How one band found online fan funding to support their CD. It wasn't easy...
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| Louis Robinson in make-up for the video shoot |
On January 12
th 2012, around lunchtime, the
Destroyers hit their target on
PledgeMusic.com.
This allowed them to fund
the release of their second album. I am delighted for them. I’m not alone: check the Destroyers'
Facebook page to read messages of
congratulations from all over.
By the way, this here is Louis
Robinson with a lot of scary make-up being applied. The
Destroyers were shooting a video yesterday for their next single. More on this
later.
I’m a big fan. I’d love to see the band grow and
prosper. I’ve been watching the online
pledge process closely from the moment they got it underway. It seems to me
that the Destroyers played this one just right. But setting up a worthwhile project
on one of the many pledge sites is one thing; taking it to fruition is quite
another.
Fan-funded music releases aren’t new. Ten years ago, veteran
Scottish pomp-rockers
Marillion demonstrated the power of marketing themselves
directly to a loyal Europe-wide fan base with spectacular success, when the record industry had long since written them off. Buffalo singer-songwriter
Anni DiFranco has put out releases yearly for 18 years on her own label, maintaining and managing
direct links to her growing following.
And it’s becoming a much more significant part of the music
landscape. I went to PledgeMusic to look at the successes. On the
Funded - that is, successful – page today, the Destroyers are up there, front and
centre, one of the most recent projects to cross the finish line. Following on are a
string of happily completed projects from around the world. You won’t know most
of them, because they all successfully work to their home areas. But if you
jump back to the
PledgeMusic home page you’ll see some surprisingly big names,
not all of whom have been successful. Many are: there’s
Reef, and
Killing Joke,
who have both wildly exceeded their targets, and in so doing, sidestepped the
conventional record industry to great effect. But look – here’s
Ian McCullough,
a name to conjure with from the 70s and 80s, who has yet to hit the 100% mark.
I think he probably will – he’s three quarters of the way there and he still
has another two months to gather the remaining pledges of support.
Pledge sites work by inviting fans to contribute towards a
total sum. This funds a CD, or a DVD, or a film, or an EP, or an artistic
activity. There are dozens of such sites covering all sorts or artistic
activities, but they tend to work in much the same way: your pledges are only
redeemed if the entire project hits its target. So there is a risk of failure.
And of course, if you fail, your failure is both public and extremely
disappointing for the band and fans.
When the Destroyers kicked their campaign off late last year, they
rapidly hit the 30% pledge mark, offering a range of goodies to pledge for from
straight downloads to signed items, and even attendance at a rehearsal followed
by dinner with the band at a mere £140. This is a bargain: you have to fork out
500 Australian dollars for dinner with
The Murphy Brothers, a three piece from Western Australia. After
that encouraging start, things slowed down a little bit. Then, alarmingly,
things slowed down quite a lot. The percentage total, loping gently but
steadily upwards, started to crawl. And after Christmas, for obvious reasons, things
got sticky. With a week to go, they were still some 20% off their target.
However, recent days saw an explosion of online activity to raise awareness. Band
members, friends, fans, family and fellow musicians, tweeted, posted and
nagged. The band kept up a steady stream of posts, offering video clips and extra
treats for those who had already pledged. I wasn't sure anyone eventually came in for Louis Robinson’s framed
beard, though - a snip at £69.
I met with the band at their video shoot (in a backstreet
boozer a stone's throw from the Birmingham markets area) to talk over their campaign.Louis was
more than happy with Pledgemusic:
“They get involved. You talk to them at least
once a week, and it’s always the same person, so you develop a relationship. They’ll
tell you about other campaigns on their site, and suggest you try this or that.”
It looked at one time that you weren’t going to hit your
target. Do you think you were realistic in setting your financial goal?
“Yes. We weren’t asking for a huge amount – enough to press
up a few thousand CDs, cover some mixing costs and bits and pieces. The bigger
your following, the more you can aim for. But Pledgemusic are also pretty good
at suggesting a realistic target. And they check you out before letting you
sign up – they look at your site, see how many Facebook likes you have see,
listen to your music, read the reviews…”
Louis, you still have your beard. Didn’t anyone pledge for
it?
“Oh, they did. There will be a ceremonial presentation. There
may be video footage in due course...."
Isn't there the awful risk that you might actually fail in your attempt to raise funds? I saw an awful lof of low percentage pledges on PledgeMusic...
"Yes, there is that risk, and we were well aware of it as we approached the deadline day. But PledgeMusic, like I said, were, extremely helpful in suggesting strategies."
Paul Murphy and Sam Wooster (trumpet) talked about the dog
days of the campaign.
Sam: “When we got to about 60% of our target, with two weeks
to go, I was a bit worried. But then it all came together. We got everyone working their own social networks - lovers, families, friends...”
Maybe your timing could have been better? You hit the slow
stage right after Christmas, when everyone was flat broke. It was a bit touch and go there for a while...
Paul: “Robin, we really didn’t have a lot of choice. In
planning the album release, tours for this coming year, a first single (Hole In
The Universe), and everything else, this was how it had to be. But so many
people came onboard with our last minute campaign, by posting and tweeting
about us, it spread the word further. And we were able to offer a few exclusive
goodies to our pledgers – so that helped.”
And with that, it was back to the video shoot. They were running late, of course. Here's the result:
Lessons learned?
Think it through. Design a campaign. Get
your project up. And then sell it, hard, repeatedly, and shamelessly. Find
angles. Enlist support. Get the project to go viral if you can. As with so much
of today’s music industry, the onus comes back down to the artist. Your fans
may love you to pieces, but your job is to convince them to part with money
online. To many, that’s a contradiction in terms. And remember that you are in
competition with dozens of equally deserving projects, some of whom will be by
people you know. The day I went down to meet with the band, two more fan-funded
appeals landed in my email inbox. I suggest you take a look at the freshly
launched appeal project on WeFund.com from the wonderful
Wes Finch. (
Update: this project has now hit is funding target too)
By the way, if you’re nosing around Balsall Heath, and you just
happen to spot a very battered and tarnished Tuba, Mark Davis would like it
back, please. He only put it down for a second, went back inside, and
came back to find it gone. Maybe the scrap metal boys came down his street
while his back was turned. Now, it may only have cost £20 and a bit of elbow grease
to convert it back to from its function as a plant pot; it may not have a perfectly
brilliant tone. But it’s the Destroyers’ tuba, dammit, and they want it back.
