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A record label’s checkbook used to be the surest way into a recording studio. But with the music industry reeling from years of declining CD sales, fewer labels are footing the bill for artists to cut albums. So a growing number of Nashville acts are asking their fans to get behind their music.

Love Neighbors campaign nets quick success

Money Talks

Musicians like to keep their fans informed when it comes to good news, like high-profile gigs and glowing reviews. But there’s one topic they’ve always been hesitant to bring up. And Yancey Strickler—a co-founder of a website called Kickstarter—took note. “I know a lot of artists and a lot of people from creative backgrounds,” he says, “and they’re all terrified to talk about money.”

The website is set up to help musicians—along with filmmakers, photographers, authors and fashion designers—do just that as a way to transform their creative ideas into realities.

It’s not the only website out there that helps artists raise money through their fans, but it’s one that Nashville musicians have used to fund more than 50 recording projects. And that’s no small thing.

“Oh, you fascinate me
Oh, I want you to confiscate me”
Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors – “Can’t Get Enough of You”

Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors are fixtures in the independent music scene. The rootsy pop-rock band has sold 35,000 albums and gotten a number of songs on T.V. While those accomplishments might have landed them a major label recording budget a dozen or more years ago, today they’re in a progressive partnership with an indie label.

The upside is that they have creative control and own their music. And the downside? The cost of recording it is on their shoulders.

So Holcomb, wife Ellie and their band mates used Kickstarter to turn to the people who were already following them on Facebook and Twitter. “We didn’t buy any advertising for it,” he says. “We didn’t put anything in print ads. We just basically reached out directly to our fans and then asked them to spread the word to people that they also knew would know and love our music but may not be connected via social networks.”

Reaching the Goal

Here’s how the Kickstarter website works: A band sets a goal and a deadline. Then everyone can watch the all-or-nothing race against the calendar. If the campaign comes up even a dollar short, the band gets no money at all. And neither does Kickstarter.

Holcomb and the Neighbors fan Annie Lawrence did her part—which, as she puts it, “was only twenty-five dollars.” She met the band when they worked at a summer camp three years ago, and bought their other albums the traditional way—that is, after they were finished.

But Lawrence says she wasn’t put off by the switch to talking money up front. “Especially the way they did it, because it wasn’t just talking about the money but it was more of a personal thing, saying ‘Hey we need your help.’”

She says pledging $25 for a digital download and a t-shirt—on her college student budget—made her feel a part of the project. Some folks contributed as much as $1,200 dollars and were rewarded with house concerts. Before the first week was up, the band had blown past their $15,000 goal for their album Chasing Someday.

Being Vulnerable

Holcomb and the Neighbors weren’t the only ones to hit their mark. Stephen Simmons raised five grand for his new album, The Big Show—enough for a singer-songwriter who’s used to recording solo to be able to hire a full studio band.

“Trouble be gone and trouble be damned
I’m just down tonight, I ain’t ashamed of my self
I just want a love that’ll last awhile
And enough good times to prove how I felt
Somebody tell me if I’m crazy or not
C’mon world, is this all you got? ”
Stephen Simmons – “C’mon World”

On Kickstarter, Simmons let the fans he’s earned through years of playing small clubs in the U.S. and abroad hear demos of songs destined for the album. He says his intention wasn’t “to let them have a say in what songs were gonna be cut, or how they were gonna be cut.” He just “wanted them to understand what kind of record I was making.”

Simmons attracts enough cash for a bigger sound

From those demos, they learned that he wouldn’t be singing about religion or politics this time—what he had on his mind was the not-always-glamorous life of the independent musician.

“I’m singin’ each night for my supper
Folks ask me how I’m doing, and they can’t tell
So I stretch the truth ‘til it sounds just right
But my stomach tells me things ain’t goin’ too well”
Stephen Simmons – “Empty Belly Blues No. 32”

The lyrics say it all. But for Simmons, the more nerve-wracking revelations were those he made outside the songs when he asked for support. Singer-songwriters, he says, “are always vulnerable on some level, like, you’re exposing yourself artistically. But I think to open yourself up and kind of throw yourself out there in ways that don’t really have to do with the art…felt a little more terrifying than making a crazy record.”

If it sounds like Simmons is talking about a relationship here, that’s because he is. With fan-funding, artists find out how connected they really are with people who are outside the business but into the music.

“You are a novel in a sea of magazines
You make me nervous, you make my heart beat
You are red in a sea of black and white
You are a fire, you are dynamite”
Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors -“Fire and Dynamite”

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