
Indonesian startup that is working in a similar field is Konsaato, which focusses on crowdfunding for live concerts.
Crowdfunding for a cause
One of the most notable trends in the Indonesian crowdfunding scene is the popularity of campaigns with social purposes, such as fundraising to build schools in rural areas or to help terminally ill patients.
In a previous interview with e27, KitaBisa CEO Alfatih Timur admitted that the startup had to pivot to focus on social campaigns as it tends to be more successful than campaigns for creative projects.
The Indonesian market also saw the shutdown of Wujudkan, a crowdfunding platform meant for creative industry projects, in March 2017.
Equity crowdfunding had only been introduced to the market in the same month, with the launch of Akseleran.
So what makes Kolase feel optimistic about the prospect of a crowdfunding platform for music industry players?
Kolase Marketing Communications Manager Ryan Maulana Rizky dubbed the rise of KitaBisa and the fall of Wujudkan as valuable lessons for the company; in fact, the startup introduced “charity” as one of the highlighted project categories in their platform to answer users’ demand for socially driven projects.
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Generally, Kolase feels optimistic about their prospect as crowdfunding is already a familiar concept in the Indonesian music industry.
Rizky gave the examples of local bands such as Mocca and BIP who crowdfunded their international tour and studio album, or fans of pop singers such as Raisa who crowdfunded her concert in Surabaya.
“These examples had convinced us that there is a strong demand for a crowdfunding platform from Indonesian musicians and industry players,” he told e27 in an email.
Kolase also aims to fix the existing system in the music industry.
“… Musicians invested a considerable amount of money in producing an album before they get to sell it. But how would they know how much money they are going to make from the album sales, or if the album will be well-received at all? There is also the issue of piracy. It has led us to question, “Are we supposed to go on like this?’” Rizky explained.
Rizky likened crowdfunding to buying food in a noodle shop, where food will only be cooked and served to customers once they have paid for it.
“This way, we can handle many problems that the Indonesian music industry is facing nowadays, from piracy, albums that are left unsold in stores, and the loss of that feeling of uniqueness in a work of art,” he closed.
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Image Credit: Kolase
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