I’ve mentioned before that I hate buying CDs - they just add clutter and I just convert them to digital anyway.
So I’m pretty excited about a new venture by some forward-thinking music executives (isn’t that an oxymoron?) about a new site that gives you the chance to invest in new acts and help them financially in bigger ways than just buying their CD.
Bandstocks will let the public buy a stake in an artist in £10 increments. Once funding reaches a preordained level, for example £100,000, the money will be released for the act to record an album.
Investors will get a copy of the album, a credit on the CD sleeve and a percentage of the profits from its sale and licensing. They will also get priority ticket booking and the opportunity to buy limited edition releases.
I think this is so brilliant. It allows you to help fund the artist’s album, as well as giving you a vested interest in making them more popular by telling your friends about them. It also gives you a sense of “ownership” in the artist, so all those people claiming they “knew them before they got big” or “are a bigger fan than anyone else” can actually know they helped the artist on their way to the top.
There’s more information in this article from the Guardian, and the Bandstocks website is here. This has renewed my faith in the music industry, to realise that not all music execs are scared old dinosaurs - some of them are embracing the digital space and doing it well.
I really hope Bandstocks will succeed.
This post is tagged under: innovation
