The notion of crowd-sourcing or crowd-funding for artistic endeavours is by no means a new concept, but 2011 has seen major steps forward for the idea. Ginger (of The Wildhearts fame) launched his initiative in August this year, and in no more than six hours, fans had donated enough to cover his entire budget. Early in 2011, the Australian film The Tunnel was also made by means of crowd-sourcing, where people were asked to donate a solitary Australian dollar each (in exchange for the ownership of one frame of said film). Organisations like Sellaband, Slicethepie and Pledge Music are some of the big names when it comes to crowd-sourcing for funds.
Now, reunited crossover metal band One Minute Silence (OMS) is on the verge of reaching its fan-funded target (through Pledge) and unleashing an aural assault on its fans. “We’re aiming for around £14,000 to do what we want to do properly for the fans, and we’re above £10,000 now, so things are close,” says the band’s drummer Martin Davies and adds, “I think all artists and bands are very lucky to have such platforms, which allow the fans to support the artistes and bands they want to see out there recording and playing. It’s turned the music production investment model on its head and allowed the fans to finance the processed to creating and delivering products and live shows. That would never have been possible in the physical world, pre-Internet.”
The aim of this whole process for OMS is to finance the studio, design, manufacturing and distribution of its upcoming live album titled Live in the Studio.
In addition, the money donated by the fans will go into creating t-shirts, vinyls and other memorabilia for them. But that’s not all. “We’ve always wanted to lay down classic and new OMS tracks in a controlled live environment, and so we’ll give it a go and then turn towards a new studio album — it’s all one big rolling project really,” says Martin and adds, “We’ve got so much new material; more than an album’s worth. It should all flow from there and it’s going to be brutal!”
Back to the whole idea of crowd-sourcing, and there seems to be this sneaking suspicion that participating artistes are those that have either been unceremoniously dropped by their record labels or have been unable to get signed in the first place. Obviously,
this is a gross generalisation, especially for a band that’s been on a seven-plus year hiatus, and is looking to get back in touch with its fans.
“We wanted to really test out the concept of crowd-sourcing, and see if we could not only raise the funds but also reconnect with OMS fans on our own terms,” says the drummer and continues, “With more than 3,000 fans on Facebook and the Youtube channel picking up great views, we’ve proven we can do both.”
With an increasing number of artistes and bands opting for crowd-funding, even distributing their art freely online (as with The Tunnel, Motherjane, Indian Ocean etc.) and effectively cutting out the middlemen, one might be tempted to begin contemplating the death of record labels.
This, it would seem, is the second gross generalisation. Martin elaborates, “I think record labels have a strong filtering, production, creative and marketing presence within the industry that’s deserved and valid. The good labels are adapting their skills and specialist knowledge to take best advantage of the ways new technology is reshaping the landscape. Adapt or die, you know.”
He goes on to underline the fact that consumers will always benefit from companies that take very high risks to invest in creative projects and use their skills to bring us albums, live shows and films that make us feel alive and glad to be alive. “When was the last time you saw a bank do that?” he asks and adds, “It’s how those entrepreneurial music companies continually evolve that is the key to their success or failure. We are talking to a few interested labels and publishers at the moment, and welcome any others interested to get in touch.”
At the time of going to print, OMS is 18 days away from reaching its target figure, which means that Martin, Brian “Yap” Barry (vocals), Glen Diani (bass) and Massimo “Massy” Fiocco (guitars) will be all set to hit the stage again in 2012.
“There are lots of offers coming in and we have some great live agents ready to kick things off, but for now it’s all eyes on Pledge, writing and rehearsing. We’ve been really careful not to rush, we are always going for quality for us and for the fans,” says the OMS sticksman and adds, “But when we hit live with it, there’ll be no comparison out there!” You have been warned.