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Crowdfunding is currently in the rudest of health. It has seen Neil Young fund his new Pono music player, and Foo Fighters play a show at the request of fans (with potentially many more to come).
Bypassing record label politics, Nottingham upstarts Lacey have managed to crowfund their debut LP on Pledgemusic through the support of scores of hardcore fans and admiration from the likes of Bowling For Soup.
Nothing can stop their horizon-chasing arena-emo.Through a variety of innovative ideas of PledgeMusic, their debut album Under The Brightest Lights will now see the light of day - thanks to the only people who really matter. Not critics, not record label A&Rs, but their fans.
Here's how they did it, and why they had to, in their own words:
"It’s the age old story…an up and coming band struggles to make ends meet whilst trying to break into the big bad music industry. You’re left with barely enough cash for food and rent.
"For an unsigned act without the luxury of any financial backing, facing the day to day slog of the old 9-5 is the obvious means available to fund your efforts. However, there’s only so much that can be done off your own back, there’s only so far you can go. With Lacey, our determination, desire and commitment can never be questioned but as so many acts out there have realised, there are limits that not even the most dedicated of us can overcome.
"So where do we go from here?
"Having a released a couple of well received EPs, along with a couple of decent tours the next step seemed obvious…Lacey were to record an album!"
"Of course there was only one thought that entered our heads, you guessed it, how on earth are we going to fund this?
"When budgeting, the costs began to stack up fast. There’s recording time, that goes without saying, mastering, production, PR, videos, equipment, merchandise and countless other things we didn’t foresee. Frightening really.
"So enter…PledgeMusic to save the day!
"For those unaware, PledgeMusic allows fans to fund any musical venture you can put forward and offers a rare opportunity for fans to get involved in the process of making an album, and get an insight into exactly what goes on."
"PledgeMusic appeared the only option available to get our debut album up and running. When putting the project together, we obviously had to consider what our fans would want other than just the album. Of course, it’s no secret as to where the money would be going, but what could we give back to encourage people to invest in us?
"It was only right that our fans get involved and receive a real insight into the process itself. We needed to ensure they got something worthwhile out of it, it’s the least we could have done.
"So with that in mind we allowed people to pledge to come down to the studio and see the album take shape, a writing practice, they could experience the tracks in their rawest form, a gig experience with sound check and back stage access, here the pledgers could hear the new songs being trialled live for the very first time.
"More personal items were also included, a guitar was made available, tour laminates, hand written lyrics, a jacket worn on tour (washed of course)."
"Then there were exclusive album related items such as, t-shirts and hoodies, album artwork on canvass, pledgers name in the linear notes. We also offered to cover any song acoustically, music reviews and personal hangouts. All in all, anything and everything that would allow people to experience the process of us writing and recording an album and even get an insight to us as people.
"The reaction we had to the project was quite simply overwhelming. This was reflected not only in us hitting our financial goal but by the interest people showed in the album and us as band. Never could we have predicted such a positive response and to be quite honest, we’re humbled by the whole thing and will always be truly grateful to those who got behind us."
"Perhaps there’s hope for the music industry yet, if guys like us can fund an album purely off the support of our fan base, there’s no reason why many more acts can follow suit. For any unsigned band today, don’t underestimate the number of people out there willing to get behind you and support you, and don’t underestimate yourselves.
"For Lacey, now more than ever, this album needs to be a success. With fans having invested so much of their time, interest and money into this, along with their faith in us as a band, we need to do them justice.
"Hopefully this will give us the platform needed to take things to the next level and we couldn’t have done without everyone who got involved with our Pledge Music campaign. Thank you again and thank you to anyone who’s pledged towards any other projects."
For more information, find Lacey on:
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PledgeMusic
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