In the near future I think we’re going to see a huge variety of fan-funding platforms for creative projects. KICKSTARTER is the platform we chose this time. Others will come and go.
From my safe and comfy Nashville chair, it appears that one of the things we’ve dismantled in the music industry is the wall of separation between big acts and their followers / family. Call them a “street team” if you’re more comfortable. No one wants to be a FAN anymore. No one wants to stand at a distance and swoon at the mysterious rockstar dripping incoherent lyrics all over an SM58. We want to know what our favorite artists had for breakfast. We want to see video clips of the guys in a van pounding out the miles along I-40 somewhere west of here. We want to know what kind of gear they play. We want to hear them rant on tumblr about their political views. We want to read about why they wrote that song we love. WE WANT TO GET INVOLVED. That’s what fan-funding platforms like KICKSTARTER are all about. It will only grow so start getting comfortable with it.
Don’t sit in your desk at school or in the cubicle jungle and wait for some Marketing Executive to tell you what art will matter next month or next year. Get Involved. Make art happen the way patrons and benefactors of the Renaissance used to do. Not an artist? Find art that you believe in and CAUSE IT TO BE CREATED. Find artists you believe in and become their midwife; help them birth new songs, new albums, new videos. TRUTH – recording music, making videos, and touring all cost money. There’s no way around that. TRUTH – No one seems to want to pay for the music they download. Fan-funding will have to happen SO THAT YOU CAN HAVE MUSIC TO DOWNLOAD.
As a band, we don’t want fans. We want family. We want connection. We want listeners who tell us their story; followers who will join our journey. We don’t just write songs that we hope will sell. We want these songs to matter, to have a life, to have an impact. I believe in the songs on this new record that we are ready to record. I think this might be the most important song-cycle I’ve ever written. SO GET INVOLVED. Make music happen. Be our midwife. Claim an ownership stake in the creative process. Be the record producer you’ve always wanted to be. Click on the KICKSTARTER widget in this post and help us make a new record.