Are there many people here that have gotten into this kind of thing? We're seeing more & more bands & artists use sites like PledgeMusic & Kickstarter to get their music out to the fans. I've gone down this path with a few acts, with varying results.
I got on board with Marshall Crenshaw's EP series when it began as a Kickstarter at the $50 level. For that money I was supposed to get a handful of EP's & an exclusive signed poster. I got the EP's with no issues, but never received the poster. And the communication from artist to customer was virtually unmeasurable. I almost got to the point where I'd forgotten I'd signed up. They just started a new series, but this time they went with more of a subscription model. For a fee ( $30 this time ) I'll get the EP's with no promises of anything else. I'm much happier with the low expectations. The first EP showed up the other day, completely unannounced. No idea it was even coming. I probably wouldn't have even thought about it if it wasn't for talking with Pat about it on Facebook.
On the other end of the spectrum, I've bought several releases that Ginger Wildheart has done thru PledgeMusic. THIS is how you do this kind of thing. The customer is kept apprised of the album's progress via exclusive updates & in-studio YouTube missives. The first project was a triple ( ! ) album of tunes. The second was 3 albums worth of material from 2 of his side projects - the punk/pop Hey! Hello! & the noise/metal Mutation. Then last year he released the "Albion" album ( see my Top 10 of 2013 post for more on that ), which has been the most "normal" release so far. That's relative, though - this album had tracks that didn't appear on the commercial release, & came with a DVD "road movie" that inspired the songs on the album. And it came packaged in a fancy hardback book. Ginger has just started a new project, this time forgoing PledgeMusic. It's a "secret society" club in which each month the member receives 3 new songs, a podcast, demos from Ginger's archives, & access to a club-only website that features more exclusive content. All for $45 US a year. I'm pretty happy with it so far, as I was with the aforementioned items.
So...a mixed bag. I really like the idea of the artist going straight to the fans, though.
Ellis Paul did this for his 2 most recent albums and I supported that and he sends out fairly regulard updates with developments, and his Christmas album last year. I have no complaints there and he just runs it from his site and I very much feel he is involved in making sure the fans know what is going on at least every month with a nice update. I'm a fan of this sort of model when it works like that, and its the only experience I've had with it but thankfully it is a good one.
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"HEY I'M ANDY HATTON YOU GUYS WANNA BUY SOME NEWSPAPERS?!" -Matt Belknap
"All the things you like are things that make me sad" -my girlfriend
