»Friends, I've been an independent artist my entire career...almost. In 2011, as a member of a band, we put out a record on a record label...the dream right? Well, not exactly. What I learned from the experience is that it's better to be in control of who is on the team and make sure that they are capable, tenacious, and really believe in the music.
Kickstarter allows me to do just that. I get to be in control of the entire process, and make / release music on my terms. And it's fan-powered, which gives me a direct connection to you - and I love that so much.
And the fact is, it's expensive to make and release an album. Even though streaming has largely replaced buying albums, the costs haven't really changed. Consider this: it would take 3,435 streams on Spotify to equal one $15 CD sale. Crazy, right? That makes it pretty difficult to bring in the money required to properly promote a record (let alone make a living off of recorded music).
But consider this: if every single person on my mailing list backed my new record on Kickstarter at the entry level ($5), I'd exceed my goal...«
(Nora Jane Struthers)
»Particularly - the music business thing - as popular music is so... unpopularised & devalued at the moment. That - of course - is the fault of the music bizz, who - after a period of gargantuan commodification & greed, have to face the consequences of their policy of pursuing profit over art, which is a raidly shrinking market (who wants to buy shit records you have no cultural ownership of anymore, where your only relationship is one of passive consumption?). The bizz responds by exerting even greater control over what is consumed, which in turn leads to terminal stasis. Luckily - there WILL always be those romantic fools who - whether forever or for a couple of nights only - will fall in love with what music does, & with what songs can do - but - the Great Days of the people's Popular Music are pretty much over. Streaming & downloading is of course the ultimate devaluation or your art - music becomes so disposable it no longer has any physical artefact to testify to its existence.«
(Robb Johnson)
