Recording a CD, Kickstarter...First Hurdle Overcome

Wow, what a fun 48 hours this has been.  From about this time two days ago and seeing the story about Kickstarter.com on the local evening news to today, I have been though a wild wave of excitement.   Now the idea of a recording project can finally begin to take shape.    Last night, my dear friend and colleague, pianist Tim McReynolds beat me to the punch and said he was "available" to record.  I was planning on calling Tim today or tomorrow to discuss the idea with him, so I guess the timing couldn't be better.

After a phone conversation this morning, he is on board with the project.  We both talked about the Schubert recital that we did, more than 10 years ago and I think that we both would like to revisit the work together now.  I am really, really excited.  I get off the phone with him, having discussed trying to use Kickstarter to help with the fundraising.   I told him that the next, and what in my estimation one of the most difficult steps of the process, I needed to find a way on to Kickstarter.com, since it is invitation only!

So, what does any smart person do, who wants to find an invitation to an exclusive website do?   I Googled, Kickstarter Invitation.  This came up with lots of invites that people were giving away (or at least a handful) in blogs and message boards.  Most of these invites had already been claimed, by others.  All of these invites were 3-8 months old.   This was not going to do!  I decided to try my search again, but this time only look for results within the last week.   I stumbled on to two possibilities.  The first one was a on a movie production site.   He had only posted a couple of days ago, but really seemed to be looking for other people trying to produce movie projects.   I emailed him anyway, hoping for a response, but as of now I have not heard back from him.

The second person I find on Emptees.com.  He has made a comment to a thread:

What is my favorite animal????   Ugh, I have no idea what my favorite animal is.   I click on the guy, and after going to his profile on the site it leads me Kevin at Top Shelf Records.  Kevin is basically the graphics design guru for the operation....check out some of his work, it is really cool stuff.  Anyway...I think, what the heck I should send him an email, maybe I can get this invite from him.  This is what I sent:

Kevin,

     I was hoping that you could help me out.   I found your website via a post that you made on Emptees.com where you mentioned that you had a couple of Kickstarter invites available.    I would love to at least float my project by you, in hopes that you might be so kind as to help me out with getting on the site. (paying it forward, so to speak)  I am a professional opera singer.  At the beginning of the year I set three major goals for my life for 2010.  Move to Germany to further my career, do an east coast recital tour (to help me fund my move to Europe) and to finally record my first CD.  

     When I first tell someone that I am singer, I usually get one of two responses, "Sing for me!" or "Do you have a CD?"  At some point, I would love for the answer of the second question to finally be a resounding "YES, yes I do..." instead of "No, unfortunately not, because...(insert lame excuse here)."   I also have several friends and colleagues that have recorded, and even a couple of Grammy winning colleagues.   I have patiently waited for "my turn," but I have finally drawn the line in the sand and want to make this year the year that I finally get the first recording done.   

      As you understand from your work in design and with bands, independent projects have a difficult time getting off the ground, mostly because of them being cost prohibitive.  Recording classical music is right there.   I have the people, the repertoire, basically everything in place...but to have a way to fund the project, that is really the only think holding me back.    When I learned about Kickstarter the other day on the news and did a little reading, the light bulb went off in my head.   It is as if  the big padlock on the door was finally cut off and I am able to procede with my dream, of recording, and leaving my legacy.   The idea that I can use the site to organize my efforts and spread the word through my large community of friends, colleagues, family, and patrons around the country so that they too can have a hand in my project is very exciting.

Anyway, thank you for listening to my rambling on and on.  I would love it if you would consider me for one of those invites that you have for Kickstarter, assuming that you still have them.  That would really, really make my day!

Thanks for your time,

Bryce

PS  favorite animal....Ibis, because of the curved beak and I can't figure out if the plural of ibis is "ibi" or "ibises"

 

Well....30 minutes later....Voila....I must have said the magic words, because....I got my invite! The first hurdle of my recording project is behind me....now to finalize the proposal!  

Incentive Ideas for my CD/Kickstarter project

Earlier today I wrote about Kickstarter.com and my desire try to get on the website and get going with my CD project.   I have floated the idea past a couple of people, and everyone seems positive.  I am moving forward.

One of the key ingredients of the program is to have incentives to for people to invest in your project.   If you don't have incentives, then you might as well just be panhandling.  I thought I would work through a couple of things on my blog and see if my readers might help me as I develop a fair and exciting incentive program for potential backers of my recording project.  This is what I have come up with so far: (note I am still working on this and taking suggestions)

• $1 or more - SILVER access to exclusive online behind the scenes blog of the entire project.
• $15 or more - GOLD a digital download of the complete album, one week before public release 
• $30 or more - PLATINUM a signed copy of the CD, one week before public release 
• $50 or more - DIAMOND a signed copy of the CD for you, plus a copy to give away as a gift!
• $100 or more  - MEMBER limited edition t-shirt + Diamond level+ name in CD as Project MEMBER
• $250 or more - SPONSOR special DVD of behind the scenes footage of the recording process + Diamond and Member levels+ special recognition as Project SPONSOR 
• $500 or more -BENEFACTOR framed and signed limited edition print of the album art, signed by the designer and the artists+ diamond, member, and sponsor perks.  CD recognition as Project Benefactor
• 1500 or more - PATRON Listed on cd and website at the highest level of donor as a patron...Private recital for you and 20 of your closest friends + + diamond, member, sponsor, and benefactor perks.  CD recognition at the highest level as Project Partron
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Of course I am open for additional ideas and I am not quite sure if all of the "Price Points" are right yet, either.  Feel free to give me your feedback. I haven't established a running budget yet for the project, which is the next step, but I am estimating at this point, a fund raising goal of around $6000 or so to make this happen.

Thoughts?

My Recording Project, Kickstarter Worthy?

Last night, I was sitting in front of the TV, eating some leftover lasagna from the night before and I saw an interesting tease on the local evening news. The tease was about "new website" that was offering "thousands in free money for good ideas." Being a sucker for the words free money and good ideas, I decided to stick around and see what this was all about.

Two segments later I see the story on the news.  The story is about a website called Kickstarter.com .  I won't go into the news item, but it interested me enough to hop online and check out the website.   What I found on the very first page of their site really got me extremely excited.   "Kickstarter is a funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors, explorers..."

The basic idea behind Kickstarter is give people a way to organize fundraising efforts for their artistic projects.   Well, as I mention in my very first blog, I have three very, very specific projects for the year.   I have been talking about Germany a bit, but I haven't mentioned too much about the other two...the recital tour (which I need to seriously begin to put on the calendar) and the CD.   Kickstarter helps match up investors (as well as your social network) to help you meet your fundraising goals.  

Recording has to this point been a very large dream.  I have several people who have been asking me when I would record.   When I tell people that I meet that I am an "opera singer" they always jump straight to "Do you have a CD?"   I have to always answer, "Unfortunately, no."   One of the huge issues has always been cost.  It is expensive to record.   It is expensive to record it right. I often ask myself, "How on earth am I going to pay for the $5-$15k it would take to make a CD, the right way?  I have very difficult time asking people for any help; people want a CD, but are they willing to help me invest in this project?"   Last night I found a way to do more than test the waters....Kickstarter.

I have three things that I really must do to "set up shop" on Kickstarter, to help me get off the ground with my recording project.

• Settle on specific repertoire - This is important because it drastically affects the budget.  Recording with just piano is less expensive than with chamber musicians or orchestra.  Recording music in the public domain is less expensive than recording music of the last century.  Balancing what I want to record versus what someone would invest in is huge.  I have to define the project.
  
• Establish basic budget  - Once I have settled on repertoire, this will be much easier to accomplish
  
• Develop a pitch - This will include things such as a video presentation of the project, a written pitch, and developing whatever incentives that I will have for my investors.

I couldn't sleep last night, so I kind of worked this through in my head a bit, with the help of the fine folks of my Facebook fan page who I asked a couple of months ago, what type of CD I should record for a debut recording.   It seems fitting that if I am moving to Germany and will be singing more Lieder, that I should revisit Franz Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin.   This is a piece that I first sang in graduate school, and is a cornerstone piece in the Lieder repertoire.   This is also a cost effective piece as there are no royalties, it is just singer and piano, and can be recorded in only a couple of days of "studio time."  It also fits very nicely on one CD.  It also makes for a nice stand alone recital program.

I think the most important thing beyond cost is that  I want to do this with all of my heart.  This is a piece of music that has always spoken to me, since I first heard a recording of Fritz Wunderlich singing it.  It is a piece of repertoire that I can embrace living with for the next several months.  I would love to I think that now I have a deeper understanding today of the raw emotions of the text and the musical style than I did back a decade ago.  I could go on and on, but I will save that for the project itself... 

This all sounds great, right?  One small problem....you can't just hop on Kickstarter to set up your project.  You must have an invite.   So, goal one:  get a pitch ready in the next day or two and get an invite to the site.  I could go directly to the site (hundreds a day do this) and basically be put on a wait list.....or I could get creative.  This is what this is all about, right? Creativity.

I think my project is Kickstarter worthy....now I just have to get someone to agree with me.