Artist Hanna Ögren launched her crowdfunding campaign, "Take Me to Paisley" Debut Album, this summer and yesterday the goal of €6,000 was reached. We caught up with Hanna who tells us about Take Me to Paisley and her tips for other crowdfunders.
Tell us briefly about you and your company
- I'm a vocalist, songwriter and what I call a "musicpreneur". I make music under the name Hanna Ogren but my company is called "Take Me to Paisley". The music is an eclectic mix of my Swedish heritage and the funky sound of Minneapolis.
You've just reached the goal of your crowdfunding campaign, congratulations! What was the campaign and what will the money raised go towards?
- Thank you very much! It feels great! It was a crowdfunding/pre-order campaign of my debut album which I plan to release at the end of November this year. The money will go to the producer/musician who will work on the album, the production of the CD itself and the merch, marketing and such costs. So all the money raised will go towards the production of my first full-length album.
Crowdfunding seems great. What is your experience of it?
- I'm positive about crowdfunding, I've been thinking about doing one for several years but haven't really been ready until now. It requires quite a bit of commitment though. The campaign itself is done but now the work continues to finish the album, get merch and then send out everything to those who have ordered. But that's all fun and stuff I want to do, so it should be fine 
Do you have any tips for others who want to try crowdfunding?
- Yes, just do it! But plan as much as you can beforehand. I miss the question "What would you do differently next time?" (We take the feedback on board and promise to do better next time).
So what would you do differently next time?
- Next time I'll have better strategies planned...marketing, what I want to communicate etc. All that I came up with in the meantime now, which worked but I think I would feel calmer if it was already in place at launch. It's also important to make a budget for the campaign itself...boring if all the money raised is spent on producing merch for example. But that said, apart from this I can only recommend crowdfunding...if nothing else it's a superb opportunity to connect with your audience (customers) and that's never wrong.
See Hanna's crowdfunding campaign here.
Photographer: Olivia Modalen
Hanna Ögren participated in spring 2020 in eXpress programme.
