Crowd Funding Part II: Funding My Album

Welcome back music heads! Today’s blog will be a continuation of our previous blog on crowdfunding.  Being back in Florida has given me the opportunity to finally complete the recording process of my debut album.  As you may already know, recording and mixing an album is the easy part of the process.  Now that the fun is over, my team and I now have to fund the release of the album which can be a lot more complicated if you have never been behind the scenes of a project like this before.  Paying for licenses, copyright, distribution, and advertisements can take a huge chuck out of your pocket and push back the release date if you can not gather money by the deadline.

In the next step of my album adventure I decided to take the option of crowd funding my project.  Out of the many crowd funding sites that offer assistance to artist such as IndieGoGo and RocketHub I decided to go with PledgeMusic to help fund my project. PledgeMusic is a great site for musicians in need of step-by-step guidance in building their fan base and attaining their funds. The process is setting up a page where fans can visit and make donations for rewards that you offer in return.  These rewards can be anything from a free track for $5 or an autographed CD for $50. Sounds simple right? 

This is where things start to get complicated.  Before you can get started with a project you have to set up an account with the site and link all of your social websites.  The purpose of this is for PledgeMusic to get an idea of the size of your fan base.  A larger fan base will lead to a greater chance of reaching your goal amount and for PledgeMusic to make their commission.  The next step is to enter a mailing list with email addresses from all of your fans.  Right now I have around 800 fans between all of my sites but only 341 subscribed to my list.  So how can I get all of them to sign up and increase my numbers? 

PledgeMusic has taken the time to provide a personal guide that gives me pointers to adding emails to my list.  Best way to get people involved with your project is to do what you love to do in performing.  At every gig I will have a list for people to sign up to, which I will enter into my database later on.  Stay tuned for more updates and useful information on crowd funding as I project progresses.  In the meantime please support my project by signing up to my mailing list below.

Live the Music. . . 

Most Powerful Woman in Entertainment

Welcome back music heads!  As the music industry continues to evolve with new talent and sounds little is known about the changes that are going on behind the scenes.  What if I asked you to name the most powerful woman in entertainment today, who would you pick? Beyoncé? Oprah? Angelina Jolie?  Actually, the woman hailed as the most powerful in entertainment is music executive, Michele Anthony of UniversalMusic Group (UMG).  Anthony was recently named Executive Vice President of UMG effective November 1st.  So what makes her the most powerful? Well, for starters, Universal Music Group is considered the world leader in music and Michele Anthony is already considered one of the most experienced executive in the business.

Who is Michele Anthony?

Michele Anthony’s history in the music industry spans well over 2 decades and she has worked with such superstars such as Ozzy Osbourne, Bjork, Pearl Jam, and Prince. Along with her past representations Ms. Anthony has previously headed Sony Music where she served as President and Chief Operating Officer. Anthony’s past duties with Sony Music Label included overseeing the important divisions and playing the liaison to other divisions within the Sony Entertainment brand. UMG Chairman and CEO, Lucian Grainge, said in a statement, “There are scarce executives in music with the depth of Michele’s experience on both the label and artist sides of the industry. Michele’s versatility and creative approach to business will make her a valuable addition to our management team.”

Anthony Equals Results

Now that you understand just how powerful this woman is you can start to see the impact she will have to the already dominant Universal Music.  Expect to see some changes in advertisements across all labels as Ms. Anthony raises the standards of the company.  Furthermore, we will be sure to look out for interesting projects put forth by UMG to increase sales between artist and their labels. Some of the popular labels listed under UMG include Interscope Geffen A&M, The Island Def Jam Music Group, and BlueNote Recordings.  

Live the Music. . .