50K MUSIC MAG - issue #10 by Mario Putzar

Issue 10/2009

M A G

independent.music.dedicated

December 13th 2009

An Atmosphere of Musical Velvet Lucia Iman's "Tame the Night" out now!

Turn the Chaos of Life into Beauty

Interview with Tim Bennett (Civilized Tears)

Read also: It Was a Crazy Day! Interview with Inge M Those Lucky Surprises and Coincidences - I talked to Catself Interview with Bonnie from Uruguay SellaBand Christmas Competition 2009 and a lot more ...

Editorial Yes, finally it's done. With two weeks delay this time issue # 10 of 50K MUSIC MAG is out.. I'm very sorry for that, but job duties and a bad cold did not let me get this issue finished earlier. Thank you all for the patience you had with me. If you'd like to support the MAG, please spread the word. Again I had a few supporters to help me writing the articles of this issue. I wish to thank them all for their really appreciated support. I hope you'll like this issue and have fun reading it. This issue brings interviews with Inge M, Tim Benett from Civilized Tears and Bonnie. All three have hit their target in November ... congratulations again. I asked them about their future plans and how they experienced the day they reached their target. And you can read about Lucia Iman's new album "Tame the Night" ... special thanks to Daniel Ward-Murphy who wrote the intro to this article. You also read about an amazing lady from Finland Catself, who is a member of TalentCast team too. Slim Void are spotlighted again this month with their Album Log (written by SV's Ronny himself) as well as Katie Thompson with her Album Diary. Promising Newcomers in this issue are The Jeffersons (CA) and Nylon Pink (US). And this issue is rounded up with Monthly Charts of Truth (thanks Thor) and Artist News. And special thanks go to Johan Vosmeijer for his contribution this month. So enjoy reading the MAG and please give me your feedback. Authors and topic suggestions are always welcome as well. Send your hints and suggestions to mario@50kmusic.com. Besides I'm still looking for correspondents who like to work for the MAG - get/keep in touch with local SellaBand artists, observing the (SAB) music scene and write articles/reviews/reports for the MAG from time to time. You should live in France, Germany, South America, Japan. So get in touch with me and we can talk about a collaboration soon. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. :) P.S. Btw, we have cracked the number of 800 readers/reads with issue # 9/2009 - thanks to you, the community. :) mario@50kmusic.com www.50kmusic.com

In this issue Editorial

It Was a Crazy Day!

Slim Void Album Log

Turn the Chaos of Life into Beauty

Until that Time Happens

An Atmosphere of Musical Velvet

Promising Newcomers

Kiwi FM's Fleur Jack - An Artist's Diary

Monthly Charts of Truth

Those Lucky Surprises and Coincidences

SellaBand HQ's Column Artist News

14 14

SellaBand Christmas Competition

The 20 Things You must Know About Music Online Thing 1

Happiness, Pride, Nervousness and a Lot of Satisfaction

Katie Thompson Album Diary

Note/ Imprint: 50K MUSIC MAG (www.50kmusic.com) is mainly written and solely published by Mario Putzar, D-99947 Bad Langensalza, Contact: mario(at)50kmusic.de The parts of the MAG written by other authors are signed as follows: (AM) - Andy Marczak (CM) - Cecile Morel (CS) - Catself (Agnieszka Holm) - member of Talentcast team (CW) - Casee Wilson (FJ) - Fleur Jack - Kiwi FM (ps) - Pete Strobl - posts from his bottom-end blog (NV) - Netvalar - Researcher Extraordinaire (PMcM) - Paul McMaster (MC) - Multicorriente - Argentinean magazine (RSV) - Ronny - Slim Void (sab) - posts, news, informations from Sellaband webpage (TC) - information from Talentcast webpage (Th) - Thor (UBG) - Utterly B Groovy All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be copied or distributed without the permission of the publisher. Copyrights of photos and pictures of artists used in this magazine are owned by the artists. Articles, feedback and suggestions are welcome. Please send them to my e-mail adress. Friends of 50K MUSIC MAG are: www.sellaband.com www.multicorriente www.petestrobl.com www.talentcast.nl www.evolutioncoop.com

It Was a Crazy Day! Inge M was quite overtaken by reaching the target. With the overwhelming support of her believers she finally reached 50k on November 11th. I have asked her how she experienced this day and what her plans are now. 50K MM: In October issue we talked about what will be when you're at 50k. Now you reached your goal. How do you feel now? Inge: I feel great!!! At first I was a bit in shock, because it happened so sudden. But after a few days I got used to the idea that I really made it, and started enjoying the process 50K MM: Please tell us something about what has happened the day you reached 50k. Inge: It was a crazy day! Just the day before, I fell back a few K, and I was very disappointed then. But on Wednesday, November 11 (11.11, crazy number!) I got a message from a believer that I should check Sellaband. I was at 48K all of a sudden! Just an hour before that I was only at 43 so you can imagine the shock. I immediately called one of my believers and good friend JayDoubleYou to tell him, and while I was speaking to him on the phone I got another message on my mobile saying: congratulations Inge, you have reached 50K. That was really unbelievable. I was so surprised! Just an hour later or so I was called by the local newspaper, and later that day the local television and radio interviewed me. I got a lot of messages and phone calls and it was just fabulous. 50K MM: What are your plans for album production?

Who will be the producer? Will it be a pure solo album? Inge: I cannot tell you who will be the producer yet. I have spoken to two very talented musicians who are also producers, and feel very confident that they would be the right people for me to work with. But I also have reason to believe that a producer from abroad might be a good choice and last but not least a very famous Dutch producer said heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interested. So I might choose among a few good options â&#x20AC;Ś what a luxury! Yes, it will be a pure solo album. I am selecting the songs right now that I want on the album. But it will be all me, accompanied by piano or guitar, and some additional instruments like drums, bass and maybe some strings. At least, that is what my thoughts are right now. 50K MM: May we accompany you during the album production process with a (maybe monthly) feature? Inge: Of course you may! It is a big adventure for me, and I would be happy to share it all with you. Let the journey begin! And I promise we will follow Inge through the album production process.

www.sellaband.com/projects/inge

g o L m Alb u (RSV) Another month has gone by and it's already December. Eight months since we reached 50 K, the album is in the very last stage of the mixing process. About half of the tracks are completed, and the rest is just a few tweaks from being done. Taking an objective overview is known to be difficult having spent so much time working very close on something that actually means a lot to you. The songs are like babies in a way, and can be

hard to bring up to lead independent lives. Quite soon they have to be strong enough to travel into the world on their own. Looking at the album now makes one thing clear.It's not going to be one of those albums that sounds the same all the way through. There's quite a big variation in both composition and sound. The songs vary from atmospheric, pop,rock, folk, countryish and even a ska tune. Most old Slim Void listeners might be in for a surprise. Hopefully

it's a pleasant one. We're very pleased with how the songs sound. The production has depth,clarity, punch and width, and the songs are really taken care of. No unnecessary sounds are allowed on the album and what's there is merely serving the songs. All mixes should be finished during the next 10 days. Then it's time for the mastering process. The mastering is supposed to lift the whole production to the last level, making it sound fresh and pro. Assumedly this step will take another week. When that's done and everything is sent to sellaband,it will take another 6 weeks until the product is back in our hands and ready to be released. This means we're talking late January/early February for the album release. Still well under 12 months from the date of reaching 50K. The 16th of November we had a 2 page article with a big picture of the band in VG, Norway's biggest newspaper. The piece told the story of our sellaband adventure and how we managed to fund our debut album on this alternative route. It also featured a smaller piece on Public Enemy. Great for us to get our name and picture out there

a bit some time before the release and the PE name seemed to make it easier to get the paper interested in doing an article on us. Unfortunately the piece is not online, but we will try to make it public quite soon. See you next month with more album news and hopefully some dates for the release. Cheers! www.myspace.com/slimvoid

Turn the Chaos of Life into Beauty

Civilized Tears just hit their target of 31k at the beginning of November and are back right now as CT remixed with a funding target of 10k. I wondered about that and asked Tim what's behind all this: Tim: Basically I want to see how other musicians interpret the CT songs. I have no intention of changing the 'Civilzed Tears' sound, but the idea of giving the music to DJs and remixers is one that has always intrigued me. I think this has artistic merit as well as marketing viability. Some tracks will be mixed by DJs who will then get Civilized Tears' music into clubs and bars. Others will mould Civilized Tears into Electronica, some will use classical instruments like cellos and violins. This is extremely exciting and interesting for me and I hope for fans of CT as well. It is also a way for my musical message to reach a completely new audience who may in turn then come to listen to the real Civilized Tears album!

50K MM: Please tell us something about what has happened the day you reached the goal of 31k. Tim: For a split second there was a sense of anxiety, "Is this real or is there a catch?". But this was quickly overcome with the stark reality that I needed to make the budget, sort out the production, mixing, mastering and all the business sides of the music. I also had a sense of urgency to make the best album I could for all the wonderful people who've believed in and stuck by me during this bumpy but adventurous ride. 50K MM: You immediately returned for a second run on SellaBand funding your project Civilized Tears remixed. What is your plan in detail?

50K MM: How are you going to convince people to believe (and invest) in Civilized Tears this time? What makes this project so special? Tim: I think people who understand the concept of remixing will be naturally interested, but I may have to find a wfole new group of investors, as this is not a project for CT purists. This is an album with other musicians interpreting the music of CT which is a different concept. I suppose it's a bit of an ego trip on my behalf as well as a risk, but sometimes life is no fun without sticking your neck out and taking a gamble! All my favourite modern day artists and bands do remix albums and they are often extremely interesting to hear and sometimes very successful comercially. The incentives I am giving are good. 35% of revenue, free downloads, CDs and much more, plus believers who invest 50 parts or more will be invited to come to the studio to experience a track being remixed! 50K MM: You have raised 1% of your budget so far, the goal is still far away. Nevertheless, have you thought about the time after reaching 10k yet? What are your plans then? Tim: Yes, I already have DJs and remixers from USA and

Until that Time Happens Mysti Mayhem was one of the first artists funding an album through her fans on SellaBand. Now she's back ... time for a few questions!

50K MM: You go for a second run on SellaBand. Simple question - why? Mysti: Because I am ready with new music that needs to be recorded and Sellaband offers a great platform to bring the the fans closer to my music as well as allow me the opportunity to capture the songs in a studio which I could otherwise not afford. 50K MM: How are you going to convince people to believe (and invest) in you this time? Mysti: I perform live on http://www.blogtv.com/ mystimayhem Mondays at 8pm EST, and upload videos to Youtube on a weekly basis to show my audience that I am active and creating. Europe who are very excited to work on this project. And I'm considering having a competition for unknown DJs and remixers to put forward a track for the album. Also, due to the previous project, I have been able to set up the budget quickly and the incentives are already published on the site. I think with a little patience people will begin to understand this remix album idea and join up. Hopefully from here on forwards the projects will snowball towards the 10k target. Then the music will be promoted through the many avenues available on-line, live in clubs and on radio. In the meantime I will be busy having fun working on the first official CT album! 50K MM: Talking about your first project, what are your plans for album production ... what kind of album can we expect, who will be the producer, ...? Tim: Firstly, I want to thank Adam, Johan, Chris and the SellaBand team for their guidance and helping me with my plans. The producers are Jeff Thall and Mike Cozzi. They're both former guitar players turned producers and both very high calibre musicians. Mike is going to be working on Sting's new project and Jeff has worked with Brian Ferry and John Cale (former Velvet Underground). A lot of the material for the album is aready written and even recorded. I couldn't wait forever whilst waiting to reach the SAB fund target! I used my own funds to begin the recording process and lived like a starving artist just biting my nails till I reached the target. I was actually homeless for 9 months, sleeping on friends' sofas and floors whilst I waited for the investments to come in. The music is all about overcoming the fear and inertia that stops us reaching our dreams and goals. I think you will hear desperation in my voice which turns into hope and uplifting realisations. I truly believe that we can turn the chaos of life into beauty with music and I have faith that this album will reflect this. 50K MM: May we accompany CT during the album production process with a monthly feature? Tim: YES www.reverbnation.com/civilizedtears

50K MM: You have raised 11% of your budget so far. Have you thought about the time after reaching the goal of 10k yet? What are your plans then? Mysti: I have thought a lot about it. I would love to record again with Chris Stamey in Chapel Hill, NC and use Kitchen Mastering to record the songs I have written so far. 50K MM: And last question: How can we support you to speed up raising your budget? Mysti: I believe it happens on its own time. Sellaband is still a new concept to many of my fans and they will believe when it's right for them. I will continue creating until that time happens. www.mystimayhem.com

An Atmosphere of Musical Velvet On November 30th Lucia Iman released her album "Tame the Night" and everyone could enjoy the listening session on SellaBand. Thanks to Daniel Ward-Murphy, who wrote the intro to this article, and a number of fans, who wrote reviews we get a very exact impression of Lucia's SellaBand album. Lucia Iman seems to embody what Sellaband was made for – giving talented and deserving artists the opportunity to record their album. From the first time I heard her voice and her song writing I passionately believed that she was both talented and deserving and as a lover of music I looked forward to owning a professionally recorded album of her songs.

Lucia’s journey to $50,000 bore many similarities to my own. It was slow and steady and she often got overlooked when it seemed fashionable to ensure other artists got to the target ahead of her. I confess I found that all a bit strange and I furrowed my brow and revisited her music to check I wasn’t imagining what I felt to be obvious talent and the foundation for a great album. I think throughout

this journey she has conducted herself with dignity throughout. Despite the obvious temptation she hasn’t traded on her looks and she has remained humble and uncomplaining when being repeatedly overlooked. From afar, I have witnessed her struggle to touch a wider audience with her music and this has resonated with me. So it is with great pleasure that I write this introduction for ‘Tame The Night’. As with all artists than have great ability and potential, you always have concerns that the album may not adequately showcase their talent, that it may be delivered in such a way that leaves you feel frustrated and underwhelmed, but I really need not have worried in this case. Lucia has delivered an achingly beautiful album. >>>>>>

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8 Malcolm Burn (producer) has done an incredible job of sensitively capturing her songs and alongside Lucia has kind of created an almost luxurious atmosphere of musical velvet. Lucia has delivered stunning vocal performances throughout. I have only heard the album a couple of times to date but the songs have real depth that will demand listening to over and over again. ‘Eyes To Sea’ is a breathtaking song and ‘One, Two, Three’, which has shades of Regina Spektor, sees Lucia at her finest. ‘Ground Zero’ is probably the catchiest song on the album and has real radio play potential. These songs are my personal favourites but I will stop wittering on now and let you make up your own mind. I think Lucia Iman has created one of the best albums to come out of Sellaband and I think every single one of her believers can feel extremely proud of helping this album to be created. I hope, like me, you enjoy it. (Daniel Ward-Murphy) One year after Lucia reached the target of 50k with the support of 903 Believers on SellaBand she celebrated the release of her album together with her fans at a special listening session on November 30th. And I guess all the listeners were sold on the album. A few of them have reviewed the album: Lucia Iman's Sellaband CD "Tame The Night" is a really well produced album. I really enjoyed listening through it many times. A nice mellow mood thoughout. Nice to hear new versions of "old classics" like "Wintersong", and new surprises like "One, Two, Three", which I really enjoy. A top notch Sellaband album. I am happy to have been a believer of Lucia. (Christer Holm) If sounds make friends with colours, Lucia Iman's new album is painted in two: dark blue, almost turning into violet, and pale gold. Dark blue of a memory and sparkling gold of passion in Remember; the blue of uneasiness and fear and gold of daring in Tame the Night; the blue of the sea and grainy hot gold of the sand on the beach in Son de Mar; the blue of the evening winter sky and the gold of the candlelight in Wintersong. The gold of the light, the blue of the shadow, the blue of melancholy and gold of courage and hope. (Catself) Listened to the Amazon.de free prelisten bits. Very nice, laid back, jazzy. Gonna love this album with a glass of wine in the still of the night and no one injuring the songs by talking. Great album, Lucia. (A Little Faith) The album was produced by Grammy award winner producer Malcolm Burn in New York in the winter 2009. With the contribution of a group of brilliant musicians she delivers a likewise brilliant album. These are the musicians who supported Lucia: drummer Ethan Eubanks (Ivy, Norah Jones), trumpetist Dan Brantigan (Kaki King), violinist/arranger Kailin Yong, guitarrist Mark Axiak and Malcolm playing bass. Lucia's Bio (taken from her website): She was born in Sevilla (Spain) and continues to spark interest in music circles at home and abroad, earning her a place in the top 100 unsigned artists by Music Connection Magazine in 2007 and 2009. She has drawn comparisons to Feist, Emiliana Torrini and Björk, but Lucia stands out

as an independent artist carving a sound that transcends genre classification. "Lucia is a disarming performer and intriguing live act thanks to her natural talent," Music Connection Magazine states, "Iman showes obvious promise ... she is someone to keep an eye on." Lucia started playing classical piano as a young girl in Madrid's conservatory and started writing and singing at an early age. She moved to Los Angeles with her family in 1996 and later attended Berklee in Boston in 2000, studying with teachers like Marlon Saunders (Michael Jackson, Bobby McFerrin, Sting) and Livingston Taylor (James Taylor). In 2002 she went back to LA and her songwriting career began unfolding while performing in the local club circuit. Touring California and Oregon in the fall of 2006 as well as putting out her first European Tour in 2008 she garnered public acclaim at live shows and radio appearances in many cities including London, Bristol, Paris, Montpellier, Amsterdam, Madrid, Bremen and Tenerife. The album release show will be at El Cid in LA on Sunday Nov 13th. Maybe some of you will join her and her fans. And I hope we will see her on stage again soon. An album containing some wonderful songs, wonderfully performed. Go listen! (Daniel Ward-Murphy). And there's nothing that needs to be added! www.luciaiman.net

Promising Newcomers The Jeffersons

50K MM: Who are you, where do you come from, ...? Please tell us something about The Jeffersons. A: We are Lisa Brokop and Paul Jefferson. For the past 15 or so years we have been recording and performing as solo acts, but we got married in 2008 and just had a baby in August of 2009...so we thought, why not perform together

as well?! We currently live in Nashville, TN, but originally I (Lisa) am from Vancouver, BC, Canada and Paul is from San Francisco, California. Here is a blurb from our promo materials: Since Lisa Brokop burst onto the scene in the early 1990s, she has been a fixture on the country scene. With seven albums and an impressive resume of writing credits, Lisa has earned her place as one of Canada’s most respected singers and songwriters. She has practically grown up in front of her fans and has garnered an incredible 15 nominations for the Canadian Country Music Association’s Female Artist of the Year. Born in San Francisco, Paul Jefferson followed his heart to Nashville where he soon made a name for himself with the hits “Check Please” and “I Might Just Make It” from his 1996 debut self-titled album. He has toured with artists such as Trisha Yearwood, Dwight Yoakam, and John Berry and is also an accomplished songwriter, having penned songs for Keith Urban, Buddy Jewell, and the #1 hit from Aaron Tippin, “That’s As Close As I’ll Get to Loving You.” Q: How did you discovered SellaBand? A: We came to know about SellaBand through a good friend, Ajay Agrawal. He is a professor of business at the University of Toronto and is actually studying SellaBand. So he introduced us to Johan, the CEO of SellaBand, and the rest is history - here we are. As soon as we heard about the concept we loved it. Both Paul and I have had major label record deals in the past and this seems like such a great way for us, as artists, to retain full control of our careers. Q: How are you going to convince people to believe (and invest) in you? A: Hopefully with great music. I think our track records speak for themselves. We both have a lot of music out

there from our solo careers that people can listen to and get a sense for what we will be creating together. We are also going to work hard to make sure that people know what we are doing and how Sellaband works and also through our blogs, we want to try and connect on a more personal level too. Q: You have raised about 2% of the budget so far. Have

you thought about the time after reaching the goal of 50k yet? What are your plans then? A: Of course, the end goal is always in our minds. We are excited about recording this album and can't wait to get started. We are just in the process of talking to a few a great producers and are continuing to write songs for the album. The goal of $50,000 is a little daunting, but we are happy to have raised 2% of our budget after only 1 day on SellaBand. Q: And last question: How can we support you to speed up raising your budget? A: The biggest way you can help is to continue to get the word out. To tell our story and to tell the SellaBand story. Thanks for everything you are doing! sellaband.com/projects/thejeffersons

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Nylon Pink

Q: Who are you, where do you come from, ...? Please tell us something about Nylon Pink. A: We are Nylon Pink, a electro rock band from Los Angeles who sounds like Hello Kitty on Acid! We are Kaila Yu on vocals, Katt Lee on bass, Dj Shy on the turntables and keytar, Theresa Houston on guitars and Tj Mcdonnell on drums

Kiwi FM's Fleur Jack An Artist's Diary Fleur Jack introduces NZ SellaBand artists on Kiwi.FM's I.A.N. every Tuesday night at 9.00 p.m. (NZ time) For 50K MUSIC MAG she writes her artist diary

(FJ) Wed 2nd Dec. Since the last 50K Music mag came out I have climbed about $500 to reach $1520 which is 7% of my target goal. I'm not the kind of artist to sit here and wait for my $20K to start making things happen, in fact much the opposite.

Q: How did you discovered SellaBand? A: A good friend of the band referred us to the website! Q: How are you going to convince people to believe (and invest) in you? A: I think that in the end, its all about the music, I think that if people just get a chance to hear the music, they will love it and invest! Q: You have raised about 7% of the budget so far. Have you thought about the time after reaching the goal of 20k yet? What are your plans then? A: We can't wait to hit our 20K goal and start recording our album and planning our first tour!!! Q: And last question: How can we support you to speed up raising your budget? A: Anything you can do to get people to take a second to check out the music, especially our new single FLUFF!!!! sellaband.com/projects/nylonpink

If you haven't met me before, i've been playing music since I was little, went busking with my guitar when i left high school, then went to music school and finished top of my class. I worked in a guitar shop for a couple of years and now work as a radio DJ on a station that only plays NZ music. Somewhere in between all of that my rock band The Twitch won NZ battle of the bands and went to Hong Kong to play the world final in 2005 and came 2nd place. We've Played in Melbourne, done a lot of touring around our homeland and are currently working on releasing our second album which is due out Feb. We are self managed which means I am currently booking the tour for Feb at the moment and trying very hard to make everything slip into place- much like a jigsaw puzzle. My other band (the band behind my music on Sab) Pavlova & The Jandals have an exclusive Xmas show booked at a venue called The Wine Cellar in AK which is nearly sold out. We're hoping to record an album at the end of Jan with the hope to release and tour NZ in April 2010. So much planning goes into the release of a CD and i'm learning things this time that I didn't know last time. There are so many things to think about when booking the tour, like organizing press and radio interviews in each town so that people that may never have heard of you will come check it out and you're not left in a small town with no audience. Also last time we put out an album we got songs on radio but without the music videos on TV, they lost momentum pretty quickly and this time i'm trying really hard to coordinate each release with song and video coming out at the same time. So far we've out out a single which has been picked up by 4 radio stations around NZ and the video is being serviced at the moment. The music for the album is all mastered and ready to go, next part is the photo shoot for the album cover and then talking to the manufacturers. Always up to the eyeballs in it all and I love it~ Will update you next time! xx Fleur Jack

Monthly Charts of Truth Thanks to Thor, who has worked out the funding figures of Sellaband artists, we have ... (Th) ... Here it is, the "Monthly Charts of Truth" on Sellaband for November, checking out on who's hot and who's not in the Top 100 on Sellaband. Data observed is the money investment in the Top 100 artists in November (31.Oct afternoon until 1.Dec, early morning).

With a total investment of $67,895, the month was almost as exceptional as the one before ($71,240), when Public Enenmy joined! In fact, it would be even higher (more than $78,000) considering the â&#x201A;Ź/$ exchange rate, because there's one big artist with a budget in Euro now. But

traditionally, the currency is neglected for the Sellaband charts. Gainers and losers kind of exchanged, but to the better: 53(36) artists were gaining money, 39(51) artists losing money, only 8(13) stayed the same (last month's values in brackets) This week's (almost) 68k is better spread amongst the artists. â&#x201A;Ź20,770 goes to Hind, the well known Dutch singer, who gained all this money on only 1 week after joining. Impressive, and probably a record in the Sellaband history. She now has already more than 50% in budget! On #2, we have Inge M: With $11,600, she gained the missing $10k for reaching her goal in a two-day speedrace, and she's now a recording artist. Public Enemy is on #3, with $11,450. Compared to their last month's $59k they lost a lot of momentum, but still doing well. Though reaching their goal will take a little while from the current $70k with that speed, unless they lower the ambitious $250k to a some more realistic one ($100k or $125k or so). Another artist worth to mention is Aly Cook. She gained $8,360, reached already more than $14k, and her $20k goal is close! Aly and Hind are likely to be the next recording artists and probably the last ones in 2009. There have been 14 more artists who gained between $1000 and $5000 this month, the other 35 artists gained less than $1000. A good thing: In November, there have been no huge losses, unlike last month. Notable is Anne Marie Sunshine (-$1,620) and Blister (-$750). 12 further artists lost between $100 and $500, all the remaining 25 lost less than $100.

Those Lucky Surprises and Coincidences

Catself is one of the most active ladies on SellaBand, not only as an artist but also as a member of the TalentCast team. I asked her how she balances all this and of course about her new plan for the album and a gig in Morocco: 50K MM: In last issue of 50K MUSIC MAG you delivered insight into your plan after the SellaBand changes. Could you please give us more details about your "new plan"? Catself: In a way, none of the main things will change. I will make a full album and the budget remains 50 K. I will need these funds to produce a full album and to be able to provide a CD for every part. But what I like about the new model is that it makes it possible to divide the funds according to my needs. Compared to what has been done earlier, I am going to spend a bigger part of the budget on promotion. I would like to do the recording in Morocco not just because it will be more affordable to use the studio and hire musicians but because I have quite a fanbase there already. I would like to build on this connection and I am hoping for some media interest both in Morocco and in Europe when I record my album there. All believers will get get a 50% revenue share from the CDs

and downloads sold through SellaBand and the sites and shops SellaBand has a selling partnership with. Additionally, for believers with 50 parts or more, I will sell their CDs at gigs. The revenue from that will be shared yearly between all these believers according to how many parts they have got. My believers get a detailed account of how I am going to do it by email. I have planned it well to make sure that each believer gets the right share at the same time regardless of when and for how much individual CDs are sold. Apart from the numbered CDs, to show my appreciation for the believers' faith in my music and for their very generous support and their patience while they wait for me to complete my budget, I have planned a special surprise for each believer. I want to keep it a surprise to the end so I will not what it is but it is something rather special that hasn't been done before.

13 Reading believers' thoughts on SellaBand Forum gave me more insight into what is important for them and gave me an idea for one more thing: at least every month, I am going to post a blog about my progress to keep them updated. For more details, please visit my profile! 50K MM: You have played a gig in Morocco in summer this year, a quite unusual venue for European artists, I guess. How come you played there? Please tell us more about that. Catself: A lot of really great things come to me completely as a surprise. I got a message on MySpace one day, from someone I didn't know, so I thought at first it was spam. But it was an invitation to the Sun Festival in Marrakech organised by MarocK'Jeunes Association - the association of Moroccan youths. They were looking for artists to represent Finland at their festival and somehow discovered my music on MySpace. I still don't know how it happened, my MySpace profile was very small then, with just over 100 friends! Of course I accepted the invitation This turned into more of an adventure than I had expected. The flights for me and my crew were supposed to be covered by the Finnish Embassy in Morocco, but then it turned out that my Polish passport was a problem. In the end, we travelled to Morocco by car, the car broke down in southern Spain, so we continued by train and bus and on foot... in the heat of inland Spain in July. But then once we got to Morocco, all was arranged and we could relax again. The festival and our whole stay in Marrakech was an awesome experience. We really felt welcome there. The atmosphere of the festival was very positive and relaxing, so although the whole arena was filled, it didn't feel like that. I felt all the time really close to the audience. I am invited to come back next year and I am hoping to go! 50K MM: You were interviewed by Calle Lindholm for a documentary called "SkĂśna MĂ¤nniskor" ("Beautiful People") broadcast in Finnish National TV this year. Home come they portrayed you? Please tell us some details. Catself: Once again, it was one of these things that started from a coincidence. I went to someone else's gig at a pub one evening. I was very tired and not in the mood at all, but he had just released an album and I thought it would be nice to go and listen to the new songs and do some cheering. A nice man and his wife sat at the same table and somehow we all started talking. He told me he was a music teacher, that he had been to Poland (where I come from), we talked a lot about music and then he asked what I did. I mentioned that I had recently given up my job to concentrate on music. He was very interested in what kind of music I made, so I gave him my self-burnt EP I had with me. He gave me a call a few months later and it turned out that actually he was a TV and radio journalist and would like to make a programme about me. 50K MM: How did you become a member of the TalentCast team? What is your job there? Catself: Johan Jongerius, the founder of TalentCast, was one of my first believers, he came across my profile on my second day on SellaBand. He invited me to join as an artist, so I uploaded my tracks. We started writing messages and quickly became good friends, and he mentioned once that it was a bit hard to get the artists on

SellaBand notice the project and encourage them to sign up. I suggested help in inviting them and also help in editing some texts, and Johan invited me to join the crew. I was happy at first, but then when I thought about it, I started worrying that because I am an artist, it would put me in an uncomfortable situation. I joined anyway, mainly to help a friend, but of course as soon as I started, I enjoyed it a lot. We are all a good team and it's great to work on this together. My tasks there are creating accounts, communication with artists and other members and answering questions from anyone interested in TalentCast, handling the MySpace TalentCast mail - which swells with hundreds of messages weekly. Also, I try to get us more partnerships - since I joined, we got two new partners: the web-TV magazine diverCity and MarocKJeunes organisation. I was right when I was afraid that being in the crew would bring me problems as an artist. Some people thought that I was doing it for personal exposure, which is very far from the truth - TalentCast sometimes takes up as much time as a full-time job, and of course it takes away the time and energy I could use for my own promotion. It is also a bit awkward to combine two roles. Once I contacted a radio station for TalentCast, asking if they would be interested in our programme. They didn't answer my three emails, and after a while contacted me on MySpace asking for some of my tracks. I felt too uncomfortable about their not answering to contact them back and send them my music. Such situations can be awkward. Still, I don't regret I joined. Thanks to that we can now be also on MySpace, get more music and more listeners. I think the programme and the whole project is getting better all the time, and I am happy if I can contribute to that. 50K MM: And how do you balance all these things you do? Catself: Barely! I spend as much time playing and making new music as possible but quite a lot of time goes into TalentCast, SellaBand also demands everyday activity. I knew it would all take time, and that is why I waited with signing up till the time when I could really concentrate on this - I joined after I had quit my job. During the times when I do get some work (substitute teaching), I sleep three hours a night. It takes time to try to get gigs, find and contact venues, and it's incredible how much time it all takes when you are all alone, without a band or professionals helping you. So, I appreciate it very much that sometimes I get those lucky surprises and coincidences, and that I get invited to gigs - last year to Morocco, now in January I am going to play a gig with a Polish band RANOC and then in Germany - that last gig was arranged by Wildcat, who is also on SellaBand. I am trying to learn to manage things better and have enough time for everything but there is just a limited number of hours in a day. And to create songs I am happy with, I need some time and freedom to clear my head - hiking, skiing, training in the gym - something I do my best to have time for every day. I always knew everything would take work - but sometimes it seems like I should split into two or three Catselves! sellaband.com/projects/agnieszkaholm

Artist News Headquarters' Column Just like them good old days It is December 1, as I am writing my monthly contribution to 50K Magazine (sorry Kompis, I know I'm late, this time). Funny, I woke up this morning and as the monthly results came in, I realized that we had just completed our fourth November. And as it happens, it turns out that November '09 was our best November month so far, with more than 100,000 new dollars invested in music on SellaBand. For those who don't know: our first ever 'November' was 2006 and it will be an important moment in time for SellaBand history, because that was the month when we saw Nemesea become the first ever band to raise 50K on SellaBand. That is 'just' three years ago, but to me it feels like forever. I know that if I'm ever going to write a book about the past three years, it is going to be at least 1,000 pages long! But back to the hear and now... New bands and artists have joined, just like they always have. The difference is that there are now a couple among them with an established fan base and easy access to (local) media. Personally I think this is a fantastic development, one from which hopefully all artists on SellaBand will benefit. People who love Hind or Public Enemy support them because they love music and believe in music that has yet to be made. Some will only support their favorite artists, others will look around the site and will soon find out that there is so much talent out there that deserves to be heard. If only 10% of the 500 new faces that Hind brought to SellaBand in her first week take the time to look just a little bit further, then already the rest of the artist community will benefit from this exposure. By the way, because we feel that we are back on track with SellaBand (read my previous column) the Team have come up with a new competition: The Christmas Competition. Similar to what we've done in the past and it will no doubt evoke some have debate among our community, but it will hopefully also bring even more exposure and a positive boost for artists on their way to their respective funding targets. When we put the competition live, this morning, someone in the office sad: "It's just like old days again, all that's missing is the SellaBand Tribune." That's when I reminded myself to write this column. It does feel like old times, and there is a 'Tribune', It is called 50K Magazine, it only appears once a month, but as far as I'm concerned it captures the spirit of SellaBand even better!

+++ Female singer Hind (25) has completed her fund raising project on SellaBand in just 11 days. The artist, a former Pop Idol from the Netherlands, raised €40,000 ($60,000) to record a new studio album. Nearly 1,000 so called Believers from more than 50 countries, collectively donated an average of $5,500 per day, a new fund raising record by all standards. Hind is quite overwhelmed with her success: “I’m totally amazed by the speed with which I've managed to fund this album. After my TV performance on the Dutch TV show ‘Pauw & Witteman’, where I had the opportunity to discuss my decision to pursue my career through SellaBand, everything went very fast.” Hind brought hundreds of fans to SellaBand, but was also immediately embraced by the platform’s existing community. +++ +++ On the 8th of December 2009, Aly Cook reached her goal of $20.000. The singer from New Zealand raised the total in only 4 months. She is now talking to producers and studios and is planning to start recording in the beginning of the new year. Aly is the 40th Artist on SellaBand to officially raise the full target budget. Congratulations Aly! +++ +++ Chris Difford - the co-founder of legendary UK band Squeeze - has joined with SellaBand to raise the first phase of the recording budget for his third solo album. Entitled ‘The Full English’, the album will be recorded and released in time for Chris' 2010 UK tour - before Squeeze summer activity re-commences in both the US and the UK. He says: "I am really excited to be doing this. Being a part of the future of the music industry is a treat. I just hope it works so I can make the best record of my solo career so far, it’s going to be a cracker. Please join me on this adventure. I cant wait!"+++

Merry Christmas, and all the best for 2010.

+++ On the 24th of November 2009 UK singer Ariel has hit her target of $20,000. She'll now hit the studio to record her EP, shoot a video and work on the promotion. After changing her target from 50K to 20K, Ariel quickly reached the new goal. Congratulations Ariel! +++

Johan V, December 1, 2009 -Johan Vosmeijer | CEO SellaBand | johan@sellaband.com | www.sellaband.com | +31622801294

+++ At the start of the recent UK tour Aki & Kazuto of the Japanese recorded an interview with Bruce Dickinson for his BBC 6 Music programme. The interview was broadcasted on Friday November 13th. +++

15 The Rules:

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om/xmas20

About the Christmas Competition In true holiday spirit SellaBand is giving everyone the opportunity of being part of “the gift that keeps on giving”. Yes, that’s right, we’re creating a special 10 track digital compilation album which will be distributed worldwide and available at good etailers everywhere from iTunes to Amazon. To be a part of this shameless promotion opportunity, all you have to do is become one of the top ten money raising artists on SellaBand between now and Christmas Eve. And in true yuletide tradition, the grand prize winner will be the one who raises the most! So, as Santa says, “Ho,Ho,Ho....make sure you make it a SellaBand Christmas to remember!

Those Fabulous Prizes.... The ten artists raising the most money (in US dollars) between December 1st and December 24th 2009 will have one track included on a special digital compilation album distributed worldwide by The Orchard. The Grand Prize Winners will receive:

First price o $1000 in Parts o 6 month subscription to uPlaya. o 6 month Pro account for Youlicense o 1 month top position coverage on SellaBand

Second prize o $500 in Parts o 2 weeks top position coverage on SellaBand

Third prize o $250 in Parts o 1 week top position coverage on SellaBand

Three lucky Believers will receive: o A SellaBand t-shirt o All 25 SellaBand CDs released so far

* Any Believer who has bought a part in one of the top ten artist during the competition will have the chance to win the believer prize * This competition is open to all SellaBand artists and believers. * Competition commences December 1st and ends December 24th at Noon CET. * The top ten artists raising the most money (in US dollars) will each have one song chosen for the digital compilation album * The Grand Prize Winner will be the artist who raises the most money of all * Final result to be formally announced on Monday, December 28th (it is Christmas, after all) * Judges decision is final * Details of uPlaya and Youlicense prizes on request * Euros will be counted as Dollars * When an artist reaches the goal during the competition, the prize will move to the next artist. The ultimate Christmas Comptetition chart you find on www. sellaband.com/xmas2009. See who's in top position and who needs a little boost. Take your chance until Dec 24th.

The 20 Things You Must Know About Music Online Thing 1: Don’t believe the hype

There’s a great deal of discussion about music online in the mainstream press, and there are a couple of predominant threads to that coverage. Mostly, it’s not true. It pays to be able to separate fact from fiction and hype quite understand — and technology is one of those areas. from reality when it comes to the online music So… if, for instance, you read that bands are making it big environment. Especially when your livelihood depends on on MySpace, the first thing that should pop into your head it. Here are the two most important things to watch out for: is the question ‘who stands to gain if I think that’s true?’. Then you remember that what sells a band is a great story. The more that story is about them being genuinely great, 1) Technological determinism There is a popular idea, particularly in the mainstream rather than simply marketed, the more successful that sell press, that technology drives history. According to this becomes. You might even recall that the guy who owns Fox idea, changes to technology alter the rules that govern the News is also the guy who owns MySpace. ways in which we operate our lives, our businesses and our leisure. Usually this manifests as either progress or So when you hear that Sandi Thom was signed to Sony decline: a brave new world of opportunity, or a loss of an because 100,000 people were tuning in to her nightly live webstream from her flat in London, you first remember older, more natural way of operating. that you only heard that story AFTER she had signed to Sony. The first thing you think of is the press release, and Progress: In the case of online music, we see these you wonder who might have sent that press release, things very clearly: MySpace ‘gave us’ the bringing all those photographers to the ’signing’. Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen. Homespun Then you recall that bandwidth costs money, and that web streaming led to the Sandi Thom there are technical limitations on upstream internet success story. Technological determinism bandwidth from home connections. If Sandi Thom had says that the new internet environment that many listeners / viewers without corporate support, allowed for the traditional gatekeepers to she was pretty much running her own ISP, with outgoings be circumvented, and that a groundswell in the thousands of pounds, and no income of which to of public support grew up as a result of the speak. sheer power of a great artist connected directly to the masses. Finally, you begin to realise that Sandi Thom had a publicist early on — and, most likely, was already signed to Decline: There is also the story about how the Sony when she started. internet is ‘killing’ the record industry. The groundswell of unsolicited support thing is a great Downloading, and the practice of burning story, and has the same impact as that story that everyone CDs is single-handedly responsible for the seemed to buy into about Norah Jones being a word-ofimpending demise of the major labels, mouth phenomenon — when actually, there were causing the decline of high street retail billboards, tv ads and radio airplay all over the place. and is undermining traditional, ‘natural’ models of music distribution and consumption — and consequently In short: preventing rights holders from receiving The moral of the story here is that hype prevents us from their deserved reward for their part in the understanding what’s really going on, and to what extent. creative process. If we don’t understand those processes, then navigating them ourselves becomes problematic. Nonsense. If you want to make any headway in the music business in this day and age, you cannot be relying upon a magical In fact, technology does not ’cause’ these things. MySpace success story, and nor can you fear the dangers Technology changes and we choose our response. We have of a hostile environment littered with thieves and ‘lost agency and can negotiate these shifts in media, as long as sales’. we understand them as they happen. Better to distrust the stories about online success and calamity, and simply view the new technologies as a range of tools that you can adopt, and a series of changes to the 2) People tend to lie Well, maybe ‘lie’ is too strong a word, but if you’re reading business environment to which you can adapt. about music online, chances are you’re reading PR and marketing. Don’t be fooled — conservatively around 70% From the book "The 20 Things You Must Know About of what makes it to the media starts its life as a press Music Online" by Andrew Dubber. release. Probably that figure is higher in reality. Download it for free on www.newmusicstrategies.com. Assuming that what you read began as a press release allows you to look for bias, spin and partiality. This should Also read Andrew's post "Happy 'Quit ySpace' Day" on not be a new skill for you, but it seems that most people music think tank - www.musicthinktank.com/blog/happyforget it when it comes to things they think they don’t quit-myspace-day.html - a must read!

Happiness, Pride, Nervousness and a Lot of Satisfaction On November 4th Bonnie from Uruguay reached their very longed for target. So I asked Sofi what we can expect now and what their future plans are. And we get an impression what happened on the day they reached 15k. So I think we all can look forward to an excellent album coming from South America.

simply does. Only a few people know how much effort we put into this, we started from scratch almost 3 years ago, and now we are about to record the album of our lives. 50K MM: What are your plans now - album production ... what kind of album can we expect, who will be the producer, ...?? Sofi: The producer will be Argentinian Sebastian Bazan. He has work with important artists in Latin America, and after a couple of meetings with him, we knew he was the kind of person we want involved in this project. What can you expect? Well, lets say you will have a mix of upbeat pop/ rock music and slower power ballads, and you can also expect some surprises. It will be a fun album, easy to listen to. As we already announced, we will make an english and a spanish version of the album, so we can reach both spanish and english market. 50K MM: How are you going to convince people to buy your album? Sofi: We will work with "La Galera Marketing" (www.lagaleramarketing.com) to start a marketing campaign, for both the local market and Europe/USA.

50K MM: Please tell us something about what has happened the day you reached the goal of 15k. Sofi: It was a day we have been waiting for about 2 years. When we changed our target we expected to hit 15k in middle December. But when Sellaband announced in their newsletter that we were only 3k away from our target, a lot of believers started to join immediately. We got more than 50 believers in just a few days and the 4rth of November we reached the goal! It was a mix of feelings: Happiness, pride, nervoussness, and a lot of satisfaction! It was one of those days when you realize that if you want something to happen, and if you believe you can make it happen, it

Dont have the details yet of how this is going to be developed, but it will not only include gigging and local radio promotion, but we will use internet as a main tool to attract costumers to our website www.bonnierocks.com 50K MM: May we accompany you during the album production process with a monthly feature? Sofi: Of course, as we already announced on Sellaband, you will be notified about everything going on in the recording process. For this, you have to suscribe to our newsletter in www.bonnierocks.com. By suscribing you also get the chance to win a free "Showtime" EP.

News from the Airplay Challenge (Jurjen) How important is airplay to make a Sellabandproject successfull? Because fanfunded music is a rather new development not so much statistics can help us with answering this question. Fact is that most marketingdepartments of big recordlabels push their recordsales by influencing radiostations. Fact is that artists with much media-attention did show us how fast the amount of sold parts can grow (Congratulations to Hind as a great example). It's evident that airplay can make or break an artist. So it's good to think about it. Does an artist have a mediastrategy? How much budget spends an artist to pluggers to attract more media-attention? The Airplay Challenge started as a forum-topic and now the number one sells $500.- to The Airplay Challenge's believer account. The number one can keep these parts sold as long as he / she

keeps the lead position in the game. So the challenge keeps attention for airplay in the air and we hope that it gives many artists a push in the right direction. The first great artist who sold $500.- in parts to The Airplay Challenge's believer account is John C. Fraser. He has a very professional media-strategy reaching many radiostations in The Netherlands. You can read evidence that John reaches 17 radiostations on the forum of Sellaband, but the total amount of stations is higher. The competition is strong. Meg and Mark from the UK are fantastic challengers with evidence that they reach 15 radiostations. More artists are expected to join the competition. So it will be hard to keep the $500.- in the pocket.

Katie Thompson Album Diary Weekly radio program with Sellaband's independent music News and Gossip about Sellaband Gigs and Events

Katie songwriting with her brother

Song of the Week TalentCast is the passion of 4 people: MissY, Catself (Agnieszka Holm), John Werkman and Johan Jongerius who are enthusiastic about the Katie singing the NZ Anthem for a local rugby team was on the tv

concept of SellaBand

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