Independent Brooklyn metal club Saint Vitus started a COVID-19 relief on Kickstarter, raising 12 times more than they asked for, according to Rolling Stone. “Saint Vitus Stays Home: Help beloved Brooklyn venue & metal bar Saint Vitus survive the COVID-19 closure” campaign listed a slew of rewards for potential donors, ranging from $5 stickers and $30 limited-edition tees to $75 signed photos and $100 drum lessons with Thursday’s Tucker Rule; top donors could snag a year’s worth of free shows. The campaign’s goal was set at $15,000, but by the end of campaign on Saturday, June 6 Saint Vitus had raised over $130,000.

On Monday, Amoeba Music, the largest independent record store in the US, started a GoFundMe in hopes of drawing support from regular customers, not just in Los Angeles but national and international visitors. And fans reacted enthusiastically - in its first 10 hours up, $35,000 of the $400,000 goal had been raised, in four days $200,902 has been raised. Amoeba's co-owner Marc Weinstein said in Variety interview that their "main cause is to keep this thing going, at whatever cost. Honestly, it’s always been our mission since day one is to do this. We care about music more than anything and we care about musicians". There are three Amoeba Music record stores in California, and all three have been closed since mid-March.

San Diego prog-metal band Corelia raised over $33,000 from fans via an Indiegogo fundraiser in 2015 to record their debut album, then disappeared a year later. The album still hasn't surfaced. On April 11, the page Corelias posted an update presumed to be from a former member of the act, saying the album was never released due to inter-band fighting. It turned out the page was a product of an Internet troll, but it had however prompted the real Corelia to issue a statement, a first one in 4 years - "Sadly, a member of our band abruptly ceased all communication over a year ago, despite our attempts to continue communicating... We've only ever wanted to complete this album that we spent so much time recording and show the world our art. But, unfortunately, that has been a very rocky road". In yet another twist, the person behind the fake Corelia page identified themselves as Tim Ossenfort, a metal producer from Los Angeles. The instigator added - "This was all for the joke, not my music, but if you wanna check out some legit prog metal by someone who has never stolen 35k from their fans, please go check out my band's newest song!".

Talib Kweli, John Legend, Yusuf Islam, and actor Mahershala Ali have vowed to help raise funds for the restoration and preservation of Nina Simone's childhood home. Now a crowdfunding campaign has been launched on Indiegogo to allow members of the public to donate to efforts to renovate the exterior of the house in Tryon, North […]