how you and your money can help me and my music prove a point…
I want to write a long blog giving some elegantly brute statement about the state of the industry and all that, but this blog is that! What I will say is this:
“For those who appreciate the music, support digital commerce and want to see both co-exist harmoniously, this is for you. It costs money for everyone to do art and costs even more for everyone to do it better than they did it a year ago. In the american entertainment industry there aren’t government subsidies and grants available for promising artists to take advantage of, like in other countries. As it is, hip-hop isn’t a genre that is held in too much regard unless it’s practitioners have established and separated themselves from the masses that “do it” by sales and favorable publicity. This leaves a wide divide between the people with records on relatively successful labels (who don’t sell records) and the people with equal artistic output, (if not superior talent/expertise/experience) but without the same resources and stabilty that a recording contract based deal supplies.
Instead of wanting to hang up my Kangol hat every time a tour gets cancelled at the LAST minute, or every time a label gets shook at the possibility of releasing one of my records, or every time I look at my bank account and see it growing in negative, I’m going to test out a new idea:
I have been working on a project that I entitled Trunk Bomb for the better part of 4.5 years, in different locations around the western part of the world. I originally planned to drop it on my label Briefcase Rockers in a show of independent solidarity, but that plan left with the first investor. I then intended to drop the record on “a label” in order to show the record’s validity in a organized business infrastructure, as well as to FINALLY be able to favorably compare it to other records that shared the same sub-genre, but different fanbase. (remember, I have NEVER been on a label that people would consider an “established” hip-hop label, all my records have been judged on a fringe/novelty rap basis) Once the whole “indie rap” market dried up on the surface level due to lackluster records and lackluster sales (You can’t make someone sound like a tech rap bad-ass, they just are. They can rap with the best rappers over the best beats and it still doesn’t matter, they just look even more amateur), the credible labels that were once beach-heads for this kind of music switched styles. Any indie-rap label out there now is privately funded and only exists to further the careers and agendas of the people who own it, along with the people that they want to see drop records.
Me selling stuff on bandcamp is a two part solution to the “problem” at hand:
1. by putting it on the net, I am showing that only people who buy stuff on the net can even have access to the record. this is automatically alienating everyone who REFUSES to buy music (or anything) online along with everyone who has money, but can’t spend it thru paypal or whatever. these people usually live their lives in the physical world and by not being able to cater to them, that cuts off an entire world of opportunity. here is an example showing how the elitism and convenience of technology actually harms more than it helps. this is why everything counts in large or small amounts.
2. if I can raise enough money to pay for all the expenses of this record (recording/mixing/mastering/pressing and distribution/radio and print promotion/merchandise) thru something like bandcamp, then the fans really DO own the music!
This business model works better in the rock world where you can watch a band rise to stardom from abject poverty, but ask yourselves how many musicians have you seen in the last decade rise to some level of notoriety due to YOUR record purchases and fan support? Usually you are buying a record to support the livelihood of someone who already found the time and resources to make a record. Now you can play the part of record exec and listen to a record BEFORE investing in it. if you like the direction that the record is going, then know that your money is going to that record being made AVAILABLE in the best possible quality. You aren’t donating money to what you hope will be a just cause, you can judge the latent potential of the music and decide whether your money will actually go towards making a better end result, or a better sounding piece of artistic feces.
Based on the fact that I have a previous sales history of some kind, it shouldn’t be a problem for me to get a physical distribution arrangement with one of 3 reputable companies to go with my existing (I don’t mean bandcamp, briefcase rockers has a couple of real deals that make us no real money while putting our music on iTunes and etc) digital arrangement. Due to my new secret rap crew being so sick, Nasa (of nasalabs/Uncommon Records) is mixing the official record (among other things, he mixed The Cold Vein and Fantastic Damage for all of you true backpackers and I intend to make him the exclusive engineer of all my future work, if he’s down) and I refuse to even mention the guests. It will be worth the investment…..
Long story short, I want to make a better record and since I don’t have a better record deal, I need your help. Your contributions to any recording purchased on the GET CREV site go directly to me making the best versions of this work, with or without a record label. Since I can do all sorts of fun stuff online, I will have a secret blog with password access that will have exclusive material and content for those who contribute to this whole plot. This will be updated on the regular because I work a lot.”
Trunk Bomb (the bandcamp edition) drops the 2nd week of February. If you like it, please support it.
For all of you “real investors” out there, holler at me because this is just the tip of a really immense iceberg that is ready to surface. The only thing keeping it submerged is lack of monetary resources.
