Tue

Jan 29
2008

Jimmy Guterman

Jimmy Guterman

A rare post about the music industry that isn't completely depressing

The Qtrax debacle is getting most of the attention this week, with Warner Music's ridiculous CEO compensation close behind, but there is promising news in the music industry worth noting.

Late last year, there was much fuss around Radiohead's decision to eschew usual distribution schemes and release In Rainbows in a variety of formats, among them free downloads. It was no surprise that the marketing plan worked well and, more recently, helped the on-CD version of the new album top many sales charts. Radiohead is an extremely popular band; of course its experiment did well. But if there's going to be a music industry anymore, it's going to be because non-platinum performers can make a living as musicians.

Which brings us to Jill Sobule, ace singer and songwriter, composer of the catchiest TV theme in recent years, stalwart performer at tech conferences TED and D ... but not someone who has received a commercial break in line with her talent. So ... she's turning the tables on how records are funded. Instead of getting a label to advance her a recoupable recording budget, on Jill'sNextRecord.com she's asking fans to fund her next collection, with contributions ranging from $25 (Polished Rock Level; you get an advance CD) all the way up to $10,000 (Weapons-Grade Plutonium Level; you get to sing on the record). Sobule estimates her next set will cost $75K to make; she's $32K of the way (from 195 contributors) there already. (Disclosure: I made a contribution. You should, too.)

I recognize that Sobule, while not headlining arenas, is an established performer with a great reputation and a novel idea. She'll succeed at this because she has earned fans and goodwill. Brand-new bands, most of them anyway, couldn't get away with such a plan because they have no pre-existing audience. But the only way many worthy young bands will stay in the business will be if they have a sense that they can make a go of it if they don't wind up as big as Radiohead. Sobule, then, is a worthy role model for the whole imusic business -- a beacon of hope during an industry's long, dark winter.


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Comments: 23

  Vincent Blackwood [01.29.08 06:20 PM]

"Sobule, then, is a worthy role model for the whole imusic business -- a beacon of hope during an industry's long, dark winter."

Jimmy, It's nice to read an article from someone who gets Jill. She very net savvy and that's about to pay off for her. Want to know her better? Download a free hour and a half concert from Jill's site;

http://www.jillsobule.com/showandtell.html

It is Jill at her best -- witty, outrageous and sensitive.

And for those who don't know that much about Jill, here is an article by Marc-Anthony Macon. It is the best I've read about her. My favorite part; "I suspect Jill has been somewhat maligned due to her insistence on calling the powers that be out on their bullsh*t..."

http://city-of-dis.livejournal.com/515837.html

  Matt Rose [01.29.08 06:55 PM]

Once again, issa is ahead of the curve. The artist formerly known as Jane Siberry has been following this model for the past year. She did the "pay what you can" thing years before Radiohead did. Basically, if you want to look at different funding models for music in the future, look at what issa is doing now.

She's thinking about this on a bigger level, and from a different, more musician-centred POV, rather than the technician POV that the previous poster offers.

www.issalight.com, and click on openletters to get an idea. Also check out www.sheeba.ca, the website of her record label

  bowerbird [01.29.08 07:24 PM]

matt said:
> The artist formerly known as Jane Siberry
> has been following this model for the past year.

yes she has. and she buzzes to the tuning-fork
that's based in a gift-exchange grown from love.

so it's not only musician-centered,
but deeply philosophical as well...

-bowerbird

  mr_H [01.29.08 07:26 PM]

I wonder how Vincent Blackwood comment went on top of mine. Specially because when i posted no other comments were on this page except mine (and so it stayed that way for quite some time). Its just that server time differs in a whole lot more than just some minute or two, and when i posted it didn't seem like this was a moderated blog.

What are you guys using as persistency ? XML ?
Offcourse not, probably using something like mysql or postgresql, or whatever other mechanism that has ACID properties, which (according to my knowledge) makes this kind of event 'impossible' to happen without explicit human interaction.

Does seem a lot of coincidence that Vincent Blackwood comment is to publicize this artist "jill" that your article writes about and no one has ever heard of. Is this a coincidence ?

Something here does not seem to fit right. But i'm not going to investigate further, i would probably end up finding out that o'reilly media is sponsored by huge imperialist multinational record labels.

  bowerbird [01.29.08 07:31 PM]

it's not some conspiracy, i'm quite sure.

it's just that the software/hardware combo
running these boards is very badly inept...

the "preview" capability is a bad joke,
especially coming from a tech company...

-bowerbird

  John Paul [01.29.08 09:44 PM]

This is really an intriguing idea - getting your fans to finance a CD or even a single.


This would be a good route for established stars that do not want to stick with commercial material - or musicians looking to make a comeback but are no longer in favor with the industry

  Julian Bond [01.30.08 01:38 AM]

I wouldn't wish this on musicians, but it makes me think there's a new role for the music companies to play and that's a combination of VC and Marketing consultant. How different is raising money for the next album from fans to an angel round from friends and family?

  Neil Hinrichsen [01.30.08 01:58 AM]

This idea was actually pioneered by a South African singer called Verity in February 2006 - see http://www.springwise.com/entertainment/i_am_verity/

  mark [01.30.08 02:01 AM]

I did this YEARS ago with a UK artist called Martin Stephenson. Superb folk /bluesey / roots artist. Check his "best of" for an intro. A hundred of us stumped up the cash beforehand and he thanked us all on the final improvised track on the album.

  mark [01.30.08 02:03 AM]

I did this YEARS ago with a UK artist called Martin Stephenson. Superb folk /bluesey / roots artist. Check his "best of" for an intro. A hundred of us stumped up the cash beforehand and he thanked us all on the final improvised track on the album.

  Ken McNamara [01.30.08 02:24 AM]


It's an interesting concept and I'm in for the CD (the samples are compelling) ...but...

If she's that good - why not just go to the bank and borrow the $75,000 to cut the album? Is the outcome so much in question that she can't do this? (Still, this is a great promotion idea.)

Frankly it seems that a lot of artists or authors want someone else to write the check and take the financial risks. A very small fraction will make the effort that Jill is making.

Which might be why the music industry will remain in the state that it is today.

  Tony C [01.30.08 03:33 AM]

This model actually is not new at all. A number of artists have been doing it for years... before Jill, before Issa, before Verity. Most artists have put something of their personal stamp on the concept, though, and so there is something at least a little new each time it's tried. I think Jill may be one of the first artists to try this as a means of raising a complete album release budget, to cover not only recording the album, but also promoting it, touring with it, and so on.

If she's that good - why not just go to the bank and borrow the $75,000 to cut the album? Is the outcome so much in question that she can't do this?

In a word, yes. At least from a traditional lender's point of view, this sort of project is way too risky to get involved. So for years, it has been the record label that fulfilled this role. But the label system, most people believe, is broken now; various changes in the music industry have made it almost impossible for record labels to recoup their investments in anything short of platinum-selling artists. And when that happens, everybody loses -- the labels, the artists, everybody.

Perhaps this way will work better. Time will most certainly tell.

  Blah [01.30.08 06:46 AM]

Marillion did this a few years back... Anoraknophobia (2001) was financed by pre-sales and for Marbles (2004) the fans financed the publicity campaign.

  Tim O'Reilly [01.30.08 08:21 AM]

FWIW, this model is also used in publishing. There's a bible publisher who presented at our Tools of Change for Publishing conference that has a well developed pre-sales program in which the final retail price is set by the amount of pre-sales.

And for that matter, I funded one of my first books, a book of poetry that I published for a friend, some time in the late seventies or early eighties, by doing advance sales to fund the work. I believe this model was fairly common in the nineteenth century.

  Jimmy Guterman [01.30.08 08:31 AM]

Jill certainly isn't the first person to try this, nor did I claim that. But her relatively high-profile attempt to flip the usual record-making economics on their head suggests one possible alternative business model for an industry that needs it desperately. Too many record executives I speak to nowadays look to advertising as a panacea, an unmet hope that goes back at least as far as Sigue Sigue Sputnik's 1986 LP Flaunt It, which included ads between the tracks.

  George [01.30.08 09:21 AM]

Rickie Lee Jones is doing the same thing, and she's a far more important artist that Jill Sobule..

http://www.rickieleejones.com/donation-live-cd.htm

Get a “THANK YOU” on Rickie’s upcoming live CD
“YOU can help fund our NEXT CD. Read how...

The hard financial times have taken their toll on Rickie Lee's funds... WE simply do not have enough money to create new music. So, we are asking our fans, friends and family to send us money, and in return, your name will appear on the next CD, as well as, of course, we will send you the CD in advance of the release.

We are offering your name for $50, and for $100, Rickie will sign the artwork especially for you.

Rickie's friend David Tibet from Current 93 has raised funds successfully from his fan base, and we are hoping that from 28 years of work we might be able to come up with the money to move foreword quickly.

These are hard times for many of us, including Rickie. Like Marvin Gaye and Willie Nelson before her, in a state of financial ruin. Here is a chance for friends and fans to give a little bit, when it truly means so much.

Thanks”

$50.00
Donation at $50 (CD not included)

$100.00
Donation plus signed CD at $100 each

Note: We will use the name on your order for the liner notes. If you would like a different name, Email us with the name after you place your order.

  Richie [01.30.08 10:19 AM]

Several artists are doing this with Artist Share. See here:

http://www.artistshare.com/home/featured_artists.aspx

I contributed a small sum to Jim Hall's projects...

  Richie [01.30.08 10:21 AM]

Several artists are doing this with Artist Share. See here:

http://www.artistshare.com/home/featured_artists.aspx

I contributed a small sum to Jim Hall's projects...

  Tom Gullion [01.30.08 04:04 PM]

I'm glad you mentioned ArtistShare. One odd bit about them is that they filed a patent for this idea (of collecting Angel money for an emerging music project). I don't see how that's "patentable" at all - especially if Tim is right that the idea has been in common practice since the 19th century. It's a rather obvious idea.

  mr_H [01.30.08 05:42 PM]

Hmm... why was my initial comment deleted ? i was not even flamming or being rash!

I really do not like this... :/ Why is everyone here so interested in publicizing their own work, or the work of someone else ?

Why can't a constructive comment that follows along the line of the article be posted ? (specially if it is the first comment to show up)

Really... why am i feeling that all that is happening here in oreilly radar is "influence traffic" and that all of this "colaborative web 2.0" thing in o'reilly is just a means to an end: (that is up to you to find out, i'll keep my answers to myself).

  Ken McNamara [01.31.08 02:49 AM]

Funding creative effort (content creation) whether in cash or crowd participation is at the heart Web 2.0. Promotion is part and parcel to any group effort.

I find Jill's direct approach more appealing than Rickie's claim that "...we simply do not have enough money to create new music."

Jill's website seems more 2.0ish - it's URL is specific to funding a CD and it posts samples of her music to listen to - but then forgets to post her tour schedule. Once you make a contribution it directs you to sign a guest book - but lets you decline without stranding you.

Rickie's donation request is buried somewhere - apparently at the end of a shopping cart order. There's no music samples that I could see - but her tour schedule is easy to find. Rickie is no stranger to asking for money - there's a note requesting money for a good cause on her front page.

To my point about taking out a loan - I'm not suggesting that the bank bet on the outcome - but I am suggesting that the artist bet on the outcome. If your money is on the line - it improves creative focus.

  Ken S [02.01.08 06:05 PM]

Wow - I didn't realize so many folks were doing this. I just signed up for the 'dime-a-day' subscription of Kristin Hersh's music at her new music venture: http://cashmusic.org/.

She's got two other artist signed up now - it's a pretty slick deal, I hope it works out!

  the matthew show [03.04.08 02:08 PM]

Waaaay back in 1994, the extremely talented Sara Hickman got dropped from Elektra and the album she had completed for them got shelved (with nearly half of King Crimson on it and everything). At that time, the internet was in its infancy, so she reached out to her fans via the old-fashioned mailing list, asking them to help her buy the master tapes from the record company so she could release it independently.

She made her fundraising goal and distributed the album through Discovery, an indie at that time, and it did quite well, clearing the way for her independent career.

It's a good option if you have dedicated fans. Getting to that point is still the trick...

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