Wednesday 1 December 2010

December 1st hatchet day

Welcome to the last hatchet day posting. As mentioned in my previous hatchet day post, things are changing for next year, but you'll have to wait for my review of the year post in its usual spot between Christmas and New Year to find out exactly what the future holds.

With the 1000 true friends post taking up so much of my time over the past couple of months, the shorter hatchet day postings over that period mean I'm a little behind on some of the things I should have been mentioning.

The most obvious of these comes in the form of Ivan from My First Robot who deserves every credit for being the only new artist I've noticed since the bankruptcy for taking a real interest and attempting to get involved in the "battleground" otherwise known as the Sellaband forum. Trying to work your way into a crowd when you're new is hard enough at the best of times, and it's definitely not been the best of times on Sellaband over the past few months. I seriously don't have enthusiasm for Sellaband at the moment, so I haven't been going round talking to artists like I used to, but just because I appear disinterested, doesn't mean I don't notice and appreciate things like this - I just find it hard to encourage this kind of "right behaviour" when I feel there's so much wrong with the system it's on.

It may also interest you to know that I actually voted for My First Robot in the Sellaband competition that pitted them against So What for a festival spot, even though I personally like their music less and have never actually seen them perform live, whereas I have seen So What live. So why, you ask? Well, for me a festival is about live performance and having tracked down and watched several videos of MFR on Youtube, I actually think they currently have the better live performance, so that's why they got my vote to go. A shame really that Sellaband decided to put an artist many were familiar with already as a result of their time on the site against one basically unknown to Sellaband users - I suspect many went with the obvious choice and just didn't even bother to check out the opposition to make a genuine choice.

So in many ways I'm kind of sad to see them as one of the "new artists" caught up in the whole "Sellaband parts-shifting" controversy. Unlike some of the artists Sellaband is favouring for receipt of parts, they're obviously around and interested, even though active believers don't seem to have been particularly interested in them to date. Given the potential for a big storm about Sellaband shifting money of inactive believers into inactive artists (particularly newer signups) this is one artist I'd rather not see caught in the blast radius through people deciding that all "Sellaband favourites" (or buddy bands as Thor calls them) are lazy good for nothings taking the easy route to a budget by sucking up the vast majority of inactive believer parts. They certainly don't deserve that tag.

I also find myself wondering whether Sellaband is going to dig itself an even bigger hole by starting a competition at this point. It's got a kind of damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't feel to it, where you can almost feel people waiting for Sellaband to shift a heap of parts while it's on, hence influencing the result, yet at the same time I wonder just how well the competition is going to do while so many people aren't interested in buying parts due to the no refund policy, and/or one or more of the other ongoing issues lurking around. But so far no parts shifting has happened and there is a rumour floating around that Sellaband have said they won't be shifting any money during the competition, though I've seen no official confirmation (or otherwise) of that fact.

All the parts shifting has actually been making it even more difficult to work out which of the newer artists in particular is actually "out there". One artist has already been accused in the forum of being on the receiving end of parts from Sellaband but not actually being on the site, despite the fact there were status updates from them appearing in-between all the "dead believers" including information on how to get hold of the free track they were promising when they reached 1000 euros. In addition artists are actually getting some "real" believers appearing in between all the "dead" ones and that produces its own set of problems on the artist side as well. With nearly 71 pages of artists containing at least one part, it's obvious there's still a lot of parts shuffling to come, even before Sellaband get around to looking at inactive artists, hence the hell of believers being able to tell which artists are actually active and the hell of the artists knowing whether the believers are "real" or not looks set to continue for months yet.
And that's not a good thing from either point of view.

This is just one of the problems making Sellaband still look like a bad place to be more than 9 months down the line with the new management. With Sellaband locking money in the system, who is going to take a chance on an artist being active or not when it's completely unclear? Seems it's time to get out banging on doors and throwing the spam around again, or brave the Sellaband battlefield (i.e. the forum) if you're an artist wanting to convince people you're alive and not invisible.

This continuing poor looking situation was really the decider for me in asking for the little money on my revenue to be paid out to my Paypal account, rather than dropping it in an artist. The Sellaband system didn't disappoint on this score, but you could also say it failed to impress, seeing as the confirmation that my payout request had been received took seconds to appear from the automated system, but the money didn't arrive for nearly 7 working days after the original request. That's slower than the last time I requested a payout and about the same as the time before that. So one aspect I'd say that hasn't changed from the old Sellaband relative to the new, as this is the first payout I've requested under the new management.

Also on the subject of revenues though is the fact that no money has been credited to believer balances since the swap from dollars to euros. Sellaband say this is because the system needs to be tested, but I'm struggling to understand what the heck is taking so long considering there seems to be nothing fundamentally different with the system in the first place. As a result I'm back up to over 5 euros of revenue waiting to be transferred. So much for a quarterly payout system (as per Sellaband's own T&C) seeing as the last time money was actually transferred to believer balances was somewhat more than three months ago.

One piece of good news, it does appear that Franz from Sellaband is finally starting to take an interest in what little is left of the community. Though to be honest the "history lessons" and feedback he's been getting would have been part of a process best started months ago. Rather than the proactive approach of take over, get to know what's what and then try and move forward, it seems the reactive approach of take over, wonder why things don't happen like you thought and only try and find out why months down the line has been taken instead, and to my mind that puts Sellaband at least 6 months back on where it could have been. Only time will tell if the lessons get taken to heart though - once again it took me "growling" on the forum about revenues not being paid according to the terms and conditions before even the figure "waiting" got updated, and as already stated the money hasn't actually been transferred to believer balances yet, nor does there seem to be any likely date for when it will be.

The other result of my lack of enthusiasm for Sellaband at the moment has been that I've realised I am listening to pretty much no music at all on the site. Despite the fact it is a place where you can listen to music, it seems a part of me has subconsciously rebelled and decided there's little point in listening to an artist's music when there's no likelihood of me buying a part any time in the near future. For existing music I'm finding myself listening to Songza instead, but I haven't yet developed any single preference for a place to discover new music. Of the two sites for this that I've tried recently, weloveyoursongs.com has quite a few interesting looking artists, but the scam of a voting system which reminds me so much of some of the tricks the mobile phone companies use, puts me off wanting to spend much time there. The other site The Indie looks at first glance like a much more interesting site from the point of finding new music, but so far I've been struggling to find much in the way of artists that sound halfway decent. From comments on artists pages dating back to early 2010 or in some cases 2009, it seems to me the site really ought to be showing a lot more life than it is, but with no forum and seemingly no fan community perhaps this shouldn't come as so much of a surprise despite the fact I think it has an awful lot of potential otherwise as far as music lovers are concerned.

Back to Sellaband on the case of the invisible though... how many of you actually noticed Sellaband did a live stream of a Public Enemy concert? The concert was actually streamed on the 2nd November, but the banner announcing it only appeared on 1st November as far as I can tell. Unless you were lucky enough to get it as the random banner on the homepage and clicked through to the details, it's likely you'll never have known about this seeing as I didn't receive any e-mail from Sellaband or see any news article about it. Of course in true Sellaband style the text on the page itself was confusing, stating the live streaming would take place on October 2nd, even though the title clearly said November. Sellaband later put up a news article with a video of an interview they'd done before the concert itself, but I kind of feel the more interesting opportunity was botched here.

With Public Enemy having raised their budget the next "known" artist name to sign up has been Jonathan Davis of KoRn. Funding here is for a live DVD that is from a concert filmed all the way back in 2008 for his solo project Jonathan Davis and the SFA. However you need to buy two parts to actually get the DVD, as one part only grants you online viewing access for 24hrs. So far there's been much less publicity surrounding this signup than when Public Enemy came on board, but it seems a number of the diehard KoRn fans are already aware and have been quite happy to stump up 100 euros each (plus transaction costs) for the signed box set. With a $75,000 budget required, it will be interesting to see exactly how much interest does manage to find its way through the door, and how fast, given the 12 month deletion clause for projects.

Elsewhere on the site another artist we've seen before came back. The Funeral Honors raised virtually no interest the first time they were on Sellaband and disappeared off to Slicethepie where they successfully qualified for the $15,000 funding target. They've come back to Sellaband to try and raise a 34,000 euro budget, but despite having a plan that's better looking than the vast majority out there, it seems the interest level still isn't there. And whilst you might have expected their successful excursion to slicethepie means they've picked up some new fans along the way, it seems they haven't succeeded in bringing anyone back to Sellaband with them to support them as they are still on a big fat 0 euros. For those looking for an amusement factor though, you might be interested in the fact their old profile is still on the site and they seem to be visiting both profiles.

All Ages are actually also a returner to the site. Their original profile was deleted for inactivity back when Sellaband actually had a clearout. I'd already removed the parts I had in them some time before that as part of the hatchet day process. Another case of great music shame about the interest. Seems they haven't learnt anything since their previous visit to Sellaband either, judging by the amount of funding they currently have.

The only other new artist that's managed to make me notice them is a very recent signup Lillith through appearing on the forum asking for advice as they were new on the site. Perhaps further proof that my interest in Sellaband as a site is running at an all time low.

I finally got my act together recently and managed to drop in on one of Aly Cook's "kiwi Sofa" streams... well nearly. In actual fact I arrived about 10 mins after she'd finished while she was busy uploading the recording and pretty much everyone else had already left, so I stayed around and watched that. I think I've been spoiled by the likes of Mysti Mayhem and Matthew Ebel though, because I have to admit I wasn't a big fan of the audio quality. I have to admit it's the first time I've actually heard her live (well, ok, nearly live!) and despite the audio issues all I can say is Wow. I thought Mysti had a big pair of lungs, but I think Aly has an even more powerful voice. If you haven't dropped by her show yet, then my advice is do because she sure can sing. Meantime I'll see if I can get my act together again and make another visit to see if the audio was a one-off or not.

The only other thing worthy to mention at this point is the charity profile that has been started. It would seem this works differently to other profiles on the site, as the information I've read says money cannot be moved from this profile once donated and also that Sellaband don't take any administration fees if you donate to this project. Whilst I think it's an interesting development and also a nice idea in general, I do have a few worries lurking around. Firstly there's the rather bizarre statement on this page on Sellaband stating "UK charity registration pending" when the Foundation's site itself appears to be set up in Germany and the official UK government site clearly states "Unless your organisation is governed by the laws of England and Wales we cannot register you as a charity". Secondly of course is the fact that (in the UK at least) charity donations are tax deductible, meaning that if indeed it does get registered as a UK charity it would make no sense to make a donation through Sellaband anyway, if you believe in their cause and are based in the UK yourself - they'd get at least an extra 20% by you giving them the same money direct! Thirdly, although it states Sellaband doesn't take any administration fees, it isn't clear if you'll still be charged a fee to cover any Paypal/credit card fees on top of the basic donation. Call me overly suspicious, but given some of the things that have happened round Sellaband in the past, this currently comes across as something trying to take advantage of people's good nature, rather than a genuine charitable opportunity. Whilst I'm not averse to the general idea behind projects like this, this particular project is one I'll be staying clear of because I can find no basis for it actually being or even trying to become a charity (UK or otherwise). Even their own site seems to be more interested in company partnerships and sponsors.

So that's it for my last hatchet day post. Look out for my review of the year between Christmas and New Year, when you can discover (amongst other things) a moving Christmas story from Sellaband past, my impressions of my year with Matthew Ebel (remember I'm essentially a complete stranger who dived in at the deep end by joining his direct funding approach at the most expensive level possible back in January) and where (and why) this blog is heading next year, as well as my usual (yet at the same time different) music and artist favourite charts of 2010.

Monday 1 November 2010

October Roundup

Only a short (well for me at least) post again this month, due to the post about the 1000 true fans model that I've actually been writing on and off since August.

Over the course of October, it's become painfully obvious just how much trouble Sellaband is really in, and you could say that's come about purely as a result of their own doing. Firstly, the interesting change from the front page proudly displaying the number of believers and how many millions invested to a facebook addon has had me laughing. Well I have to, I'd be crying otherwise. Obviously not everyone is on facebook (I'm not - I've had a couple of dabbles in the past and that's it), but given its prevalence, the drop from nearly 70,000 believers to a mere 1,500 people who "like" Sellaband seems rather an extreme change, despite probably having been a lot closer to reality for some while now.

Secondly, Sellaband's "inactive believer parts movement" has come into effect, meaning believers who haven't logged into their profiles in 6 months are having their money diverted into projects other than the ones they originally believed in. So the second chuckle I had to have (or I'd be crying) was based on Sellaband's news article about Public Enemy getting close to reaching their target. The quote "more than a thousand die hard fans worldwide" doesn't sound quite so impressive when you consider that at least 100 of these (and probably closer to 200) are believers who had their money moved for them by Sellaband. They are one of the artists who have reached their targets during this parts movement, and despite beating both the record for highest budget raised on Sellaband and the record for highest total number of believers, the internet has basically been dead on the news front about this to date with searches still only revealing the huge number of old news stories of the original $250,000 budget and its drop to $75,000. Call me unimpressed.

Thirdly, the fact that Sellaband continues to make the site look "pretty" and continues to fail to address basic issues such as the fact the limited editions still aren't being shown in the store, the quarterly revenue payouts (the T&C are clear about when these should be paid and it just isn't happening) and having a set of FAQ which is accurate rather than blatantly false (amongst other things the FAQ still states there's a 2 week chance to reclaim your money, when this clause was taken out of the T&C weeks ago - the reality is you can't withdraw money you deposit in Sellaband at all).

And if you didn't think that little lot was enough, then perhaps you haven't seen the Sellaband commercial yet. Having viewed the English version, I was somewhat dismayed to see the "make money" message back and featuring so strongly. When combined with the issues not being addressed, I don't think Sellaband could currently come across as any more of a scam. Seems the hole just gets deeper.

This "parts movement" going on has been a little disturbing, with certain artists seemingly getting the lion's share of the moved parts based on their perceived ability to bring publicity for Sellaband. The biggest standout names in this are the "Big Name" Public Enemy, the "Dutch Superstar" Hind and the "Sellaband Commercial Stars" Unbuttoned Heart. Whilst there clearly has to be some criteria for deciding who gets moved parts, the fact only the same few names seemed to be showing in the "latest parts sold" for quite a while has raised more than a few questions, and even led to at least one artist stating they are leaving the site.

And talking of publicity, they do say that even bad publicity is good. I'd be inclined to disagree with that statement where fanfunding is concerned, as the impression you leave behind at the end of the process is likely to come back to haunt you later. An example of this came this month in the form of Hind, who managed to release her album and make it available in the shops weeks before all those believers who had pre-ordered it (or in some cases spent 100s of euros to support the project) received their copies. An attitude I find completely disrespectful towards all those people who had gone out of their way for something they could have just waited to buy on its release, and essentially a bad publicity generator for anyone hearing the music for the first time on Sellaband who might have been tempted into becoming a fan. And unfortunately therefore yet another example of an artist seemingly let down by their management - as a music lover, I've so far failed to be impressed by any artist on Sellaband towing "professional" management - the do-it-all-yourself artists seem to have a much better grasp of what motivates and retains fans. Hind could potentially have generated parts for her second project by making people happy at the fact they'd pre-ordered, rather than regretting it - as it is, it's a missed opportunity for her and Sellaband which hasn't particularly helped her reputation.

Ironically, the second stage (the project currently raising funding) for Hind is for the promotion budget for the album, so I'm also reminded of what I said in my post back in February about separating out a promotion budget as a separate project. Don't know whether Epyllion read that or not, but they've chalked another victory up for the DIYers over the "professionals" on that score, by showing the way to do it is to have the people willing to support you AND to offer something new. In their case, the low budget figure may have helped somewhat as well in terms of them becoming the first artist to successfully raise a budget for promotion on Sellaband.

This generally depressing situation with Sellaband has actually had me contemplating whether to buy a part in an artist using the revenue remaining on my balance or not. Whilst there are clearly a number of artists now heading towards target (and indeed a few that have reached it since the parts movement started) there is still the fact that I'm waiting on a number of CDs where artists reached their targets before the bankruptcy. Given the timescales involved and the fact Sellaband seems to be heading away from stability rather than towards it due to the lack of new money entering the system, I'm wondering whether it's even sensible to buy a part at the moment - even if the artist reaches target, will Sellaband go bankrupt again before the artist gets around to releasing their CD? Stay tuned for next month's post when I'll have finished my deliberations and either retrieved the money to Paypal or spent it on one of those I'm interested in that I see getting towards the top of the tree. All in all the site now feels like it's living on borrowed time.

At least the Sellaband store expanded again... well, not much.. but Sylvain Zebo does at least have a series of tracks available for download. You might struggle to find this out though, seeing as the store link has been removed unless you're logged in. If you're not logged in, for artists who have released albums and have them in the Sellaband store you now have to go to their profile and click on the "buy album" button. Interestingly there is no free track download as there has been for other artists in the past - not that that will probably matter, given how hidden this feature is in the first place.

And Finally...
It's getting towards the time of year again when I traditionally do my "review of the year" and given the Sellaband situation, it's given me a bit of a challenge to think about. There will be a post along in its usual slot over the Christmas/New Year period, but as you'll discover, there will be a few interesting changes to its content. Having limped along for most of this year and not really doing the job I'd originally set out to do with this blog, I'll also be revealing what I'll be doing with it next year. In the meantime, the next post should be out on or around the normal hatchet day on 1st December.

Sunday 31 October 2010

1000 True Friends

1000 true fans is an idea increasingly used in blog posts about music these days. Since the original post, there have been a number of others posting either in defence of the idea or to try and debunk the theory. Interestingly all the posts I've seen talk about it from the artist perspective with no consideration of the process from the fan point of view. So I have two aims with this post. The first is to look at things from that fan perspective to show you that if you want to follow that path of 1000 true fans, you need to understand that the monster you are creating is actually 1000 true friends. The second is to show you just some of the ways in which an understanding of the fan thought process can help you towards creating that monster of 1000 true fans, whether you're an artist, a fan funding site or something else, should you decide it's still something for you.

So let's start with some basics.

What is a fan?
From my own point of view there are 3 types of people wandering around out there. The first I label consumers. These are people who will not go looking for you - rather you need to go looking for them. Traditionally reliant on what the media throws in front of them to decide what they do and don't like, this is your mass-market or long tail. The second type of person is a subset of the consumer, which I refer to as a music lover. Rather than be restricted by what mass media advertises as the thing they should buy, these people also search out music. Maybe your packaging for your CD looks interesting on the shelf, maybe they read a recommendation somewhere or maybe they even heard part of a song. They'll fall over you via some interesting route and like what they hear enough to want to give you a "test drive" i.e. If they're in the right sort of mood when you grab their attention and they've got the money, it's likely you might sell a few tracks or an album just because it looks interesting. The third type of person is the fan. Unlike the first two types of people, they already know who you are, they know where to find you and most importantly they WANT to find you. Irrespective of whether they are one of the quiet lurkers silently following you around or the more rabid and noisy "true fans", they will still be looking on a regular basis to find out when you're next releasing music, whether you're playing a gig in their area etc. etc.

The path to a fan
As far as your music is concerned, everyone starts out as a consumer (or that subset of consumer known as music lover). It's only by following a particular path that they may turn into a fan. If you like music you already know this, even if it is only subconsciously. But let's lay it out anyway.

1.Discovery
It all starts with a song that grabs your attention. "hmm, I like the sound of that - who is it by?". You might hear it anywhere - the radio, the music to a TV advert, the music someone has used for their home-made video on Youtube etc. etc. It doesn't matter. What matters is the fact you've found a song you like enough to want to own. It might not be the first thing by that artist you've heard (chances of this are actually very high) but it's the first thing that has managed to hold your attention.

2. Exploration
What happens next largely depends on how much of a music lover you are, and/or how much that track has got your attention in the first place. Since the advent of the Internet, it has become a lot easier to try and track down an artist, rather than have to go down the town and browse the local record shops, or wait for their next track to appear on the radio. If you've been hooked enough by just that one song, there's a good chance you'll leap straight into the next stage of trying to track down the artist to try and find out what other songs they've done to see if you like them. But except for exceptional circumstances, one song is not going to be enough and repeated exposure is required for the interest level to rise significantly. In other words - whilst someone may buy that one song because they like it, you don't stand a chance of landing up with a fan until they've heard more than one song they like "enough". And that's something that has the potential to take months (or longer), particularly if you don't regularly catch their interest.

3. Conversion
If you reach this point, you've probably sold a few tracks or an album. If someone likes what they hear and they happen to fall over you again at a later date, they may remember you and decide to buy your next song, album or whatever, but you still can't consider them a fan until they have been converted and actually start to seek you out rather than fate bringing you back together. There are actually 2 stages in the conversion - the first provides the fan and the second is the conversion of fan into "true fan". To clear the first stage, as a rough estimate you're probably looking at a minimum of an album's worth of material (i.e. about 10 songs) that the person actually likes, and this must also form at least 75% of everything they've heard of yours up until that point. The higher the percentage of your music that they like, the more likely you are to retain them as a fan over a long period. If there are tracks they actively dislike (rather than it being a take-it-or-leave-it case) you can be in danger of losing them quite quickly.

In addition to this, in order to clear the second stage, not only are you looking at a 90%+ like rate (in practice this is often 100% or very close to), they have to have seen you play live as well. If your live performance disappoints compared to the impression given by your recorded music, at best you'll be left with a fan who will buy your next album when it comes out and at worst you'll probably lose them altogether - the full conversion to "true fan" will not complete. Even worse, getting past this second stage still only creates a pseudo "true fan". Meeting in person will either seal or break the deal - if real life doesn't match the impression you have been giving them, then someone who previously has considered themselves a "true fan" and acted accordingly up until that point could well land up changing their mind.

Interestingly I actually found this post while I was planning this episode in my blog. The thing that amazes me most about it is that its author actually had to stop and think about the process he went through. Is it really not that obvious?

What do fans want?
In two words. More music. But let me give you the longer version.
- unless they were lucky enough to find out about you by the time of your first album, you can be sure they'll want to check out your back catalog and will likely buy some or all of it if and when they can
- they want to know when your next release comes out so they can plan their finances accordingly
- they want to see you perform live to see if you're as good as your music suggests

"True fans" take this one stage further
- they want to own everything you've ever done as well as being the first in the queue for whatever you do in future. Yes, that includes that early demo that you wish in hindsight had never seen the light of day and has been long out of print.
- they have made an emotional connection to you through your music and the image you portray and they think you're one of "their kind of people"

Yes, that's correct. That "true fan" on the other side of the world is actually your best friend (in the mind of said fan at least), even though you're actually complete strangers. Scary thought huh? At some point during the conversion of fan to "true fan" they have crossed an invisible line which means they stop looking at you as a business and start looking at you the same way they would a potential friend. If you're looking for true fans you need to understand that this is the reality, spot when it happens and react accordingly.

That thought scares me. If that's the case, why do I want true fans?
What planet have you been living on? If you don't want these people, you're passing up the opportunity to get yourself some lifelong supporters of you and your music. They think you're worth every penny they pay, despite the large number of people scratching their heads wondering why someone would pay YOU that much for whatever it is you're offering. And even if they can't actually afford the super-duper-top-of-the-line version, you've still got their undying love. Seriously. True fans are there for you and they are often generous, and not just in terms of money, particularly if you're not local to them. You want that bed for the night? You got it. They know what your favourite food or restaurant is? You got it. A luxury you like but can rarely afford to have? You got that as well. The list goes on...

So do you still want to create 1000 true fans? Read on.


Some clues that you already have true fans

- they will give or send you things (often out of the blue)
- they'll visibly talk about your latest project/voting request etc. without you needing to ask for them to do so
- if you mention you have a particular problem, they'll try and help you solve it if they can without expecting anything in return
- fans may come and go, but true fans will still be there whatever the ups and downs and more importantly they'll cut you some slack when you screw up (providing you don't do it too often and don't take them for granted).

Don't forget, they're your best friends (even though you don't know them). Isn't this the kind of way you'd treat your own best friends?

Let me give you an example from a story I've heard. Matthew Ebel has a fan helping him to book shows. His take on the subject is that the fan is doing the same job as a booking agent, therefore she should have the same percentage of his fee that he would pay to a booking agent. Her response - don't be silly. Now read that example again except with the word "friend" wherever I've used the word "fan" and not only should you see the conversation from her point of view, but also get a feeling for where things ought to go next.

How to create and retain true fans
- don't fake it, always be true to yourself
Whilst it's possible to have an image, whatever you do, don't try and come across as something you're not. Your fans need to like you for being you, or they'll feel cheated when they find out the reality. Managers are highly dangerous in this regard. If you've got one of those dealing with your fans rather than dealing with them direct yourself, make sure you stay aware of what is going on between them, and make sure it's known that it's a manager and not you talking to your fans. I'll never forget the story of the Sellaband believer who spent several thousand dollars on an artist on Sellaband, only for her to not even acknowledge him when he was stood directly in front of her, when her manager had been pretending to be her and constantly talking to him telling him how wonderful he was online. In actual fact the artist herself had absolutely no idea of who he was or what he'd been doing. That kind of experience loses fans and must come as more than embarrassment for any self-respecting artist once they find out too. Let's face it, could you really trust someone if you feel deceived?

- realise that it's the little things that matter
Shortly after Second Person raised their $50,000 on Sellaband they held a concert in London. I went down to that concert on my own, not knowing anyone there - I hadn't even been to a Second Person concert before. There are also very few pictures of the "real me" lurking around online. Yet I'd barely stuck my head around the door, before a shout of "Lucretia" (the name I'm known by on Sellaband) came from across the room, and Mark from the band was on his way to meet me. And indeed he was back around several times during the evening to check I was doing OK. When you consider I either had to be introduced to everyone else I met that evening, or at best I had a few uncertain enquiries as to whether I was Lucretia, the fact Mark had made the effort to both find out who I was and look out for me with genuine enthusiasm is something that really stands out. A simple thing perhaps, but the kind of thing that leaves a lasting impression. Just as with friends, it's the little gestures that show you're interested and/or you care about them as an individual that will leave the biggest impressions on your fans.

- find a way of giving true fans what they want
Other posts on the subject of 1000 true fans make the mistake of regarding a true fan as someone who can pay you cash. This is a misconception. I said earlier that a true fan wants to own everything you've ever done or will do in future. Just because they want to own it doesn't mean they can afford to own it - at least not in the traditional sense of paying money. The future is therefore open for artists to do what they do best i.e. get creative. Everyone has different skills and different contacts and the real winners will be those artists that form relationships with each fan in a way that allows the artist to use the fan's skills to help them accomplish some goal whilst rewarding the fan for helping them complete that goal with whatever it is they want to own as a thankyou gift. But to be able to do this, you're going to have to get to know your fans in the first place. At the end of the day, wouldn't you rather have someone who is as "into" your music as you are helping you out, rather than employing someone who is basically only helping you because you're paying them? Trust me, if you can pull this one off, not only will your existing fans love you for it, but you'll find yourself with a queue of new people too as soon as it becomes known what the deal is, because I certainly haven't seen an artist manage this one yet.

In short, if you approach the problem of making new fans the same way you go about the problem of making new friends, you stand a much better chance of landing up with a true fan. Even better, once you prove to them you're as cool and as great to know as they believed you were, they'll pass that word on.

I often hear artists saying they get the best response to their music by mixing with people who share the same interests as them, rather than trying to chase after people on music sites. Duuuh! If you make friends, people may be more inclined to listen to your music and see if they like it. Is it therefore such a leap to realise that by exposing yourself online, you've already prepared the ground, so that complete stranger that pops up from nowhere probably already has some idea of what you're like and what you're into? It's almost certain they have one or more things in common with you or your outlook on life - that's a part of what gave them enough interest in you to stick their head above the parapet in the first place! As a result, the artists I've seen do best at creating fans are those that realise the process of "make friend -> make fan" works backwards as well, and know how to react to a stranger that seems to suddenly appear with an interest. The better (and faster) you are at identifying when someone has, or is in danger of crossing the line and becoming a fan, the more likely you can make a true fan out of them.


Fans and fan funding

Fan funding sites are failing because they are trying to come into the process too late. It can take a long time just to convert one person into a fan. By the time you've gathered enough fans who trust you enough to pay you for something before it has been created, the chances are you'll also have developed the infrastructure and/or the contacts to be able to do it yourself. Why would you ever pay a middleman in this case? Not only do your fans have to trust you, they then have to trust the middleman too, and if the middleman lets you down some of your fans will therefore lose trust in YOU.

Rather than centering on the artist, fan funding sites need to recognise the laws of supply and demand and realise it's actually fans that are in short supply and it is therefore the fan needs that need to be fulfilled, as the artist needs will then be fulfilled automatically. (Stop Press: Artists only have ONE major need, and that's more fans!) Without this, they will only ever be a temporary fad while artists are still busy working out the fact they could do the same thing themselves.

The fan funding site that wins will be the one which gets into the process much earlier and realises that the conversion from consumer to fan is what they actually need to help with as it's where the potential really lies. On the one hand, artists are out there looking for fans. On the other hand, the current situation encourages consumers to remain consumers, rather than converting into those true fans that every artist craves. There is so much choice of music available, but so little chance of ever seeing the artists that make that music perform that there's no incentive to become a fan (see my section above on what fans want). Anyone with half a brain knows there can be a world of difference between a recording and how good an artist actually is. So it's no wonder that there are no superstars any more - that process of becoming a fan I mentioned earlier has been stifled by the sheer amount of choice screaming for attention and the traditional industry's inability to actually link artists with fans under these conditions. Of the three artists I particularly consider myself a fan of, I've only ever seen one perform live in person - the best I've had on the other two is video/Internet performance. And there's still no sign of either of these two ever performing a show in the same country as me, let alone anywhere actually local, despite each having already released at least 4 full albums, and one of the two even being a repeated and well-known award winner and chart topper in their own country.

We're forever being told that the price of technology is coming down and it's much cheaper to do things these days. People all over are saying that streaming media is the future. Yet how many music venues do you know that record concerts? Or even better, stream it? According to the future of music, fans have more access to artists than ever before. The reality is so far the exact opposite of this - despite all the touted advances in technology and all the free services around, the artists you are most interested in are often turning out to be the ones you have least access to. And there's no sign of this situation improving.

In addition, consumers want to try before they buy in the comfort of their own home. Gone are the days of going out on a dark and rainy night only to find out that it was hardly worth it, because the "new band" you went to see were basically just no good live. Without creating the appropriate level of accessibility to meet this need, you won't create fans in future. Accessibility is the one thing than fan-funding sites and more importantly the music industry in general should be looking at creating, and both are failing heavily in this regard. No Accessibility = no reason to engage = no reason to buy and music becomes a throwaway 5 minute track based flash in the pan as a result.

If I'm not getting what I want as a fan, why shouldn't I just be a consumer? This fan disillusion is the true challenge that the music industry needs to face and overcome, now that the music you can listen to is worldwide and no longer limited to artists in your own local area and whoever the music industry in your country is currently pushing.

The cost of true fans
Assuming I've properly managed to get over the idea that fans are actually your friends, it's time to understand what the cost of the 1000 true fans route is, and therefore why it will likely only ever work to an extent, rather than its full potential.

1. Time is not on your side
Can you spare 5 minutes of your time every week for your best friend? In reality, I'm willing to bet you spend somewhat more than 5 minutes a week on average with your best friend. But if we go with the theory that a true fan is your best friend, and attempt to spend just 5 minutes in a week with each, then if you have 1000 true fans, you'd need to spend nearly 12 hours every day, including weekends, to cover the lot. Assuming you sleep for 8 hours, that means you would have just 4 hours to do everything else including actually create music. Clearly not practical. Collecting and retaining a large number of true fans is therefore very difficult through time pressures alone.

2. One true love
Out of all the artists that an individual gets exposed to in their lifetime, you'll likely be able to count the number of artists they are a "true fan" of on just one hand. And possibly just one finger. Whilst they may consider themselves a fan of a much larger number, they'll only ever go that real extra mile for those currently at the top of their own personal pile. Given the millions of artists in the world, chances are it's not your day. The true fan relationship is much like searching for your soulmate - that one true love. Even though the fan is extremely compatible with your music, given enough time, the law of averages states that someone with even more compatible music is going to come along and oust you. How long can you retain your one true musical love status, so you can actually increase your number of true fans rather than merely replacing some of them?

3. Are you superman (or woman)?
It takes a special kind of person to truly cultivate true fans. I've been lucky enough to meet with some during my time on Sellaband, and I suspect a number of others based on their correspondences with myself or others, including one that I personally think can't sing for toffee. But one man's trash is another man's treasure in that regard, and they definitely exhibit all the other signs that would encourage someone who is into their music to consider becoming a true fan.

None of these people ever stop. I still remember sharing a taxi back to the airport in Amsterdam with Lily Vasquez at 4am - two hours before I actually needed to be there. She had pretty much been everywhere and spoken to everyone over the course of the weekend, and whilst I'd attempted to grab a few hours sleep before the taxi she hadn't even been to bed. I'm sat there feeling like the bleary eyed owl that's been woken in the middle of the afternoon, staring out of one half-closed eye wishing everyone would just buzz off and leave it to sleep and Lily was still fired up and on the go. To be able to put that amount of time and dedication into people and still be going takes a special kind of person, and it's exactly that kind of person that is best suited to creating large numbers of true fans. Are you that superman (or woman) or are you the bleary-eyed owl like me?

Whilst the 1000 true fans route sounds idyllic, the reality is that it's pretty much impossible to keep up the level of interaction that's required to keep that going for any period of time. But clearly, you can work with a smaller number and still keep them happy enough to want to retain their "true fan" status.

Fans need to learn too
It's only really since I pushed myself out of the consumer pile and took a real interest in Sellaband, that it's become apparent that for the music industry to move forward, fans need to understand a few things too.

1. "Sold Out" is a reality that isn't going anywhere
Some of the cries most often heard from fans is that an artist has "sold out" and/or doesn't have time for their fans any more. However fans need to realise the reasons why artists don't have a lot of time for them, and the fact this problem isn't going to go away. Just because an artist is doing it all themselves and doesn't have a manager, record label etc. in the way doesn't mean there's going to be any more opportunity to interact with them. We're back to that fact that it takes 12 hours every day in order to spend just 5 minutes of time a week with every true fan.

The average person has absolutely NO idea of the realities that artists have to cope with and the amount of time it takes, and even after 4 years I'd still consider that I've barely started to learn. By educating fans and giving them this understanding, more of them will start to cut you some slack and you'll also find yourself with better fan retention. If people don't understand something, they speculate and ultimately that lack of understanding is what often leads to those cries of "sold out". Engage them, involve them, but overall educate them if you want to beat this.

2. Be more open to interacting with artists
It's a huge temptation to only interact with artists you're really interested in, but by getting to know some of the others who openly exhibit the signs that encourage true fans you could be doing everyone a favour.

At the end of the day, there are a number of artists I've encountered and talked to on Sellaband that I feel truly guilty about the fact that I don't like their music more (or even don't like it at all). From the perspective of creating true fans, they're going about it the right way but for me the "musical spark" just isn't there for me to want to create the relationship. But the fact that I've interacted with these people, or even just paid attention to the way they interact with others gives me the opportunity to tell someone who asks me whether I like a particular artist the fact that even though I don't like their music, they come across as someone worthy of the effort. True fans are looking for interaction, so if I as a music lover can help direct another towards their "musical soulmate" without them having to sift so much of the junk by trial and error, surely that has to be a win for everybody?

3. It works both ways
The good news for potential fans out there is that it works both ways. In my experience, the artists most deserving of true fans are also the ones who appreciate them the most. They will be as excited to meet you as you are to meet them if not more so, assuming they ever get the opportunity. But by the same token that means EVERYTHING works both ways. If you truly want the kind of level of interaction which can only be offered to a "true fan", then you have got to step up to the plate and fulfil your side of the bargain. In the new music industry the artist - true fan relationship is a self-sustaining one, but you're going to have to be a true fan, and not merely a fan. That artist you love is going to need to trust you as much as you do them (if not more so, seeing as they probably know less about you than you do them) if you're going to move forward together, and that means that all the qualities you're looking for in them, they need to be able to find in you too. When they ask for your support in something, you need to be there to give it,assuming it's possible for you to do so. Are you up to that kind of challenge?

So. Artists. Fans. What are you waiting for? Get out there and make some true friends.

Friday 1 October 2010

September roundup

The main post this month is something I thought should be written as an article in its own right, so here's just a quick roundup of the other things going on.

I mentioned last month that I'd received the mp3s for Francis Rodino's new EP. Well the CD itself has now arrived as well, meaning the Pledge music process has been somewhat faster than the Sellaband one, both in terms of the time for fundraising and the time between completion of fundraising and release. Meanwhile, I'm still waiting on a number of artists from Sellaband for their CDs, including several who completed funding back in 2008.

And this increasing wait for Sellaband artists is just one of many things completely putting people off the site. In the first week of September, the friend from my university days has finally had enough and updated his Sellaband status to read "Goodbye Sellaband. It was nice while it lasted, but it's time to move on". Looking at the list of 25 artists he had bought parts in, it looks like he is still waiting for 3 or 4 CDs as well, but otherwise has decided he won't be buying any more.

AmieStreet closes down and redirects to Amazon. I managed to get nearly all the remaining money I had there into tracks and downloaded, but their servers were obviously overloaded with people in the same kind of rush, as the process took me several attempts over a number of days to complete. This is yet another case that highlights the fact of why I'd much rather have an album than download mp3s. Every time a site like this closes down or moves on you're in danger of losing the music you paid for. At least with a CD, the chances are you can still rip it again quite happily. And at your own leisure rather than being forced into a deadline too - essentially your music backup is already created! The $5 Amazon voucher was no compensation for non-US buyers though, as even if you redeem the voucher it can't actually be spent if you live outside the USA.

I am enjoying the site that the amiestreet people have moved onto though. Whilst Songza is aimed as being for a group of people to collaborate on playlists, I'm actually finding it the best site I visited since Yahoo terminated their Launchcast service. No prizes for guessing it's the music site I'm spending most time on at present. Essentially it allows you to set up a streaming station which only plays what you choose. The main downside compared to Launchcast is that it doesn't suggest artists for you to listen to based on what the station already plays, so essentially you have to go find and add songs yourself. I do have a few gripes with it, such as the fact you can't remove a track you may have added by mistake, nor can you remove a station once you've created it. (My initial experimentation meant I landed up creating 2 stations of the same name). Also the fact you can't listen to a preview of the track to check it's a) the right one and b) it's OK can be a bit of a problem. For example I went and added Lordi's "The Arockralypse" album and it's obvious the encoding is screwed up. This means every track on the entire album is playing in mega-slo-mo satanic, which is somewhat ironic when you consider the band's actual image.

For those of you interested in Indie artists, it's quite interesting what I've dug up on there (and indeed what I haven't). For instance there's no sign of Nemesea, yet all you Lily and Cubworld fans can go listen to their Sellaband albums (amongst those of many other 50K artists). And it doesn't stop there. Radius have their single "Prisoner of your love" on there, even though their album isn't yet released. And there's even music from artists on Sellaband who haven't reached a target such as some Wetwerks tracks. Matthew Ebel's back catalogue appears to have been sneezed on, meaning there's a howling gap after his album "Beer and Coffee" with the next album being "Songs from the vault vol 2.", meaning SFTV vol 1 and a couple of others from the intervening era are missing. There's also quite a few artists I recognise from either Stereofame or Thesixtyone that i've been able to dig up as well. In short it's well worth having a look to see who you can search up, as the site contains a broad selection of well known and indie artists, and also covers music released from at least the 1950s to (almost) current based on who I listen to that I've found. I'm still working on my own (call it personal) radio station, but if you've got anyone you think I ought to listen to, then here's the station you can add to A username I recognise from Sellaband has already come in and started adding some stuff to this one as well. Basically go ahead and knock yourselves out and join them.

Using Songza is currently completely free. More importantly there's absolutely nothing to download - it streams the music without bothering you to install any player, library management software or other junk that sites seem so keen to throw at you these days. There are some adverts on the site, but you can quite happily swap out to another tab or minimise your browser and it will keep playing so you don't have to be disturbed by them at all. But I find myself wondering how long the service will a) remain free and b) whether it will eventually go the same way as the likes of Pandora and lock non-US users out of the system. Which would be a real shame, as this is currently the streaming service most closely meeting what I want from a streaming service.

That's it for the September roundup. The main post looking at the "1000 true fans" model from the fan point of view will be along in the next couple of days, and that's one you really won't want to miss.

Wednesday 1 September 2010

End of an Era (part 2)

Before I take a look at this month's post, let's just take a quick follow up on last month.

As I start writing this, the Sellaband site should be down for maintenance. With only about 24 hrs to go, a series of news articles appeared about the changes during this maintenance, highlighting a very highly disturbing set of changes for both artists and believers. It's also interesting to note that none of the changes seem to have been communicated direct to artists or believers prior to them coming into force (no e-mail has landed in my direction at least) i.e if you hadn't visited the site and read the articles, then you're likely to be getting a shock next time you visit. Here's a quick summary of the main changes.

- The 2-week refund clause in the T&C is being removed completely. That's right.. no refunds from the Sellaband system EVER. The only money you will be able to get out of the site is the money Sellaband credits to you as part of revenue share (and then only if you haven't tried to buy a part with it).

-instead of using USD, the system is switching to Euros. That means every budget and every balance will be going through a one-time currency conversion, and the new part price will be 10 Euros for all new projects (existing projects are likely to have a figure around 7.8 Euros depending on exact exchange rate at the time). Given the current exchange rate, this means albums have effectively received another price hike to go on top of the one introduced with the previously increased fees. Whilst it does appears fees for deposits may be reduced again under the new system, this increase of more than 25% on part price will likely more than make up for that reduction.

-projects have 12 months to get their funding or be deleted, Whilst this should be one very good way for clearing out the inactives, when combined with the no-refund policy, the increased chance of locking money into the system is likely to scare people off completely. I can't see any self-respecting artist wanting to risk the money of their hard-earned fans (and hence their own reputation and likelihood to retain those fans) in this way, so I'm expecting most if not all of the new artists signing up to be there for the promotion rather than seriously trying to raise a budget (no real change there then, except that it might become even more pronounced). I can also forsee a number of artists with fans trapped in the system reducing their budgets over the next few weeks in an attempt to get out intact before the 12 month deadline strikes as a result.

-if you are a believer who hasn't logged into the site in a while and you have money in there, there is a good chance Sellaband will move your money into an artist of their own choosing. Yes, that's correct - so much for "Your music, your choice" (one of the original slogans of Sellaband). You'll still be entitled to the incentives etc. of the artist your money is moved into should you later turn up, but don't be surprised to see you bought a hip-hop CD even if you were only into classical piano, or some other unlikely/unexpected combinations happening if you don't keep dropping by the place regularly.

-Sellaband themselves will put 5% of the 15% money they receive (i.e. one third of what they receive) from completed projects into new projects. IMO, yet another blow for the "your music, your choice" ideal of the original Sellaband which was designed to let the music lovers choose which projects they wanted to hear, rather than have the choices forced upon them by record companies. To find that 5% of the money you pay for projects you like is going into projects you may not like is something that is not likely to go down well with people who came to the site to support a particular artist - I'm sure they'd much rather that money went to "their" artist than someone else. Rather than new music industry, this feels more like a return to the old, where successful albums were used to finance the less successful ones.

Here's hoping they get all the inconsistencies in the T&C ironed out as well, so that it stops looking like it was written by a 5 year old! (or younger, if that's the way you feel about the current set), but I think for me at least, these changes are probably the final nail in the Sellaband story due to being too disrespectful towards those who have been (and are) willing to put more into music than just buying a finished product from a shop. For sure, no new money will be going in from my end under the incoming set of Terms and Conditions, and unless someone whose music I like comes within completion distance on funding within the next couple of months, you can pretty much guarantee the little money I have remaining on my revenue balance (currently just over an "old" part) will be coming out before Christmas. (I did try to remove it the day before the site maintenance in fact, but surprise surprise, withdrawals were "temporarily unavailable" for the whole day and there was no response to my support request either)

Slim Void albums finally arrive for believers, however the corresponding incentives are seemingly missing. I know this, because with 5 parts I should have been receiving some discount vouchers and there were certainly none in the envelope. Apart from this issue, outstanding CDs are (so far at least) slowly coming through, but there's still a distinct feeling that backlog needs to be caught up with before anyone would start looking seriously at the site, even if we ignore the other gripes around. To give you some idea of the scale of the backlog of projects, of the 36 artists I bought parts in who completed funding, I'm still waiting on 11 for the results (this includes the one I mentioned last month that I was chasing), some of which are already over 12 months since completing funding ,and I certainly don't have parts in everyone who completed funding prior to the bankruptcy.

And so onto the topic for this blog post.

During my time on Sellaband,I've bought parts in a large number of different artists, some of whom raised a budget, some of whom left the site, and some of whom I landed up removing parts from due to the restrictive terms and conditions on the site. As promised in my last installment, this post is going to be about my own personal "pick of the bunch" that I'm keeping a particular eye on. Irrespective of whether Sellaband survives, at the end of the day I'm still a music lover and that means there are artists I will follow for one reason or another that little bit more actively than leaving it to chance encounter at some future date to remind me they exist.

1. Brad Cox/Skitzo Calypso
Although I've been struggling a bit with the Skitzo Calypso back catalog in particular, as quite a bit of it is that bit too far off the mainstream compared to what I listen to, I still consider Brad as a very interesting songwriter. Somewhat obscure lyrically, it makes for a refreshing (and more interesting) change from the large number of artists who seem to have a very limited vocabulary where songwriting is concerned. He's certainly capable of writing stuff I like a lot (as his solo projects Niki Thunders and We Love The Underground have proved) and will remain as one of the top three I'll be lurking around after on a very regular basis as a result.

2. Matthew Ebel
As regular readers of this blog know, I'm actually one of Matthew's 5 Entourage members, having snapped up the last spot a few days into 2010. This has proved to be a great call on my part - as I suspected and stated in a previous blog post, I can't find a song of his that I don't like. Of all the artists I've ever encountered, this makes him only the third for which this statement currently holds true (and he has a fairly decent sized back catalog to have a go at). In songwriting terms, he's clearly at his strongest when he has an emotional connection with his subject matter, whether that be the result of personal experience or his storytelling imagination, and that seems to reflect through on the most popular songs with his fans too.

If you're wondering about the incentives that come as part of my subscription level - well I've got no complaints - the goody bag (including framed/signed CD) arrived OK this past month. In addition, he's already written my custom song and it's actually the last song that's been released as part of his "2 songs a month" subscription. You see, he's now taking on the likes of Sellaband, Slicethepie, Pledge music et al. at their own game. That's right - he's fan funding his next album without using a fan funding site, so the only middleman involved is Paypal (and then only for the fees to transfer the money from you to him).

The project itself basically replaces his 2 free songs a month - instead you get access to the project "as it happens" - written drafts, sketches, rough songs, behind the scenes etc. as well as the finished article, which so far is seemingly going to consist of a book, CD and graphic novel. Add to this the fact he's only started off on this in August and the whole lot is due to be done in 12 months, and I find myself staring at the potential for a very interesting lesson in fan funding. I hope he pulls it off (I have faith that he will at least come close to that 12 month deadline), because it will throw down the gauntlet to ANY fan funding site to explain why they are needed (i.e. you've probably only got until July/August next year to show why you're not an obsolete idea and therefore why artists should use you, rather than pulling in the funding direct themselves). After all, what makes for the more interesting story? - the fact that the monetary and publicity power of a "household name" such as Public Enemy, combined with a company such as Sellaband can't pull off BOTH the funding AND delivery of an album project (with incentives) within 12 months, or a guy who (basically) nobody has ever heard of can on his own. You can be sure I'll keep you up to date on whether or not Matthew Ebel looks like making the grade on this one, unless you want to sign up over here and find out first-hand.

3. Bulletproof Messenger
The first artist on Sellaband that grabbed my attention enough to "want to buy a part now", they actually appeared during one of the competitions on the site and so far look to be the only artist I see definitely heading towards some kind of success. All of their recent gigs have seen them as support to an artist I've actually heard of and who gets regular airplay on one of the UK music TV channels. In many cases the name in question is one I more usually hear as a support name for someone else - but to get to support the support of the well known is clearly getting pretty close towards the top of the pile. I may not be seen to be around these guys - rather consider that I'm lurking heavily in the shadows, ready to reappear (probably when least expected).

4. Phil Tweed
I'm actually still playing chess against my long time favourite from Sellaband. Unlike Brian Taylor, Phil has actually managed to beat me on a few occasions now - I think we're currently running at a rate of him winning one for every three or four I do. Whilst a very slow musical creator in general (think of it as creating a masterpiece rather than a song), I actually prefer his original music to his covers - and believe me I've heard quite a few jazz standard covers in my time. I'm pretty sure I'll be lurking back around in his direction with some money next time he manages to get an album together.

5. Francis Rodino
When I removed my money from Sellaband after the bankruptcy, Francis was one of the artists who got some of it. Whilst believers are left waiting around on Sellaband for CDs of artists who completed their funding back in 2008, Francis has so far managed to raise the funding and release the digital copy for his EP this year via Pledge music. With the album release party scheduled for October and the physical copies currently being duplicated and packaged, it seems likely that Sellaband believers will still be waiting for 2008 albums from some artists when Francis' Pledge supporters have already received their 2010 ones. Pledge shows only just over 100 supporters compared to the more than 650 that are listed for his Sellaband album, so it would be interesting to know whether the price, site or length (i.e. EP vs album) put people off. Or indeed whether the length of time after funding completed for his Sellaband album to be released was the deciding factor (more than 12 months at a time when the contracts were supposedly significantly less).

As my own "pick of the bunch" of the UK artists I've encountered on Sellaband based on his ability to entertain a crowd, it's good to see this release out in a timely fashion whilst at the same time making me wonder what the real story of his Sellaband album taking so long in comparison was. One interesting thing for you though - it may be a little early to make a proper comparison, given the Pledge 192kb mp3 vs Sellaband 320kb mp3 and the fact I don't have the CD yet, but for all you music purists out there, the production on the Pledge EP certainly feels lower that the Sellaband album from what I've had available to me so far. Will be interested to hear what the genuine article (i.e. the disc itself) sounds like.

6. Best of the rest
In addition to the above, there are a few artists I am likely to drop in on occasionally. These are generally ones I've seen perform live and/or who have managed to do something in particular to impress me to the extent that while I may not be the biggest fan of their music, they are certainly someone I'd recommend to others based on my own experiences, and who knows, I may well be caught around their site buying music at a later date if I find something I like.

Aly Cook
At the end of the day, being female, I tend to fit the stereotype that my major likes are more likely to be male. There are a few ladies who have particularly managed to impress though. As the only female in the list that I can claim as one I haven't seen perform live in person, rather it's Aly's approach to music as a business and towards new model music methods of promotion etc. that earns her most of this recommendation. After Matthew Ebel, this is probably the artist I'd be most comfortable to trust with money for direct funding rather than using a middleman of those I've encountered on Sellaband. And as I haven't met her, or even had much direct contact with her (whereas I have with a number of other artists mentioned in this post), I think you'd have to agree that has to be quite some statement.

Daniel Ward-Murphy
Probably my biggest regret here is the fact I don't like his music more. I think the nearest I came to kicking myself that I hadn't bought more parts in his Sellaband album was when he put up the video for "The Queen of Something New" as it managed to grab me in a way that none of his previous stuff had quite managed. (Un)fortunately (depending on your point of view) the rest of the album didn't have quite the same impact when it appeared. A solid performer, the opportunity I had to see him soundcheck is probably the thing that opened me most up to him musically. But I suppose the real thing here is that if I had to choose an underdog I'd like to see kick the traditional music industry in the nuts and achieve success, then I think I'd be making my choice here, purely on the basis that Dan is one of the good guys who prefers to stay out of controversy and just do his thing. Given the adage about where nice guys are supposed to finish, this is one person I think deserves to prove that adage wrong.

Lily
If ever there were an example candidate for the 1000 true fans model, Lily would be it. Whilst I'd say she's currently missing some of the business side to get it to work, in person she has exactly the right personality and approach towards fans that is required. Trust me, if you fall in love with Lily's music, you'll fall in love with her as well. I'm looking at the whole issue of fan funding and 1000 true fans in my next blog post, so hopefully after that you'll get a better understanding of what I'm on about here.

Trail
Hands up who remembers Trail? The ones that got away from Sellaband back in the 50K budget days (after raising something like half that amount) and went to Slicethepie to raise a budget instead. I didn't help fund them over there because I don't like the way the site works, but I still keep a passing eye on them because they have several great tunes. Interestingly when Daniel Ward-Murphy was asking for people to vote for him in the Pepsi Max-IT Legends competition recently, Trail's video for City was one of the videos he was up against. Wonder how many of you noticed that? (They finished 9th to DWM's 3rd in the 3rd round if you were interested)

Nemesea
The first artist to raise 50K on Sellaband and the first artist I went "guardian angel" on (ah... but you don't know that story), I feel they've got a lot of untapped potential they haven't quite managed to release. Hopefully their third studio album will be out soon, but there's very little information about it on their website to date.

So that's my list for you. Like I said earlier, I'll be looking at the idea of 1000 true fans and its relationship to fan funding in the next post. There are plenty of lessons to be learnt from Sellaband (add to that quite a few BY Sellaband) in this area, not least of which is the differences and motivations between the different types of people making up potential sales. So far, I haven't seen a single funding site that understands this and even artists themselves seem to be struggling when it comes to truly understanding why something they do works (or not). So discover 1000 true fans from the fan point of view next time which is going to lead us nicely onto where I'm looking at heading with this blog now that I no longer have the "Sellaband" in the title.

Sunday 1 August 2010

End of an Era

It's now heading towards six months since the demise and rebirth of Sellaband, and an appropriate update to this blog is long overdue as a result.

Part of the reason for the delay in me putting my thoughts about the whole matter down in writing is hinted at if you went past my Twitter page in the couple of months after the initial bankruptcy. Shortly after the site went bankrupt I started having vision problems, and after a whole series of blood tests they've determined I'm not diabetic (at least not yet), but the reason for my ongoing inability to keep objects in focus at random intervals is still unknown, although they did find my vision in one eye has deteriorated significantly. I was forced to limit my time spent staring at things (particularly computer screens) as a result, so my original posting plans kind of went out the window.

Anyway to get back to the matter at hand, one of the things you ought to have noticed first is that the title of this blog has changed. No longer "The Sellaband knifelady" but merely "The knifelady". I felt it was the only appropriate action to take at the time, and at the moment my view on putting it back hasn't changed. So far, the "new Sellaband" management haven't managed to convince me the site remains worth supporting. Rather the case is more the opposite, particularly when I consider both what has (and hasn't) happened since my last post, and when I look at the current status of the site.

For those who have missed the action as it happens, here's a list of just some of the issues bothering people that were either present on the old site, or when the site reappeared. I'll take a better look at each one in detail in a moment.

1. Changes to Sellaband Terms and Conditions
2. Limited Edition CDs
3. "Leftover" artists
4. Revenue Share
5. "Inactive" artists
6. Discoveries
7. Non-deliveries

1. Changes to terms and conditions
The first big change after the new site came back up was a change in the Terms and Conditions of the site which meant it was no longer possible for believers to remove money from the site before an artist reached their target. This was a fundamental principle behind trusting the original Sellaband - the fact that if an artist left the site or just didn't go anywhere budgetwise you could take your money out at any time. The new T&C mean this has basically changed to a 2 week "cooling off" period. i.e. you can only remove money within the first two weeks of making the original deposit. After that, whilst you can remove your parts from an artist you can't then request that money back out of the site. Effectively it's stuck on the escrow account and you can only buy parts in another artist with it. A bit hard to understand why the escrow account is therefore still referred to as such, because it seems much less likely there could be any claim to this money by believers if the site goes bankrupt again given the new T&C. Most active believers seem to have withdrawn most or all of their remaining funds in the place as a result of this simple change. And yes, I was among them on that score. Two weeks is certainly not enough time for a site to recover after a bankruptcy, and when you're faced with the choice of getting the money within that two weeks or never being able to retrieve it again, most people made the obvious choice. With projects having no fixed time limit, the risk of buying parts which you can't retrieve has soared. Only one project to date has completed funding in less than a fortnight. In short, there's no incentive for believers to buy parts in Sellaband artists any more unless they are a few parts away from their target as the risks now outweigh the potential rewards.

Things don't look that much better from the artist side either. Artists who completed projects under the system where they could choose the budget and incentives, rather than being tied to the 50K deal are now finding they are having to collect the names and addresses of believers who funded them themselves, despite this information being in the Sellaband system. Believers also have to work at this, rather than it being automatic as the best Sellaband does is send a mail asking you to send your details to the artist. So far, two artists I believe in that fall into this category have completed their projects with Sellaband, and I've had to chase up BOTH myself in an attempt to get my CDs (one received so far, the other I'll have to wait until at least the end of August for as the artist is away). Compared to the old Sellaband system, if this is showing the start of a trend it's highly disturbing - I've had no such problems when Sellaband rather than the artist has been the sender for a completed project in the past.

The overall feel given off is now one of the greedy middleman who takes a percentage of the money believers deposit up-front as admin fee, plus a further 10% of the project amount if the project completes, yet does nothing in return for the artist as they are left to organise themselves and deliver the project to believers. Matthew Ebel's reason for leaving the site therefore looks spot on - what is the point of using a middleman if you still have to do all the work yourself?

Sellaband say their reason for the change is because the site was not legal due to the fact you could remove money at any time. Interestingly, the spin-off project of one of the original founders Africa Unsigned, is still running and still offers believers the chance to remove their money at any time. What is legal and what is not? Are Sellaband's reasons genuine or are believers just being fed an excuse for this change in the T&C? The jury is still out on this one.

2. Limited Edition CDs
To add insult to injury on the believers side, Sellaband then came up with a solution to the LE Cds that believers had left with them to be sold via the shop. Quite simply put, they asked believers to either pay for the shipping and have them all sent home or basically treat them as a donation. i.e. they would ask the artists in question if they wanted to pay the shipping to have the CDs sent to them instead. If nobody wanted to pay this postage Sellaband were planning on using them for promotion. Yes, that's correct. Either you had to pay to get the CDs you already paid for sent to you or or they would be given away and you wouldn't receive a penny for what was actually your property. After an outcry, it seems someone came forward to offer free storage for the remaining CDs but several believers are so sick to death of the place they've actually paid to have their remaining CDs sent home, hence severing the last of their ties with the place and their likelihood to even visit again, never mind spend money. Not a good start for the new management.

Despite this backtracking, the issue still isn't resolved. Even though Sellaband have turned round and said, "OK, the CDs can still be kept with us for free and sold in the shop", in actual fact not a single artist is showing LE CDs as being available to buy, even though there are still definitely a large number available for most of the artists in question.

There are also a number of legacy issues to worry believers which have still not been sorted out. Some of these have been discussed on the Sellaband forums, but there are a number that appear to have been overlooked.

3. "Leftover" artists
Firstly there are a number of questions regarding the "leftover" artists from 2008. For those not in the know, there are a number of artists who completed their funding back in 2008 but no CD has yet been seen, despite the 6 month (later changed to 9 month, and more recently in the new T&C 12 months) required for completion of the project. In some cases we know there have been delays due to the "old" Sellaband being very slow in bill paying, but only one of the artists in question is currently looking close to releasing a CD, as believers have finally been asked how many CDs they want sent home. There is also a nice "caveat emptor" in the message from Sellaband which basically states that you can have all CDs sent home as soon as they are available for free, but if you choose to leave them in the shop and then later change your mind, you'll have to pay the postage. Given the lack of Limited Edition CDs actually available in the Sellaband shop (as I've already mentioned) it will be interesting to see how believers react to this one.

But, let's not forget that things are not simple any more. As the site went bankrupt, artists were entitled to release themselves from their contracts with the site and reclaim their masters. What this means for artists who haven't even produced a CD yet is unclear. Do they even have to produce a CD any more? Do they have to sign a completely new contract? And from those few questions, I'm sure you can figure out a flood more that come to mind. The management for Clemence have already asked for her albums and downloads to be removed from the Sellaband shop (this has been done), and this in turn raises questions about the remaining LE CDs believers have left with Sellaband for this artist to be sold in Sellaband's shop.

We then have the case of the post-2008-but-pre-bankruptcy artists. Under Sellaband's incentive system, there were things like publishing share as well as revenue share included, along with vouchers for half price CD copies from the shop. So let's go back to that magic question about the site going bankrupt and artists being entitled to release themselves from their contracts and stop and consider the implications for the revenue and publishing shares for believers. If an artist walks away, is the reality that the contract with believers has been broken too? i.e. that believers will never see any revenue share or publishing from these artists?

One artist falling into this category is Slim Void. At the time of writing, believers have still not received anything from this artist, despite tracks being available to download since April. None of the promised CDs, no discount vouchers - nothing. Nor has there been any announcement as to when these might be expected. A visit to their page merely reveals a plan which states "All done from our side" and no real enlightenment from the comments on their wall either.

4. Revenue Share
But further to the comments I've already made about revenue share, there is of course the fact that this same problem applies to virtually every artist who has ever raised a budget on Sellaband. Nemesea chose not to sign up to the 5 year deal that was offered when artists were given a choice back at the first main T&C change in 2009, and they were out of their 2 year deal period when the site went bankrupt, but for other artists the question of what happens with the revenue shares for believers remains.

Sellaband have recently sorted out the transferring money part at least, meaning the first payment this year to believers has finally been made. However I expect some will be confused by the new 2-tier balance system, where the "old" balance contains money that cannot be removed from Sellaband and you have a second balance (called the revenue balance) with a choice of paying out to Paypal, or transferring to the "old" balance to spend. It's also unclear whether money transferred from the revenue balance to the other is subject to the 2-week "cooling off" period in the T&C from the date you choose to do the transfer, or whether this is immediately locked and cannot be removed. Anyone intending to leave money in the site in the hopes of buying a part later will therefore probably leave this in the revenue balance if they're smart. Though some would say the smarter option is to remove the money altogether.

5. Inactive artists
Obviously the changes to the Terms and Conditions sparked a number of artists who wanted to leave the site. Additionally, regular readers of my blog will know I've been complaining on and off since April 2007 about the fact that Sellaband just don't delete profiles of artists that have left the site. It probably will therefore come as no surprise that there has been very little "tidying up" of inactive profiles since the bankruptcy, covering artists in both these categories. In fact, you don't have to look very hard to find profiles of artists stating in their Sellaband profiles they are "leaving Sellaband" but still showing within the top 100 artists on the site. Whilst Sellaband is putting out some nice "pretty" updates to its website, such as a twitter-style activity feed, it seems that the real issues with the site that could be sorted, such as this one, continue to be as overlooked by the new management as they were with the old.

6. Discoveries
In addition to the obvious problems, there are also some worrying stories beginning to emerge. Reports that the curator handling the bankruptcy is looking into a $300,000 discrepancy in the escrow account as part of that process have been coming to light. Given this represents the equivalent of 6 projects under the original Sellaband T&C (and more than 10% of completed projects so far) it's quite a worrying figure and doesn't inspire confidence, particularly when combined with the other issues floating around.

The other thing discovered has been the existence of "special contracts". In fact, based on the responses to the forum thread, it seems the "special contract" rather than the "standard contract" could perhaps be considered more the norm. The suggestion here, is that the set of T&C artists agree to when they sign up does NOT in fact form the basis of the contract they sign on completion of their budget. Rather than merely a rubber-stamp approval to confirm on the conditions they originally signed to, it would appear contracts have in fact been written up and agreed on an individual basis for many artists in the past after the target has been reached, without believers being aware of this fact. How many of these "special contracts" also have bearing on the next section is unclear

7. Non-deliveries
The rate of non-delivery of promises has actually been quite shocking. Some of the cases are down to artists quite simply promising to tour and promote so that you WILL get a return on investment, and hence convincing believers to buy parts. There are however a number of cases that could be considered more serious than this. Here's just a few of the highlights.

Second Person's album was essentially a concept album consisting of 5 songs with 5 associated videos that all believers would receive. The first video was released along with the album, but the other 4 have never seen the light of day. Second Person cancelled their second Sellaband project a while back because the members "wanted time off to deal with their solo projects", so it is still unknown if/when the rest of these promised videos will ever appear.

Clemence did a 7 song album for believers, however it was then revealed she had gone on to record a further number of songs and would be releasing a CD with a record label containing BOTH these songs and the songs from her Sellaband project. Essentially, purchasers of that CD would get a double album with 14 songs for the same price that they could buy her 7 song album from Sellaband. There was an outcry. Sellaband promised believers they had agreed a deal with Clemence and believers would also get a copy of the other album for free. No prizes for guessing this has never been seen.

AIOIA were another concept base. In this case believers were promised 3 CDs about this "alien culture". The Sellaband funding would be used for one of these albums, one was already being produced and separate funding would be achieved for the third. However the poster of this information subsequently fell out with the artist and apparently various legal actions ensued. As one of those not interested in this particular project, I have no idea what believers eventually received, but judging by the large number of comments on the forum at the time, it certainly wasn't what was promised and believers weren't happy about it.

What now?
So in summary then, despite the fact there are artists continuing to crawl through to targets, the Sellaband landscape actually looks quite bleak. Too many issues remain as big red flags with the system with no clue as to when they will be resolved, and given past performance of artists who have been left unregulated it's still impossible to recommend Sellaband to others nearly six months down the line. Add to this the fact there are other sites out there offering artists exactly the same service under better conditions for both artists and believers and it's clear that without some radical changes soon to address the situation, the only way will be down into another bankruptcy.

As a result, like others I'm waiting to see what Sellaband themselves come up with before I consider putting any money into the site in future. Quite simply there are better choices around. Also believer confidence has been dented too heavily for most existing ones to want to support the place at the moment. Again, another fundamental principle behind the original Sellaband applies here - the fact that they had industry professional experts who would control the process, rather than you feeling you were being asked to give your money to any tom, dick or harry you'd never heard of before that came along is one of the things that gave people confidence to join the site. History has proven somewhat different to this and with artists now left in complete control and Sellaband clearly stating in their T&C they won't be responsible, the question becomes how can you know which artists you should trust? And with existing believers (including me) giving off no-confidence vibes, what chance is there for new blood to be brought into the site?

The issue of non-delivery also has wider implications for fan-funding. I'll be exploring that in two posts time, when I take a look at what lessons there are to be learned based on my Sellaband experiences and revealing why Sellaband as it currently stands and similar services could be definitely proved as obsolete and unnecessary in just over 12 months from now. Anyone interested in fan-funding or the concept of 1000 true fans should definitely not miss this one.

For my next post though, I'll be looking at some of the artists I've encountered on Sellaband. Some are still around the place and some have most definitely moved on, but all have one thing in common - they are ones I am still following. Everyone has their "artist gems" from the site and these are mine. Find out who I'm following and the story behind why next time around.

Tuesday 23 February 2010

Sellaband goes bankrupt

If there's one thing I hate, it's the regularity with which my alarm bells tend to be right. I told you in my February hatchet day post that I'd been rattled out of my comfort zone and it seems the calm has ended and the predicted storm has arrived in the form of Sellaband declaring bankruptcy. Not necessarily what I was thinking of at the time I wrote my original comments, but also a possibility that was in the back of my mind.

Obviously today's announcement affects this blog in a big way, however I'll be waiting for the dust to settle before making a full announcement. I do aim to post some time around the expected March "hatchet day" however with an initial set of thoughts based on how things develop between now and then. I suspect that will still be too soon for a full announcement though.

In the meantime, if you did stumble over this blog, or even came here deliberately looking for more information than can be found by the simple statement on the Sellaband homepage, you might like to know I've reopened a section of the forum I used to run before Sellaband had one of their own. So if you're looking for information, or even to reconnect with other Sellaband artists and believers you'll find them at sellaband.proboards.com. If you had an account there in the old days and didn't delete it, your old login details are still valid, otherwise you'll need to register in order to post (you won't if you just want to read).

Just remember I am unofficial and don't/have never worked for Sellaband, so I don't have an inside line to what exactly is going on - this is more an attempt to give what's left of the community a port in the storm and the opportunity to communicate what they know with each other until the (any?) future of the site becomes clear. So just remember to play nice over there, because you don't want my knives after you! ;-)