03/2015
Link


De La Soul has launched a Kickstarter campaign to finance the recording their eighth album, the group's first since 2004’s The Grind Date.

The veteran rap group -- consisting of Posdnous, Dave and Maseo -- is seeking to raise $110,000 for the project, which will include contributions from 2 Chainz, an electronic music band Little Dragon, rocker and former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne and British rocker Damon Albarn.

Fans who donate to the cause will receive various incentives including a dinner date with the band or even a studio session to record a personal skit for the album.

"Over the last three years, we’ve hired some of LA’s finest studio musicians and recorded them in free-styled, unrehearsed, jam sessions," the group explains. "We are now in the process of going back to that 200+ hours of music, listening, enjoying and discovering those special moments where, musically, something magical happens, where interesting sounds and layers were forgotten, where new sounds can be sampled, looped, chopped, filtered and arranged, freely, without the intrusive presence of publishing politics and the infamous 'sample police.'"

The set is expected in September.

https://www.kickstarter.c...-new-album

not sure if i like the options available.

Okay, I feel weird about De La using a kickstarter.

I know they write and produce this music themselves.

Their last 3 albums (Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump [2000], AOI: Bionix [2001], The Grind Date [2004]) were made on a Mac computer.



If they are selling it on their own, they will make their money back. We're paying for their session musicians?

Cinny said:

Okay, I feel weird about De La using a kickstarter.

I know they write and produce this music themselves.

Their last 3 albums (Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump [2000], AOI: Bionix [2001], The Grind Date [2004]) were made on a Mac computer.



If they are selling it on their own, they will make their money back. We're paying for their session musicians?

Apparently they're constructing the tracks from samples of their own catalogue. Hopefully they mine the hell out of Buhlune Mindstate, which IMO is the crown jewel of their discography up to this point.

They've already met ( and surpassed) their goal.

alexzander said:

They've already met ( and surpassed) their goal.

in under 24 hours, I read!

If they are selling it on their own, they will make their money back. We're paying for their session musicians?

Sure, you're helping pay for the studio time, the mastering, the artwork, the pressing, all the things a record label would normally front the buget for then bill back to the artist. Every album has a budget for this stuff, you are always paying for it.

It's also a way to make the album available for people to order. If they raise enough money, they can press more copies & get distribution in stores.

bobzilla77 said:

If they are selling it on their own, they will make their money back. We're paying for their session musicians?

Sure, you're helping pay for the studio time, the mastering, the artwork, the pressing, all the things a record label would normally front the buget for then bill back to the artist. Every album has a budget for this stuff, you are always paying for it.

It's also a way to make the album available for people to order. If they raise enough money, they can press more copies & get distribution in stores.

Van Hunt followed a similar formula.

bobzilla77 said:

If they are selling it on their own, they will make their money back. We're paying for their session musicians?

Sure, you're helping pay for the studio time, the mastering, the artwork, the pressing, all the things a record label would normally front the buget for then bill back to the artist. Every album has a budget for this stuff, you are always paying for it.

It's also a way to make the album available for people to order. If they raise enough money, they can press more copies & get distribution in stores.

Kickstarter Celebrity Cash Grab

I really don't like the trend that I'm seeing.

If can't afford studio time.................get out the game.

I believe in supporting artist that I like, but this trend isn't moving me at all.

Seems like more of a money grab.I even saw Spike Lee trying 2 fund a film via this method.

Graycap23 said:

I really don't like the trend that I'm seeing.

If can't afford studio time.................get out the game.

I believe in supporting artist that I like, but this trend isn't moving me at all.

Seems like more of a money grab.I even saw Spike Lee trying 2 fund a film via this method.

If you as an artist aren't willing to "risk" the investment in studio time, another reason to get out of the game.

Cinny said:

Graycap23 said:

I really don't like the trend that I'm seeing.

If can't afford studio time.................get out the game.

I believe in supporting artist that I like, but this trend isn't moving me at all.

Seems like more of a money grab.I even saw Spike Lee trying 2 fund a film via this method.

If you as an artist aren't willing to "risk" the investment in studio time, another reason to get out of the game.

I have a feeling these tracks were probably already done, and now they have new equipment and some cash in their pockets.

I like this idea. Pay now for something later. Have not listened to them since Stakes is High though.

Graycap23 said:

I really don't like the trend that I'm seeing.

If can't afford studio time.................get out the game.

I believe in supporting artist that I like, but this trend isn't moving me at all.

Seems like more of a money grab.I even saw Spike Lee trying 2 fund a film via this method.

I don't understand that at all. People are mostly just pre-ordering the album. As long they get an album for their money, it's not a money grab. It's just selling it a different way.

Do you know how much it costs for studio time, mastering & pressing? I wouldn't be surprised if the individuals in TLC and De La do not have that kind of cash on hand.

How would you prefer to support artists? If you want to wait til the album is done to seee if it is worth buying, you can do that. Pre-ordering is a hardcore-fan kinda thing. If those people can fund the project, so non-hardcores like me can eventually listen to it on Youtube, that seems like a better deal for the artist than having a label fund it. Label wants big prfits and return on that investment, hardcore fans just want their album.

Cinny said:

bobzilla77 said:

Sure, you're helping pay for the studio time, the mastering, the artwork, the pressing, all the things a record label would normally front the buget for then bill back to the artist. Every album has a budget for this stuff, you are always paying for it.

It's also a way to make the album available for people to order. If they raise enough money, they can press more copies & get distribution in stores.

Kickstarter Celebrity Cash Grab

Please read this, bobzilla77. It's more about questioning the estimated budget.

I did just print that out & read it.

Here's the thing. TLC asked for $150 grand.

They ended up raising $430 grand mostly through presales of the record.

So, they can make their album as comfortably as they would like, pay big bucks to some hot producers, using the best studios, maybe making a nice looking music video and taking out some ads, hiring a PR agent, the same job Jive Records would do for them. They can afford it now.

Plus, they earned themselves $300 grand with which they can pay their mortgages, donate to charity or hell, spend it all on the world's biggest hat if they want to.

And that's real money. They've earned it. It's not an advance against future earnings that will come back to bite them. They have already recouped their expenses before spending anything.

The writer of that article sounds bitter that he's not in a position to rake in all those album sales from a big fanbase and thinks his music is a lot better than that made by these old people who really need to give up and make room for him. Well, in the old days, maybe there was a record label that would have believed in him and gave him the same shot as a TLC comeback album.

But I do not believe that artists successfully selling their art amounts to a "cash grab." The ones that do this successfully are the ones that will offer an exerience that fans are willing to pay for.

People like THIS however are doomed to failure. They're not offerring anything of value for the money they are asking. Oh well, that's just one more shyster on the internet, good riddance.

SoulAlive said:

I wonder if Prince would ever do something like this for a new album he would be able to record and sell a new album without using a major record company.That's gotta appeal to him

I seem to remember pre-ordering the One Night Alone Live box set direct from him back in 2003. Same concept.

My band is about to do a crowdfunding project for our next album, and we're not even using one of those sites. We're gonna set up a website where folks can just straight up order the CD for $10 or LP for $15. We have demos of the new songs available to send people immediately so they get something for their money the first day. We feel like we have enough of a web presence that the people who want it can find it without surfing on Kickstarter.com, and then we don't even have to give up 10% of the money we raise.

That feels a lot better to me than pouring our meager personal savings into a big project that could go bust and never make back the investment.

And it definitely feels better than handing over the masters to some label for a $1500 advance.

Didn't these guys do this just a couple of years ago?

Nevertheless I hopes it comes to fruition. These guys are probably the only

rap act that gets better with age. The Grind Date was damn near flawless.

bobzilla77 said:

SoulAlive said:

I wonder if Prince would ever do something like this for a new album he would be able to record and sell a new album without using a major record company.That's gotta appeal to him

I seem to remember pre-ordering the One Night Alone Live box set direct from him back in 2003. Same concept.

My band is about to do a crowdfunding project for our next album, and we're not even using one of those sites. We're gonna set up a website where folks can just straight up order the CD for $10 or LP for $15. We have demos of the new songs available to send people immediately so they get something for their money the first day. We feel like we have enough of a web presence that the people who want it can find it without surfing on Kickstarter.com, and then we don't even have to give up 10% of the money we raise.

That feels a lot better to me than pouring our meager personal savings into a big project that could go bust and never make back the investment.

And it definitely feels better than handing over the masters to some label for a $1500 advance.

I think direct crowd funding to the artists is awesome...finally cutting out the real greedy ones - the middle men exploiting the talent.

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Back in the 90's million dollar album budgets were common.

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$150,000 doesn't sound like that much.

Think about it, how much would you expect to pay a few people who are professionals of the higest calibre to work on something for 2 months? 5k per month absolute rock bottom if they're doing it partially on charity? That's on the cheap, if we're talking the cream of the crop.

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A single music video? So we have at the minimum, probably a director, camera man, producer, production co-ordinator, edit, visual fx, colour grader.

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An album and all that comes around it, if you're doing it properly is a huge amount of work, and good engineers/prodution people won't be working for minimum wage, rightly so.

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At the end of the day, pre purchase the album or not, doesn't really make that much difference....the fans who are probably overpaid in their own jobs can shell out for the larger perks so the band can make a living from music too

phunkdaddy said:

Didn't these guys do this just a couple of years ago?

In 2013, they used Bittorent Bundle to release an 11-track mixed tape (Smell The DA.I.S.Y). Maybe that's what you're thinking about.

nd33 said:

I think direct crowd funding to the artists is awesome...finally cutting out the real greedy ones - the middle men exploiting the talent.

.

Back in the 90's million dollar album budgets were common.

.

$150,000 doesn't sound like that much.

Think about it, how much would you expect to pay a few people who are professionals of the higest calibre to work on something for 2 months? 5k per month absolute rock bottom if they're doing it partially on charity? That's on the cheap, if we're talking the cream of the crop.

.

A single music video? So we have at the minimum, probably a director, camera man, producer, production co-ordinator, edit, visual fx, colour grader.

.

An album and all that comes around it, if you're doing it properly is a huge amount of work, and good engineers/prodution people won't be working for minimum wage, rightly so.

.

At the end of the day, pre purchase the album or not, doesn't really make that much difference....the fans who are probably overpaid in their own jobs can shell out for the larger perks so the band can make a living from music too

$150 grand is kind of a lot for today, but it's in the ballpark for a major release. If I heard Jive or Interscope was planning to spend that on a TLC comeback album it would sound about right.

And there's another neat trick they pulled. I don't know how much each package costs but $430K in orders has got to mean, they're putting that album in the hands of about 30 to 50 thousand people the first day. It's probably going to chart. If it's a slow week, it could debut on the charts at number one.

And that's without any retail distribution at all. Given how successful the campaign has been, I would bet indie distributors are ringing their phone off the hook right now, each one offerring better terms than the last.

I'm not that big a fan of TLC but, knowing their history and how bad they got ripped off when they were hot, I find it kind of heartwarming that they are doing this successfully with no label or middleman involved. I hope they raise a million dollars.

bobzilla77 said:

I seem to remember pre-ordering the One Night Alone Live box set direct from him back in 2003. Same concept.

Same concept,indeed.I think Prince should start doing this.He claims that the record companies are evil....well,he should just go to Kickstarter and ask fans to contribute.He would have no reason to work with a major record company at all.He would finally be the "independent" artist that he claims to be now.

SoulAlive said:

bobzilla77 said:

I seem to remember pre-ordering the One Night Alone Live box set direct from him back in 2003. Same concept.

Same concept,indeed.I think Prince should start doing this.He claims that the record companies are evil....well,he should just go to Kickstarter and ask fans to contribute.He would have no reason to work with a major record company at all.He would finally be the "independent" artist that he claims to be now.

I think Prince has already thought about doing this, but doesn't do it in fear of 'failure': the embarrassment of not meeting the target would be hard to swallow for him.

It means that not only record companies but also the general public don't love him enough to come up with the advances that Prince wants for his albums. It would tarmish his legend and legacy. Kickstarter is more for promising new acts or older acts that are without record company and without cash, I think...

bobzilla77 said:

If they are selling it on their own, they will make their money back. We're paying for their session musicians?

Sure, you're helping pay for the studio time, the mastering, the artwork, the pressing, all the things a record label would normally front the buget for then bill back to the artist. Every album has a budget for this stuff, you are always paying for it.

It's also a way to make the album available for people to order. If they raise enough money, they can press more copies & get distribution in stores.

Exaclty the same thing that VAN HUNT is doing FDELUXE does with most of their work, AMERIIE is doing with a 2 album and an EP deal, ANDY ALLO is doing this is the new way, artists want their shit paid for, i know that the ORG thinks all musicians are rich sons of bitches who just want more, truth is most have to make money on albums still, cause club gigs just aint paying the BILLS!

And sure, you COULD do it cheaper, but you'd be skimping. If you've been in the game near 30 years and have a big name for yourself, do you want to be asking around for favours? You'd prob feel like a bit of an idiot asking for discounts!

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I know for the top line mixing engineers, they several thousand PER mix. You get 15 songs mixed, that COULD be $50k alone. And that's not including paying the musicians, tracking engineers, mastering engineer, or for any other expenses such as marketing. I doubt they'd spend that much on the mix engineer, they'd prob pick a second tier one or do much of it themselves with an assistant, because a $150,000 budget doesn't allow for top tier personell.

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For an artist of this calibre, I think $150,000 is totally reasonable.

If groups start asking for $250,000 + then maybe they need a new project manager who can cut costs.

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This is all still much more down to earth than the golden age in the 80s/90s when million dollar album budgets were common (perhaps not so for an underground-ish hip hop group such as De La Soul, but still seemingly very common).