Creative Funding
We indie musicians sometimes have to come up with creative ways to fund our projects. Taking a production to the next level is one of these times.
The first Uncle Widget CD, Bedtime On Mars was put together at home, with primitive tools. It was a proof of concept. The next CD will be for playtime entertainment, and I’ve decided that it will be spectacular.
In order to boost the success of the next CD, I’m selling stakes of the profit to investors. It’s much more important for me to get my music out than it is for me to make a bunch of money. One share of the CD is worth 25 cents for every disc sold and costs $125 up front.
The goal is to sell 1000 CDs. An investor will double their money, no matter how many shares they own. If it sells more, the profits keep going.
Details of this are on fund.unclewidget.com.
August 27th, 2006 at 7:59 am
How many CDs of the first album were sold? Where exactly do you plan on selling this second CD? Reply by e-mail if you want to keep this private. (AnkitPayal at Hotmail)
August 27th, 2006 at 8:16 am
In the interest of disclosure, I’ll answer questions here. So far, the first CD has only sold about 50 copies (it’s only been about 9 months). Yes, I realize that a 2000% increase in sales for the 2nd is a lofty goal.
There are a few differences. My new partners will be funding the marketing of the new CD. There were no marketing funds for the first CD. I basically just sold it to friends. More importantly, they’ll have an interest in seeing the product sell. If I sold the album to 50 of my friends, and I’ve got 10 people selling the album to 50 of their friends, we’re over the break even point on the investment with basically NO marketing. Another important difference is the first CD (a lullaby CD) didn’t lend itself to live performances. The next one will be promoted with performances at bookstores, libraries, and whoever else will have me.
Like the first CD, it will be available at CDBaby, on the iTunes Music Store, Rhapsody, MSN Music, etc.. It does take a long time to be featured in the download-only stores, but it does happen. Oddly enough, the iTunes Music Store (to me, the most important) seems to be the fastest to add to the library.
July 7th, 2010 at 10:16 pm
The shoes .