So you think you're ready for Sellaband?

So you're an independent artist and you think you're ready to raise funds for your project on Sellaband, rather than taking the traditional label route? Judging by the artists currently signing up, it's probably fair to say that actually, you're not. So whilst it may not be completely comprehensive, this is my guide to the absolute essentials you need if you're to have any kind of success on Sellaband.

Where are your believers going to come from?
This is the first and most important question you should be asking, and if you can't answer it, then you're not even ready to start thinking about the rest of what this blog post contains.

A common mistake artists make is that they think believers will magically appear from thin air and start throwing money at their Sellaband profile. It does happen occasionally, but at least 999 times out of 1000 you can guarantee it won't. You therefore need to get together a strategy for collecting believers or it's likely you'll remain stuck pretty close to $0.

The most important source of believers you have is your existing fanbase - make use of this. Even if people don't want to spend their $10 now, encourage them to sign up and "follow" you. This doesn't cost any money to do and is in fact no more different to signing up on the likes of Myspace or Facebook. This can have two benefits. Firstly, it shows other people who may be looking at your Sellaband profile that you have a number of other people who are interested in your project. Secondly, it gives you a group of people you can potentially work with at a later date to improve your visibility on the site. The idea here is a simple one. Once you have attracted a certain number of followers, let them know that you now have a a certain number of people who haven't believed yet, and offer them some incentive to do so now. If you get enough interest, you should be able to give yourself a push in the charts and hence get the interest of others who may not have looked at you before.

What do your (potential) believers want?
Having got a rough idea of how many believers you think you can get and from where, you then need to find out what those people are looking for. Again, with people from your existing fanbase this can potentially be quite easy to determine. (You do actually have a mailing list don't you?) Send out a questionnaire asking if they're happy with only a download, or whether they'd be looking for an album. Would they want revenue share? What kind of incentives would encourage them to buy more than one part? Basically get a feel for what is in the heads of your existing fans first to find out how many are genuinely interested. You need these people to show their support for you by buying parts, so be sure to find out what makes them tick! Existing fans who think you are worth supporting and are prepared to demonstrate that fact are a great help in convincing strangers to trust in you too.

In the case of existing believers on Sellaband who are probably encountering you for the first time, you need to do your research. Who actively posts on the forum? Who posts on the pages of other artists in a similar genre to you? (or even follows or believes in those artists) Are these people actually buying parts at this time? Is there any information on their profile page which might be of use? For further hints, you would also do well to read this blog post by another Sellaband believer. If you're really lucky some believers may come to you of their own accord, but to stand the best chance of getting believers already on Sellaband, you have to first learn how active they are and what they're interested in. That should give you some idea of how likely you are to attract believers already on Sellaband to start with. It's also important to remember that not every Sellaband believer is after the same thing, so you need to discover the size of your potential market.

Hint: When was the last time you spent $100 on an artist? When was the last time you spent $100 on an artist you had never heard of before? With any luck you'll realise from the answers to these questions that the incentive area you'll need to put most thought into is the 2-10 parts range as the majority of people who can be tempted into buying more than one part are unlikely to go higher than this unless they are existing die-hard fans.

You'll need all of the information above to help you set up your plan and budget. It sounds like a lot of work (and it is!) but in reality it's only the start of the groundwork you need to do in order to come up with a realistic budget and plan that will make you look interesting to potential believers.

Setting up the budget
Now you've been able to come up with some estimate of where your believers are going to come from, how many parts they might be looking to buy and what incentives will convince them to buy those parts, you have the extra information needed on a fan funding site to start working out your budget.

1. Recording costs
This is probably the easiest to determine for many artists, as it's likely they will have had at least some experience in a studio. Consider where you are going to record, mix and master, who you are going to use as a producer, how many songs you want to record, whether you need session musicians or any special equipment etc. If you're completely inexperienced, Sellaband have some guideline costs on the form you fill in for your artist project, but for a more accurate estimate you would probably be better getting the advice of a similar artist already on Sellaband who has recorded before. Ask around, most active artists are usually more than friendly and willing to share their experiences!

2. Believer costs
If you're looking at sending a CD to every believer, then don't forget to calculate postage costs for this. Additionally you need to consider any incentives which will need posting in this cost e.g. T-shirts, other CDs etc. As a rough guide postage within the same or neighbouring countries is likely to work out to about $2 for one CD or $5 for long-distance/abroad. However, remember that instead of shipping yourself, Sellaband can do some or all of the shipping for you, so it might also be worth investigating this option depending on the location of you and your believers. Depending on the system in use for calculating postage, larger quantities may work out slightly cheaper per unit unless the package is really large.

Hint: Don't forget that on a system of 1 CD per believer, if every believer were to buy two parts instead of just one, you would halve your potential postage costs. This is why getting believers to buy more than one part can be so important!

A hidden cost that many artists forget is one related to revenue share. If you are looking at sharing revenue with believers then you'll need at least basic bookkeeping skills, or preferably be looking to hire an accountant. Sellaband requires accounts to be sent to them every three months once your project is completed and delivered if you are sharing revenue so that they can administer the revenue sharing for believers. Whilst I'd hope that as an independent artist, you already have the services of an accountant for your annual taxes, it's important to remember this Sellaband requirement is likely to produce more work than your accountant would normally be doing.

3. Promotion/marketing costs
Are you planning to use any of the budget for marketing or promoting your project after it's completed? This is especially important to consider if you are sharing revenue - if people don't even know you have a product, how are you going to generate sales and hence that revenue? How many CDs (or extra CDs) are you going to produce as an initial run for your merch stand at shows, or for existing outlets who already sell your CDs? What about promo copies for radio stations etc.? And what about your website - do you already have someone who takes care of that for you, or are you going to be looking for someone to update or redesign it to better promote your project once it's completed?

4. Sellaband cost
Finally, don't forget to add 10% to the figure you've reached so far, as that is the fee Sellaband will take on completion.

Now you've got an initial budget estimate, it's time to run a reality check. For this purpose I'm going to assume you're on the standard $10 per part, but it's possible to adapt the calculation for other part prices. For every $10,000 of budget you are looking to raise, you should be planning to bring at least 100 of your existing friends/family/fans with you to help you get your project funded. Don't forget, Sellaband is a fan funding site - so if you don't have any of these people to call on, you probably shouldn't be looking at using it. If it's looking like the number of fans you need to bring is too high, then you'll need to revise your budget or incentives, or possibly look at funding some of the costs out of your own pocket instead of including them in your Sellaband budget.

Setting up your Sellaband account
Now all the groundwork is laid, you should have a set of incentives, a plan and a budget which gives you a chance of success, so it's finally time to create and set up your Sellaband profile.

1. Use the budget information you've gathered to help you fill in the initial signup form as many of these details are rather hard to get changed later without input from Sellaband.
2. Don't forget to include your biography, photos and preferably more than one song on your page. Links to other sites you appear on (e.g. myspace, your own website etc), videos of you performing or a list of upcoming shows can help too
3. Fill in your plan section. A good plan will generally include all the features I've already got you to consider, such as incentives, what is included in the project and how you plan to market it and a rough budget outline. For a good example check out this one from Aly Cook
4. Fill out the incentives section with the list of incentives you worked out, taking care to check this ties up with any relevant information in your plan. Discrepancies cause questions and too many questions often cause potential believers who have never encountered an artist before to walk away from such a profile without investing.
5. Make sure you have your genres filled in, or your profile will not be visible to people searching for artists on Sellaband.

Hint: Some information such as your plan and incentives section can be changed by Sellaband, even if you can't do so yourself, so contact them if you need to get those last few problems ironed out.

Time to promote
Once your profile is active, it will appear for a short time (generally up to a week) in the "Happening Now" section of the site. After this point, the most effective way to be noticed is to be appearing in the weekly charts or high up on the search. Existing believers are more likely to check out artists who are gaining budget, particularly on a regular basis, so try and get your existing fanbase moving to support you first, and it's likely more believers from Sellaband itself will join in automatically. Making your presence known by participating in discussions or asking questions on the forum can also help you gain some attention, but be very wary of how much self-promotion of your project you do both on the forum and believer/artist walls, as the line between making it known you exist and spamming can get crossed very easily. Basically try not to come across as a walking advert, but rather show your interest in others and what is going on around you and you're more likely to get some kind of positive reaction with a bit of patience.

Don't disappear! You should be looking to add something new to your profile (or change something on it) at least once a month. There are so many artists on Sellaband, that believers will quickly forget about you if you don't do enough to keep their interest, and even existing fans may not be enough to convince people you are still interested in fundraising on Sellaband.

Hint: Many believers on Sellaband are music lovers. That means that unless they get really hooked on your music (i.e. become "real" fans), they're only likely to take a passing interest in you on other sites. So if you don't put the effort in on Sellaband, it's very easy to get stuck or even lose support, unless you can keep convincing new people from outside of Sellaband to join to support you.

Finally, remember that this is only a guideline that can hopefully give you a fighting chance against all the other artists out there. Never forget, some artists can get luckier than others!