Brisbanite Ben Salter is releasing his debut solo record sometime soon. Doing these things on a musician’s wage can be difficult sometimes. As I see it, the cost of production far outweighs the money reaped from sales, something local musicians have to come to terms with early, I wager.
Salter is employing an interesting approach. People can pre-purchase the album which go to production costs and they get a nice souvenir and record credits.
He writes:
This is not a charity.The way it works is, if you pay the price of an album ($25) now then when it’s finished (in July 2011, all going to plan) you’ll get the signed album on CD, a link to download it, a badge and sticker, a shout out in the credits, plus a bonus, limited edition EP of stuff that I’m going to record specially for this campaign. If you donate more, you’ll get a variety of different ‘perks’, as listed on the right here: t-shirts, Vinyl, A2 prints, private shows, tickets, garden gnomes*, nude photographs**.. your money’s worth basically, and more. Plus all contributors of $50 or more will see a donation made to the World Wildlife Fund and RSPCA on their behalf to help out kitties great and small. Isn’t that sweet? You just pay in advance, instead of once it’s out, and as a result I don’t need to borrow money, you get a warm inner glow and everyone’s happy.***
A worthy cause. You can ‘donate’ at IndieGoGo.
