Sorry I’ve not posted for so long. I have been all over the place with the baby and stuff but I’m also trying to change this site which doesn’t work for me - too big. I’m hoping to sort this out as soon as possible. Stay tuned.
Martin x
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From 7.00pm tonight Mary and I will be talking and playing on the Evening Show.
It lives here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/radiowales/sites/eveningshow/
If you miss it, you can hear it for the rest of the week.
It’ll be worth it to hear me fluff the intro for ‘Bear lake’.
Every time x
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The new Akira the Don mixtape is out this week and awesome it is too. Mixes, bangers, stompers and samplers, it’s all done with the unmistakable swagger of a man who has to stand on his tip toes to look out the window. I love him, Mary loves him and one day the world will stand and cheer. Until then though, grab it FREE from his website or give him money for a copy that sounds good on something other than your phone. He’s even done a version of ‘Goldrush ‘49, how cool is that?
Go, go get it..
Akira the Don - A Lonesome Town
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Hello beautiful people.
After having received a bunch of investments through Paypal I realise that if I am to make 50k rather than lose it then I’m going to have to add £1 on to every share. This is down to Paypal charges and the charge that the Bandstocks site throws at you when you upload money on your card.
So, please, if you want to invest. Send £11 pounds through Paypal to fingertipsaint.com
Thanks very much and thanks to all those who have already invested and sent me so many letters of support.
Love
Martin
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Well, it’s up there. Are there five thousand people in the UK who care enough to invest? Are there five thousand people who have even heard the name Martin Carr?
I have no idea.
Seeing my name there, with no money next to it is terrifying but it’s exciting too and I’m glad I’ve done this. I was unsure at first, wondering whether or not I should wait to see what happens with the first acts, maybe leaving it until the next album, but I became really fired up by this idea and I want to be the first.
I do know that some people are dismissing the whole concept out of hand. I’ve found the most common points that have been raised, mainly on the internet, and here I will try to answer them as simply as possible which should be easy because the concept is very simple.
Caroline Sullivan wrote an article for the Guardian website last week. Let’s look at some of the points she raised:
“I predict that music lovers won’t jump at the chance of suddenly turning into the man. For them to be part of that process, receiving profit statements and attending AGMs, would divest music of the romanticism that every fan cherishes.”
Ok, she may have her tongue in her cheek here but the facts are that investors have no say in any aspect of the record they are investing in. The point of this system is to eliminate ‘the man’, whoever that may be. That doesn’t mean that Bandstocks is in competition with record labels, no more than they are with each other anyway. In fact, once the money has been raised the process is almost identical.
“The devil’s liniment that is The X-Factor has done enough damage with its campaign to turn pop into a faceless commodity; no righteous fan is going to want to finish the job by investing in Bandstocks.”
I don’t see the parallel between X-Factor and Bandstocks at all. The investor is merely replacing the record company. I don’t know what record companies Sullivan has visited but they as faceless like any other office. Believe me, there is nothing glamorous about a record label. The album is released the usual way, advertised the usual way, toured the usual way, sold the usual way and charts (or not) the usual way. The only difference is the way that the money is raised.
The acts on Bandstocks have been signed up, just like an act signed to an ordinary record company have been. You can’t just stick your band on the site and hope to raise the cash. To call this a talent contest is to paint the last eighty or so years of the music industry the same colour.
“No matter how much quirky pleasure there may be in bankrolling your own pop star, it’s one of the chanciest things you could sink your money into. Of hundreds of new acts launched every year, the great majority fails to sell”
For your ten pounds you get a download album plus a credit mention (I do doubt these would be on the cover, they would be on an insert or within a booklet). If the project fails to reach it’s intended target THE INVESTOR GETS THEIR MONEY BACK. There is no risk, no chance. I spent money intended for my mortgage on making this record and with a baby on the way I would say that’s a wee risk but this is my life and it’s worth it, I wouldn’t ask anybody else to take anything like that risk on my behalf.
“To pull a name at random from the current issue of Music Week, the 2007 debut album by American rapper Plies sold a total of 222 copies in Britain, and that was with the might of Atlantic Records behind him.”
That’s because Plies is shit. Is she saying that we should continue to stick with record labels because they, with all their money and marketing might, can only sell a couple of hundred records?
“Since your artist’s marketing budget would depend on how much has been invested, she/he might record the best album of the year, only for it to remain unheard because there’s not enough cash for advertising.”
The budget is done at the beginning. It’s all there on the site. If you haven’t budgeted enough for marketing you are a fool. Anyway, as Caroline points out, all the marketing in the world can’t sell a Plies record. If it’s a good record it will be reviewed and played on the radio. Adverts never sold a record.
Robert Andrews on digital media economy site paidConetnt:UK says
“The concept is basically a carbon copy of Sellaband and Slicethepie before it”
Not true. These two models are open to anyone and are full of bands who can’t get signed elsewhere. All the artists on Bandstocks have had offers but have chosen Bandstocks because they believe in it (and because the contract they sign is incredibly artist friendly).
When I was on Radio 5 talking about this a couple of weeks ago, somebody texted in to say:
“Why should we pay your recording costs?”
Well, who do you think pays for them now? The band pay out of their advance which is recoupable and is recouped through sales ie YOU pay for them. All expenditure is recouped by the record company, now more than ever. They used to take it from record sales but now you have to sign away merchandising money and tour fees. Yes, you are paying the studio cost (and ten pounds is quite cheap) but this time YOU will recoup if sales go well. Imagine if Oasis had bankrolled their first album this way, or The Stone Roses, we’d all be rich HA HA HA HA etc
I could go on, please feel free to ask post any questions after this post and I will answer every one. The only people who can make it work is us. It won’t happen by itself and it’s easy to sneer and be cynical. It’s harder to get involved and work at it. Ten pounds and word of mouth and we can be the first.
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I’m playing an acoustic set on Sunday at the Lansdowne in Canton, just round the corner from my house (unfortunately I don’t live there so I’ll be sleeping in the carpark). Joining me on stage will be the luminescent Marylou plus bump. That’s a power trio.
The posters say that I’m actually djing at Friday’s ‘Dub in the Pub’ event but when I found out there was a stage with a microphone I wanted some of that action and the organisers very kindly agreed.
So 7.00 on Sunday it is. The rest of the festival should be ace as well, the Lansdowne is a big friendly pub and there will be Pieministers for all!
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August 11th 2008 - Clwb Ifor Bach, Womanby Street. Cardiff. Wales. 10pm
August 12th 2008 - The Social, Little Portland Street. London. England. 8pm
The London gig will be acoustic as I can’t afford to get the band up to London at this point. IT WILL STILL BE GREAT.
That is all.
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As most of you probably know I recorded an album earlier this year in Cardiff with producer Charlie Francis and a few friends. What with all the other things I’ve been doing I just haven’t had the time to work out the form in which it will be released.
One of the things I’ve been looking at is Bandstocks. A new model which bypasses record companies and allows the music fan (I’m guessing that’s you) to invest in the artist (that’ll be me). There are already a number of these things around but the difference is that this one is A+R’d. Bandstocks have to want you to do it, it’s not for bands who can’t get a record deal. Anyway, check it out and let me know what you think.. I’ll post more info soon.
WWW.BANDSTOCKS.COM
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