Would You Buy SINCH Stock?
A Swarm of Angels is “a groundbreaking project to create a £1 million film and give it away to over 1 million people using the Internet and a global community of members.”
This is a really cool idea. It’s something I’ve considered doing on a smaller scale with a Sinch album (or some other type of release that needs up front money to get started).
People are getting a lot of their music for free these days anyway. Why not flip the whole process around and get the fans to buy the album before it’s even recorded? The band gets the advantage of having the money they need up front, and then all the “investors” get it for free when it’s done. Seems reasonable enough to me.
I’ve actually come across some sites that are attempting to do just that. One of the bigger ones is Sell A Band. Through their site, a band finds 5,000 “investors” (ie: fans) willing to cough up $10 each (or more if they want). Once the total raised reaches $50,000, the band records an album. They do a limited edition release on CD which gets sent (for free) to all the investors. Then they give the tracks away for free online, splitting the ad revenue from the site 3-ways between Sell A Band, the artist and the 5,000 investors. Also, they produce another version of the CD for the band to sell at shows and elsewhere, and that revenue is also split with the investors.
So, for a pretty small investment you could actually not only get a free CD, but also make some money in the process.
Sell A Band is definitely trying to sell people on the idea that it’s actually working for some bands, but I’d be interested to know what % of the total bands that have signed up are anywhere near being successful. So far it looks like only 2 bands have actually reached the $50,000 and neither of them has released their album yet. But it’s encouraging to see the idea working if only for a couple bands so far. It’ll be interesting to see what happens once some albums are released:
How involved will Sell A Band be after the fact? Will any of the bands be able to build on this success and create a sustainable career in the process? Will the quality of the album be enough to compete with everything else out there?
Here’s a question: Do you think Sinch should get involved with something like this? We certainly have a lot more than 5,000 fans out there. The question is can we connect with enough of them who are willing to invest money in us? Let us know what you think.
really interesting idea…
you guys have recorded albums before, would $50k be enough to record a quality album?
i’d definitely do it. seems like the only reason for a fan not to do it would be if they weren’t sure if they would like the album once it came out, but then it’s only 10 bcuks so it’s not a huge risk..
however for the band.. i understand that the $50k would get them the money to record, but then the only source of income/profit would be from ads? would that be significant enough to make it worthwhile?
Well, I guess the theory is that the 5,000 fans who have invested in the album will have more incentive to want to spread the word and get more people downloading the album. The revenue is split so everyone benefits from more people downloading the album.
Plus, you do get physical CDs to sell. So you can make money that way. And there’s a certain amount of publicity that comes along with the whole thing so it’s possible that could open up some other opportunities.
The point is, no… the ad revenue and whatever money comes in from record sales probably wouldn’t be enough to sustain a 5 member band full time. At least not right away. But I’m saying that not really knowing what kind of money the ads wiould be bringing in.
Either way it’s an interesting idea and doesn’t take much of a risk on our part to try it out. The worst thing that happens is we don’t raise enough money and everyone gets their $10 back.
As far as $50,000 being enough to record an album? Definitely. We spent less than that on Clearing the Channel. You’re not gonna be getting a big name producer or anything, but you can certainly get as good a recording as anyone else with that kind of money.
I think this is an awesome idea… We all know how bands need a label but this would kinda take them out the picture. Corporate record companies don’t do enough for their bands. I also know how much of your own money you guys put into the last album and even though it’s an awesome album, the funds were not there to promote, tour etc… Another reason why maybe this would be a great idea. Everyone wins… You get to make your album, we got to promote more so for you and everyone gets something out of it and hopefully you get to live on a stinky bus and cheep hotels eat crappy food and perform your new music. I’d donate to it, It’s important that the artists be in control.
Let me know if you decide to go with it. I’m thinking good idea :)
yeah, the more i think about it, the more i’m inclined to say: DO IT!!!
although getting 5000 fans to chip in 10 bucks possibly a year before the record would come out is going to be…. tricky. i think it’s good value for money (especially if it makes money), but for some people it’s hard to spend money on something when the rewards don’t come until much later..
yeah great idea………
definately think you should go for this
Yeah it seems like a good idea :) Problem is finding 5000 people willing to invest in something like that. I can spare $10 bucks and I’m sure most of the people that are active on the forum can 2 :|
I say go for it, I’d pay $10 no doubt about it. =)
To be honest, all this stuff about Would You Buy SINCH Stock? sounds confusing for me…