Hip hop pioneers Public Enemy partner with fan-funding site Sellaband to finance their next album. The announcement looks more like a publicity stunt for Sellaband because Public Enemy is one of the first established acts to sign up to Sellaband’s new custom funding program. The aim? Raise $250,000 for the album in $25 increments. You would think that a band like Public Enemy would at least have enough money to start with. Good to know, Public Enemy, also one of the first acts to release music on mp3, not that they did charge a couple of thousand dollar for that…
Sellaband is an Amsterdam-based company allowing artists to request support from fans aka “believers” to invest anything from 10$ up in an album.
So what do you get once you invested your hard earned money in the pocket of Public Enemy? Well, once the funding target is reached the album is made and the proceeds are split between the artist and the believers, no news though how much your investment wil be worth though. Various incentives like downloads and concert tickets can also be offered to the “believers”.
Since Sellaband started in 2006, over 2.5 million dollars has been invested and 34 artists reached the original funding target of 50,000$ to make an album. But currently around 5000 artists are looking for funding which make the whole not as succesful as some might make you believe.
The company offers two models:
Standard: The funding target can be anything from 10,000 to 100,000$, the minimum incentive for believers is free downloads and artists choose how revenue is split between themselves and the believers. Previously there was a fixed funding target of 50,000$ per album.
Custom: Sellaband à la carte. There is no limit on funding targets, the funds raised can be used for any purpose, e.g. concerts or promotion rather than recordings and the revenue split and incentives are entirely customizable. The custom model is invitation-only.
Artists do retain all master recording and publishing rights in either model. The revenue share between artists and believers continues for a period of 5 years. Sellaband gets a 10% fee for each funding target reached.
October 12th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
[...] October 12th, 2009 (Bandstocks, Sellaband) Just a few days ago Sellaband launched the news that Public Enemy would try to beg US$ 250.000 together from the Sellaband users. Bandstocks did that stunt a few months earlier with Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan, more or less [...]