Jill Sobule asked her fans for help in financing her new album. Jill’s approach successfully raised all of the money she needed for the project through donations. There are lessons to be learned that could help finance your next project. Read on ...
 I was listening to Marketplace, a financial show, on Michigan Radio earlier this week and they did a feature on Jill Sobule.
Jill has had significant success over the years. Don Henley asked her to open for him on one of his solo tours. Her albums have been produced by notables such as Todd Rundgren and Joe Jackson. Over her career she has released 7 albums with multiple labels (MCA, Atlantic, Artemis, Apple - The Beatles not the computer) and her songs have been included in numerous movies including Clueless (1995) and Mystery Men (1999).
Jill's most recent label, Artemis Records, folded leaving her in the position of finding another one. The record industry as a whole has been dealing with slumping sales for quite a while and the present state of the economy has only made things worse. Many labels are facing tough times and some are going under. That left her with few options. If she was going to continue making records she would have to take matters in her own hands. Jill decided to try an "online experiment" to raise money to finance her next album. Jill needed $75,000.00 to record, press and distribute her new project. She launched a website called jillsnextrecord.com and asked fans to donate money for the project in return for "gifts".
Now this is where it gets interesting …
Jill set up several levels of support on her site and gave them some clever names, like "unpolished rock (but with potential) level", "gold doubloons level" and "weapons-grade plutonium level". Each level of support came with a gift of relative proportion. For example; a $10.00 gift got a free advance digital download of the whole album from her website. The top support level at $10,000.00 got the fan a singing spot on her record; and yes someone did donate 10 g's and did sing on the album.
Jill raised all of the money she needed and started her own label to handle the distribution. Now she keeps every dime of her efforts.
The thing that made this a success was involving her loyal fans in the project. Her first step was to ask them for help. Often this can be the most difficult thing to do. In my opinion there is a big difference between asking someone to buy a ticket to a show (repeatedly) and offering them a chance to get involved in your next album. I know that personally I often take the creative process for granted. At times I forget that not everyone can write a song or even play an instrument, let alone record or produce a record. There is magic in it.
If you look at the "gifts" that Jill offered in return for support you will quickly see that many of them give the fan some "ownership" in the project. Things like a mention of the person's name on one of the tracks, their name in the liner notes as an "executive producer" of the album or even a chance to sing on the album (she notes: Don't worry if you can't sing - we can fix that on our end. Also, you can always play the cowbell.)
Other gifts gave the fan special access to the artist; Things like free admission to shows, special access to her website where she posts raw tracks or even a private concert for the contributor at their house party ( she even suggests selling tickets and making your money back ).
Now let's get real …
Unless you are a former or current national act, it is not likely that someone will donate ten grand to sing on your next project. Out of all of the people that follow you, come out to your shows or are friends on your MySpace page there could be someone willing to pay a grand to help your cause and get the right to appear on a track. "Yep, that's me playing the cowbell on that track. See, my name is right on the CD on track 11".
Is it possible that someone would be willing to pay $500.00 bucks to support you AND have you play a private house party for them?
One thing is for sure, if you don't ask for help people are not likely to volunteer. Remember that It is awkward to offer help to someone when they don't ask for help. But keep in mind too that it feels good to help somebody out.
We would all like to have a $75,000 budget for our next album, frankly having a grand to cover the pressing of a few CDs would be pretty cool too.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained …
Here are some related links:
Jill Sobule Marketplace transcript and audio - She also covers some of the promotion she is doing for the new album.
Jills Next Record - Get the details here - Notice the donation levels, gifts and features on the website. A lot to be gained here. | 
