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.
