When the Bendigo Hotel's final party wound down on 29 August, it had the feel of a wake for another lost Melbourne venue. It wasn't one. The Mill Brewery, which had run the twin-bandroom, 300-capacity pub for two years, was handing over to a buyer who had already signed. Lee Jones, a writer and producer who founded the independent record label Galaxy Music, had spotted the listing online and gone to look the next day. “It had all the space I was dreaming of,” he said.

Galaxy Music began as Jones's attempt to get back into music and it snowballed from there. A couple of years ago, he wanted to meet people and make records with one or two of them. Then came more artists, live shows and industry newcomers wanting in. It had no home, though. “We were everywhere all at once, or in one place no-one could get to,” he recalled.

The Bendi had the room. The money for it was another matter. Jones and his partners could cover the purchase, but not the extras: a bigger bond, existing stock, an equipment lease, legal fees and a renovation. So Galaxy went to the crowdfunding site Pozible with a campaign to raise the funds to help cover the expenses and start the Bendi off strong under its new ownership.

When we spoke in August, the total funds raised stood at $12,000. The target was $90,000, and it was still a long way off. Jones said that if they didn’t hit the target they could “find the money another way,” and that the fundraiser was also about “building the connections and the awareness too.” Jones seemed aware that his optimism that they would hit the goal might be misplaced, but he thought with how loyal some of the Bendi’s patrons were, they had a chance.

It got there. The campaign closed successfully on 10 September having raised $90,149, from 70 financial supporters. Nine of them paid $5,000 or more to name a room.

Jones was relaxed about his own inexperience. He said the first month or two will be about keeping what works. “It's not going to be a huge change, it's going to be an incremental improvement.” The pub's metal and hardcore identity will stay, partly because he grew up in the hardcore scene himself. The beer list, which he thinks was narrow, and the kitchen, which had stopped serving patrons as the previous owners wound down, are the obvious early targets.

The bigger shift is the schedule. In its last six months, the Bendi opened Wednesday to Friday from 4:00 pm, and from about 2:00 pm on weekends. Jones wants it open on a reliable schedule, even if that means a quiet Monday lunch. Most of his staff will do double duty with Galaxy, so he figures he can sit upstairs on a laptop and wait for two or three strangers to wander in. “That's good, we get to talk to them.”

Upstairs is where the label's real ambitions sit. The unused rooms will eventually become a studio, a rehearsal room, a co-working space and an education room that teachers can book for free. Jones said the ground floor is already profitable without any of these, so the upstairs doesn't have to pay its way. “Doing the right thing eventually gets you other opportunities,” he said. Galaxy has never charged artists for development or recording, which he admits some people call a stupid approach. “It's a hill I'll die on.”

He also wants to widen the crowd. Silk Road, a new R&B label whose launch night packed out six acts, is a likely collaborator, and a techno night is on the cards. He's very open to ideas.

“I could be completely wrong,” he said of the whole approach. “But I've always been a loyal customer to anywhere I feel is doing good stuff."