Fan Funded Forum

Idlewild are a Scottish rock band, formed in Edinburgh, in 1995, comprising Roddy Woomble (lead vocals), Rod Jones (guitar, backing vocals), Colin Newton (drums), Allan Stewart (guitar) and Gareth Russell (bass). To date, Idlewild have released six full-length studio albums through EMI.

Part of Idlewild’s early success can be attributed to their singles gaining heavy rotation on Steve Lamacq’s Evening Session on BBC Radio, Lamacq often cites them as one of his favourite bands.

On 21 November 2008 the band sent an email to fans on the mailing list offering them a chance to preorder the new album (along with “exclusive packaging & including at least one bonus track”) to be “shipped within weeks of completion”. All fans who bought the album this way will also have their name appeear in the CD booklet and on a roll call on the band’s official website. The band explained their reasoning behind this in the email, where they said:

“After 11 years of recording and releasing records within the constraints of the record industry we now fee that the time is right and the technology exists for us to deal more quickly and directly with the fans. It also allows us total control of our music and will ultimately mean that should you choose to get involved you will hear our music as soon as it is available. Although the album will have a more traditional release some time later in 2009 we hope you will support us in our efforts to try something new and choose to pre-order the album now.”

The album titled Post Electric Blues was mailed out on June 10th 2009.

www.idlewildmusic.com

Jill Sobule (born January 16, 1965 in Denver, Colorado) is an American singer-songwriter best known for the 1995 single “I Kissed a Girl”, and “Supermodel” from the soundtrack of the 1995 film Clueless. More often critically acclaimed than commercially successful Sobule has released seven studio albums of original songs, three EPs, and a greatest hits compilation album.

In mid-January 2008, Sobule launched a website, jillsnextrecord.com, which aimed to raise $75,000 through fan donations in order to produce, manufacture, distribute and promote an upcoming studio album. In exchange for their donations, Sobule offered her patrons an assortment of gifts with values commensurate with the amount of the donation. These gifts range from a free download of the album when its released ($10) to the opportunity to attend a recording session and sing on the record ($10,000). On March 8, 2008, 53 days after the public launch of the site, Sobule reached her target through donations from over 500 people in 44 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and eleven foreign countries[1]. The subsequent album, California Years, was released on April 14, 2009 on Sobule’s own label, Pinko Records.

www.jillsnextrecord.com

EDIT: SELLABAND UPDATE
“SellaBand Opens up Fan Funding for All”

Sellaband is a music website that allows artists to raise the money from their fans and the SellaBand community in order to record a professional album. It was set up by Johan Vosmeijer (ex Sony/BMG), Pim Betist (ex Shell), and Dagmar Heijmans (ex Sony/BMG) in August 2006. Their offices are located in Amsterdam, Netherlands, but it’s a German company that started in Bocholt, Germany.

On April 8 2008, SellaBand raised EU€3.5 million (US$5 million) in their Series A round led by Prime Technology Ventures.

For Details of the new Flexible SellaBand where Artists keep all Rights
http://www.fanfundedforum.com/2009/09/new-sellaband/

In the old model: Any artist can sign up for SellaBand, they set up a profile and uploaded some of their music to attract “Believers” from their fans and the SellaBand community. Parts sold at US$10 each. The total to be raised was set at either US$50,000 or US$100,000 ($10k is the new minimim) and will cover all costs to record, mix, and manufacture their album. Any band that is able to sell 5,000 (or 10,000) “parts” is then provided with a producer, studio, and A&R to record an album. Artists are also free to select their own team of recording professionals and studio.

Among the Producers that have worked on SellaBand albums so far are Tony Platt (AC/DC, Bob Marley), Attie Bauw (Scorpions, Judas Priest), Peter Denenberg (Spin Doctors, Deep Purple), Steve Bush (Stereophonics, Corinne Bailey Rae), Mick Glossop (Van Morrison, Waterboys), Malcolm Burn (Patti Smith, Emmylou Harris) and Greg Haver (Manic Street Preachers, Super Furry Animals).

Partnerships

• December 2007 a partnership with Amazon.com was announced. this was initially for the UK but has been successfully repeated with Amazon in Germany and USA.
• March 2009 SellaBand announce a deal to launch in USA with Chuck D’s music company BTN (Bring The Noise) Management in which the former Public Enemy front man will function as Sellaband’s “US ambassador.”
• June 2009 Sellaband.de launched. The first sister site is presented in conjunction with partner MerchandisingMedia GmbH.
• October 2009 SellaBand announce new flexible model where Artists keep all rights

As the first open commercial fan funding site SellaBand has become something of a blueprint for fan funded sites.

www.sellaband.com

A French language community record label which makes it possible for Net surfers to directly produce its artists. MMC sees itself as an alternative to traditional labels enabling artists that have a direct relationship whith their fans to take control of their career and see better return on their creative efforts. MMC select which acts they will fund and once funding has been achieved work in the same way as a traditional label. They have distribution from Warners.

The original target for artists was 70,000 Euro at 10 Euro per share but this has since been raised to 100,000Euros in order to provide a greater marketing fund.

Investors recieve 30% of proceeds (but no copy of the album), Artists receive 20% of proceeds and the rest goes to MMC. The artists share is considerably less than other fan funding sites however, as mymajorcompany operates in a similar way to a tradtional label and handles all marketing, it is probably best to compare the deal with a traditional deal: MMC is certainly more profitable for artists, not least because there is no recoupment before they start earning.

16 Artists have been put up for funding so far, 13 of which raised 70,000, one artist has raised the new total of 100,000 and two others are still working towards 100,000.

The first artists to reach the total Gregoire, raised 70,000Euro in a month and a half from 347 investors. The album You + Me was released in 2007 and achieved considerable success in France.

Stephan Courbit, the former owner of Endemol, has invested 3 million euros to the young label, in exchange for 49 % of the capital. With ambitious projects of internationalisation with England as a key target.

www.mymajorcompany.com

Patrick Wolf is an English singer-songwriter from South London who gained a cult following releasing three albums through a variety of labels culminating in a deal with Universal Records.

At the end of 2008 Wolf announced he had parted with Universal Records and that in order to complete the double album Battle project he planned to sell £10 shares through bandstocks.com: “Basically, you can invest in the finishing of the album and the production of it, and you get a share in the album. So you almost become part of the record company, like a co-owner of the album.” Wolf raised £100,000 and the first album the Bachelor was released on Wolf’s own label Bloody Chamber Music in June 2009. It entered the UK Independent Chart at #2 in its first week and made the top 50 in the mainstream album chart.

Woolf has announced that he will return to Bandstocks to finance the second album of the project The Conqueror.

www.patrickwolf.com

CASH Music (Coalition of Artists and Stakeholders) is a non-profit organization founded in November 2007 by Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses and Donita Sparks of L7 along with Hersh’s manager and husband Billy O’Connell and Sparks’ manager Bob Fagan. Other participating artists include Xiu Xiu, Adam Gnade, and Alex Moulton. The organization takes an open source approach to music production and distribution.

The goal of CASH Music, according to its site, is to provide “a way for audiences and creators to exchange creative perspectives and ideas.” Songs featured on the site are released under the Creative Commons license to download or be remixed. The site offers subscriptions ranging from $10-30 per quarter to one-time payments of up to $5,000, each with corresponding benefits. Artist participation is currently by invite only.

Currently fans can invest in individual artists projects for example Donita Sparks offering the pulic a chance to participate in the profits from the sync licensing of the track He’s Got The Hone, investors could be making money whenever the track pops up in a film, commercial, or TV show. Each investor will participate by investing $100 (limited to 100) and sharing in one-half of one percentage point of the sync license royalty checks.

CASH Music are developing open tools and solutions for the music industry with early public releases scheduled for Q3 2009.

www.cashmusic.org

With this Polish take on the fan funding site there are several possible targets. The lowest one is just for recording two songs and is $1500, the highest for recording an album $15,000. Income from the project is divided between artist and believer.

The site was launched in 2007 and 30 artists have reached budget.
www.megatotal.pl

“Bandstocks empowers both music fans and artists by encouraging them to take control and collaborate directly with one another.”

Bandstocks are offered to fans to raise the necessary sum of money to make and market an album. while fans, in return for their investment, receive both acknowledgment and a share of the proceeds to reward their commitment.

Investors receive 30% of net receipts, a credit on the album, Free download of the album and the right to a discounted limited edition of the album and other priviledges.

Artists recieve the fund generated from the sale of bandstocks to record and market the album. Artists recieve 50% of receipts for 5 years when the copyright reverts to them.

As well as providing funding and a smooth administrative framework, Bandstocks also offers a menu of services which include manufacturing and direct selling of premium packages through an online shop, specialist vinyl distribution, digital distribution through all major third party services, manufacture and physical distribution of CDs and other products through our third party partners and online and offline marketing services.

A huge restriction is that unfortunately only fans based in the UK can invest in artists.

www.bandstocks.com

Slice the Pie launched in June 2007 and aims to find the best raw talent and then help them fund an album through the Slicethepie community. The model has carefully studied the inefficiencies of the existing A&R system and looked how it can improve these in order to screen bands and assist them to get a record deal.

Slicethepie announced $2 million in Series C funding on March 2008 and they recently announced a partnership deal with social networking site bebo.com which has yet to fully launch.

Artists sign up for SliceThePie and upload their tracks which are then reviewed anonymously by a selection of the website’s scouts who are paid 3p for each review they submit. Each artist is reviewed around 60 times and the 2 per cent of artists who get the best reviews go into a showcase. Artists then have a limited time to secure pledges for a minimum of £15,000 from their fans.

The fans can either buy “backstage passes” at £5 each that then allow them to purchase up to five contracts in the artist at 10p each. Alternatively, they can buy the contracts on Slicethepie’s trading platform – they start out at £1.50. The contracts entitle the fans to a return based on the number of singles and albums sold by the artist over a two-year period – £1 for every 10,000 albums sold and 10p for every 10,000 singles. Slicethepie takes £2 for every album sold and 20p per single and keeps the money raised through the initial sale of contracts. The artist gets all the money raised through the sales of backstage passes, and retains all copyright rights. Investors do not get a physical CD and it doesn’t seem that there are any other benefits.

LIKELIHOOD OF RETURN – Artists Need to sell 10,000 albums in a year in order for investors to see a return. These artists are likely to be raw talent with little touring or promotional experience means that they will need considerable marketing behind them if they are going to have a chance of achieving this. With no share in other income streams this is a very small window to see any return. It seems that the only band that have made a return so far were Gilkicker and that is because they were down to the last 7 on T4 MobileAct and so bought themselves out of their contract. MobileAct disqualified them anyway and the band has since split up.

STRENGTH – The first round screening is very interesting for sifting through raw talent, in fact Slicethepie have launched this as a analytic service to the music industry called SoundOut. This does not however look at which artists are able to perform live, are able to promote themselves etc. The fact that slicethepie pasys fans to review tracks brings in a large young community, hopefully the sort of young community that mass market artists require.

WEAKNESSES – The second round of pledging, investing, back stage passes, contracts and trading is all very confusing and creating a mini stock market for bands seems at odds with the artistic process. If investors have started in the scouting rooms it seems that it is easier for them to understand and get involved with the trading, this all becomes part of the community experience, however without a clear message it would be hard for artists to bring in their fans at the investment stage. Also due to stricter gaming laws in the UK Americans cannot invest in artists.

www.slicethepie.com

AKAMUSIC

Any artist can sign up for akamusic and elect to raise either 15.000€ for a single or 50.000€ to record an album.

33 artists have reached their target, 2 of them are albums and 31 others are singles. akamusic has signed a distribution contract with Universal France. Investors are called producers on the site and they have over 30.000 registered people who have collectively invested over 1.000.000€

Akamusic aims to be complementary to the music industry and have international plans targeted towards English, French and Spanish speaking European contries.

www.akamusic.com