No Second Troy has been hard at work finishing up a new album. As an independent band, like so many others out there, the group has to dip into their own funds to record and release their music.
It's become common place these days for bands to record albums at their "home studio" instead of the more expensive option of an outside recording studio. With home computers' constantly evolving and innovative music programs like Pro Tools and GarageBand are available to bands at a reasonable cost, groups are able to save some money by recording albums themselves. On their own time, but on their own dime. This however has shown a decline in revenue for independent recording studios. It's a good/bad situation to have, depending on who you are....
However, No Second Troy are one of those bands that is really in between. Both musically and financially. Their pop music is lovely indie pop that teeters on what could be close to mainstream. To make their music more accessible and cleaner, the band chose to record in an outside studio, so they laid down tracks at
Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, VA with producer
Chad Clark.
While the studio's equipment adds to the sound of a band like
No Second Troy, which could help to get to them to a more mainstream audience, it doesn't mean they can afford the same kind of studio time as The Fray. So in a growing new field, NST are using the Internet to raise money from fans and supporters in order to pay for the studio time. If you go to their
website you can donate specific amounts of money, and in return, not only are you helping the band get their music out, but you could also score the following with your donation :
$50 signed album w/ personal note from band
$100 -- Signed album + Signed & framed poster
$250 -- Signed album + Signed & framed live photo
$500 -- Signed album + Private NST performance
Finding a niche for this type of fundraising, the website
Kickstarter.com is becoming all the rage for raising money for artists, musicians, journalists, filmmakers, etc.. If you're looking to raise money to fund your band's tour or recording, or your small company, etc., this is
the website to use.
On KickStarter, you set a financial goal, get backers and have a designated date to reach that goal. It's amazing how many people will offer to help out others' creative endeavors. The creators keep 100% ownership of their funded work and Kickstarter only asks for 5% from the project creator if a project is successfully funded.
Their website states: "Kickstarter is a new form of commerce and patronage, not a place for investment or lending. Project creators inspire people to open their wallets by offering products, benefits and fun experiences."
In July
Polyvinyl Records set up a Kickstarter account to raise money to "
Save 10,000 Records From Destruction." They set a goal of $1,000 and actually raised $15,626!
They asked for support to indie music fans. " Polyvinyl needs your help! Some of our distributor's warehouses around the world are being downsides or consolidated and we either need to destroy over $10,000 records or face some high storage costs. Destroying the records is not an option (it’s too wasteful and besides, these are great records, they’re just overstocked)! Storing the records at our warehouse is not an option (we cannot afford the storage costs). So to keep them from destruction, we’re hoping to have all the records shipped back to our office."
It worked out better then expected for Polyvinyl and is helping out dozens upon dozens of musicians and artists.
So get out there and support your fellow artists, your favorite band, or maybe this will finally give you the "kick start" you need to start your own project. Pun intended.
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