For starters, no one from the band has been paid for over a year.
Since we launched the Kickstarter project to help raise funds for the CD duplication, vinyl pressing and packaging of our new record, I’ve been asked “what exactly does it mean when a band releases a record on their own?” With this post I hope to answer this question and share why I am so lucky to be a part of SCC.
When a band decides to “self-release” their record, first and foremost it means that the individuals in the band (not a record label) will be funding the recording, mastering, duplication and promotion of the record. It kills me that this is the first thing that I need to mention, but the fact of the matter is, cash is probably the biggest barrier between making music and getting it to folks who want to hear it. Professionally recording and mastering a record is a labor and time intensive process, and the costs are significant. In addition to the financial impact associated with self-releasing a record, there are also the massive amounts of time and energy that go into coordinating the recording, artwork, duplication, pressing, releasing and promoting the record. The upside to coordinating all these tasks is you get to meet and work with a lot of amazing artists, the downside is the amount of time that is taken away from what we really love to do, which is making and performing music.
Without getting into the details, SCC has already invested several thousand dollars into this process to create “A Past We Forget That We Need To Know”. We have been very fortunate to be able to fund the first part of this project with cash we made from the shows we played in 2010. Between our monthly residency at Galway Bay, and the numerous festivals we played this summer, we’ve come very close to paying off the recording and mastering of the record, and we now have electronic files of the music, but nothing else. We need to go a step further if we want to have something tangible to share with the Crew or sell when we’re on the road.
I think this is an appropriate time to recognize and thank the entire band for playing every show in 2010 without getting paid a single dollar for their time and talent. We made the decision in January of 2010 that no one would take any pay for the year, instead all cash earned by the band would go into the record. One year into the process, we have no regrets. It’s a passion, we do it because we love it, but it hurts me to think the guys (and girl) would play another year’s worth of shows without any compensation for their time. In addition, we realize that it would take at least another year to release the record this way, so we began exploring other creative ideas to get the music out to the Crew sooner. When we saw Joe Fletcher and the Wrong Reasons successfully fund the mastering and duplication of “White Lighter”, using Kickstarter, we felt this could be a model that would work for us as well.
Thanks for reading and I hope this sheds some light on why becoming a backer of our Kickstarter project means so much to us.
Since we launched the Kickstarter project to help raise funds for the CD duplication, vinyl pressing and packaging of our new record, I’ve been asked “what exactly does it mean when a band releases a record on their own?” With this post I hope to answer this question and share why I am so lucky to be a part of SCC.
When a band decides to “self-release” their record, first and foremost it means that the individuals in the band (not a record label) will be funding the recording, mastering, duplication and promotion of the record. It kills me that this is the first thing that I need to mention, but the fact of the matter is, cash is probably the biggest barrier between making music and getting it to folks who want to hear it. Professionally recording and mastering a record is a labor and time intensive process, and the costs are significant. In addition to the financial impact associated with self-releasing a record, there are also the massive amounts of time and energy that go into coordinating the recording, artwork, duplication, pressing, releasing and promoting the record. The upside to coordinating all these tasks is you get to meet and work with a lot of amazing artists, the downside is the amount of time that is taken away from what we really love to do, which is making and performing music.
Without getting into the details, SCC has already invested several thousand dollars into this process to create “A Past We Forget That We Need To Know”. We have been very fortunate to be able to fund the first part of this project with cash we made from the shows we played in 2010. Between our monthly residency at Galway Bay, and the numerous festivals we played this summer, we’ve come very close to paying off the recording and mastering of the record, and we now have electronic files of the music, but nothing else. We need to go a step further if we want to have something tangible to share with the Crew or sell when we’re on the road.
I think this is an appropriate time to recognize and thank the entire band for playing every show in 2010 without getting paid a single dollar for their time and talent. We made the decision in January of 2010 that no one would take any pay for the year, instead all cash earned by the band would go into the record. One year into the process, we have no regrets. It’s a passion, we do it because we love it, but it hurts me to think the guys (and girl) would play another year’s worth of shows without any compensation for their time. In addition, we realize that it would take at least another year to release the record this way, so we began exploring other creative ideas to get the music out to the Crew sooner. When we saw Joe Fletcher and the Wrong Reasons successfully fund the mastering and duplication of “White Lighter”, using Kickstarter, we felt this could be a model that would work for us as well.
Thanks for reading and I hope this sheds some light on why becoming a backer of our Kickstarter project means so much to us.