MICROFUNDO is the world's first person-to-person musician microfunding website that allows music fans to provide financial support directly to their favorite artist no matter where they live.
MICROFUNDO ::MUSIC + MICROFINANCE
MICROFUNDO lets you give financial support directly to your favorite
artists by funding their recording projects in exchange for access to
the creative process, copies of new recordings, VIP access to recording
sessions, backstage passes to live shows and even credit listing on a
new CD.
Our groundbreaking approach is empowering fans to fund artists
directly. We're using the power of online social networking to deliver
start-up capital to aspiring musicians from developing countries around
the world.
Our credo, Tune Your World,
is about building relationship between artists and music fans and
developing a thriving music economy around the globe -- often in places
where the music industry has never really worked very well. Our purpose
is to develop international 'tribes' of music fans who collectively
support incredibly talented performers and launch them on a global
stage.
THE WISDOM OF FANS
MICROFUNDO operates on a people-to-people model: We're applying
socially responsible practices to the independent music industry that
place artists in control of their music.
Musicians obtain funding for their recordings from fans -- without giving up ownership or control.
Fans gain access to the creative process and receive LTD Edition recordings, VIP access to recording sessions and live events.
So, instead of buying music via a distribution network that
prevents most of your money from getting to the artist, MICROFUNDO lets
you directly sponsor any musician that you choose.
Preview a live Microfundo fan-funded project here and see how the fans are making it happen.
The British band Marillion is one of the first to engage its tribe of
true fans to help the band raise touring and marketing dollars. In 1997,
the band found they couldn't afford to finance a US tour, so their
dedicated fan base took matters into their own hands. The fans raised
over $60,000 online to bring Marillion over to the States. It was one
of the first examples of how the Web could unify a music community to
fund a major tour.
Following the tour, the band asked the fans if they wanted to help
finance the recording of the next album and the fans responded by
pre-ordering 12,000 copies. The band officially thanked each of them by
name in the album packages.
For their newest album, 'Happiness is the Road' Marillion offered a
$10,000 prize to the fan who created the most popular YouTube video of
their latest single, "Whatever Is Wrong with You." In just a matter of
weeks, over 190 different videos have been created by fans, some with
tens of thousands of views. It's a very smart way to generate a lot of
interest in a song very quickly.
Mark Kelly, Marillion's keyboardist, attested to the fact that the
secret to their success is definitely attention to their fans. To date,
the band have sold over 15 million copies of their music. Next year,
there will be two international Marillion fan conferences, one in the
Netherlands and in Montreal. And every year, the band issue a
collection of unreleased tracks and exclusive material, pressed up on
CD and sent to their Web Members absolutely free.
This past weekend I was reading a blog post by Derek Sivers (founder of CD Baby) on Mastering Entrepreneurship. Derek wrote:
"After reading The Art of Learning, I was thinking of mastery : committing yourself to years of achieving mastery of one single thing. But - what the hell is mastery of entrepreneurship? What are the building block ingredients to entrepreneurship? Coming up with ideas? Turning rough ideas into a specific written plan?
Turning plans into a working system and specific goals? Working with
people to ensure those goals are met?"
When i think about the skills needed to be a master of entrepreneurship the foremost is willingness to take risks. From quitting your day job to standing
out from the crowd and doing something unconventional - entrepreneurs
are risk-takers.
The question then is what are the simple practices that can develop
this necessary mindset and skill? In an earlier life I was the director
of an Outward Bound School and ran a seamanship and mountaineering course in Washington state.
When we would start with a group of students (travelling on the water
in a small open rowing and sailing boat) we needed to develop the
comfort level for taking risks. Later in the course
the students would be placed on a major peak ascent in the northern
cascades and they needed to be ready (in their mindset) to take on what
would be very real physical risks.
So we introduced several relatively safe risk-taking activities
which were physically safe and yet pushed the students’ emotional
comfort zones so that increasingly they would be ready to taking on more real challenges.
one daily practice was called ‘dipping’. we jumped into the ocean
(50 degrees) every morning, first thing, without fail. On day one
everyone resisted this practice. It can be pretty challenging to get up a lot of enthusiasm for jumping
into cold water before the sun is up. But gradually we were able to
transform this practice by giving it context and creating a culture and
rituals and metaphors around ‘dipping’.
as people of the sea jumping in the water became part of our
identity. if we played games and danced and chanted and basically
warmed ourwelves up ahead of time - the practice became engergizing. it was the only way to get clean each day.
it gave us a connection to the ocean that felt real. it greatly
expanded our personal comfort zone and created more acceptance around other risks we faced.
and because we became used to being in the water it made us safer as
traveler on the sea. and gave us courage to sail in rough weather.
it always came to pass that students in each would become a dipping
evangelists - and work to sell the dip to others. even advocating
double dips or triple dips and different times during the day. and when
each group moved on into the mountains they missed the dips…
my suggestion for the entrepreneur seeking to become a master is to establish a regular practice of taking ’safe’ risks that will
continue to expand your comfort zone and so that the practice becomes
part of the entrepreneur’s identity.
my own risk-taking practices include improvisational theater — i
work with a group that meets bi-weekly and we are challenged to create
new responses in the present moment. I love this work because it always
involves taking risks and being pushed beyond my comfort zone. It
definitely hones my self-identity and skill as risk-taker.
Willie Nelson + Nation Beat: "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain
"The same night that this piece ran I got an email from a stranger with
no subject. The email read something like "Hi...I'm Willie Nelson's
manager. I want to talk to you about the Farm Aid concert in
September. Please call me". I thought it was a prank so I googled the
guys name and sure enough it was Willie's manager. I called him
immediately. He said he had heard the piece on NPR and that he hadn't
heard a band so original in a very long time and that he was now a
Nation Beat fan. He told me that he knew Willie would love us and
would want us to perform at Farm Aid and that Willie would like to sing
2 songs with us. As I tried to keep myself from crapping my pants I
thanked him and told him that we were available for the date.
"Two days later Willie's manager called me again to inform me that
he had just got off the phone with Willie and that he had downloaded
the CD and listened to the whole thing in his tour bus. He said that
Willie loved our CD and would love to have us perform at Farm Aid and
would also love to come sing 2 songs with us! Holy Shit!! That's all
I could say!!
"As you all know...Willie is an American music icon. He has crossed
genre's and redefined American Country music for a span of over 40
years. I grew up listening to Willie...."On the Road Again"..."Mamma's
don't Let Your Baby's Grow Up to be Cowboys" were theme songs from my
youth. Getting the stamp of approval from such a great artist is
something that one can only dream of. This band (Nation Beat) has
worked soooo hard over the past 6 years. All the guys have dedicated
much of their lives and sacrificed so much but for such little monetary
return so often. Having this stamp of approval from Willie makes all
those hard years more than worth it! This might just be one of the
greatest moments in our (my) career thusfar."
On the 12th of July the group Samba Tremeterra performed at Sound Session - the genre defying music festival in Providence Rhode Island. I was there with my video camera to capture their set on the main stage before many thousands. I managed to catch the entire set of Tremeterra's dancers performing in the street!!
I was really surprised and impressed by the Sound Session Festival scene in Providence. This was one large outdoor party and had a wonderful carnaval-like feel to it complete with a parade through the downtown streets.
Partly because of our changing music tastes, partly because of shifts in the music industry and maybe we're starting to catch up with Europe -- North America has caught festival fever this summer. Dozens of fests -- multiple-day events with a sprawling array of
artists -- decorate the 2008 concert landscape, many of them first-time
entrants on the scene.
For example, the inaugural Rothbury Festival, will run July 3 - July 6 with an eclectic
bill that ranges from jammy headliners such as Dave Matthews Band and
Trey Anastasio to boutique artists such as offbeat rapper Sage Francis
and psychedelic rockers the Secret Machines.
With about 200 acres set off for camping on the Double JJ Ranch, 25
miles north of Muskegon, Michigan most Rothbury attendees will be roughing it at
an environmentally conscious event whose aim is to "build a durable
social movement," as one official describes it.
Organizer, Sarah Haynes, was quoted in Fast Company as saying: "The Rothbury Festival is our most ambitious project featuring everyone
from Dave Matthews to Snoop Dogg. We're sourcing everything green, from
cups and plates to food, and we're recycling and composting. We're also
encouraging fans to pay an extra $3 per ticket, for carbon offsets. Or
they can pay an extra $7, which adds in the cost of buying solar panels
for the local school."
It's destination festivals, such as Rothbury, that are catching up with the legacy set long ago by events such as Woodstock and the Monterey Pop Festival. Rothbury producer Jeremy Stein cites three big
factors in the resurgence: concertgoers' frustration with clinical,
corporate environments at the summer sheds; production advances that
allow for more fan-friendly fest experiences, and the diversified music
tastes that come with the iPod era.
One big difference from the Woodstock days: A sense of festival
community is already building at Rothbury message boards and other
online sites -- many of them created by fans. Among the travelers will be James Bricker of Houston, a frequent
festivalgoer who says Rothbury is a perfect fit for his blend of
"hippie rock and indie music scene" tastes.
Bricker was quoted in the Detroit Free Press as saying, "When they come to meet, they find out they've already got a really
good friend. The music is always your big draw. But it's
also the gathering aspect that matters -- it's 40,000 like-minded
people wanting to have a good time together. That sense of community is
a huge thing."
“Tha Carter III”, the new album by the rapper Lil Wayne, just became a rare blockbuster hit. The album sold 423,000 copies on June 10, its day of release, according
to Billboard, and it is predicted that first-week sales
will near one million. (The last time an album broke the million barrier was in 2005, when “The Massacre” by 50 Cent sold 1.1 million copies in its first week.)
So how did this happen? Lil' Wayne (whose real name is Dwayne Carter Jr.), has not put out an album with a label since 2005 -- but he kept the attention of fans by releasing mixtapes and rapping on
dozens of songs by stars like Usher and Chris Brown. He built a reputation as one of the most prolific performers in hip-hop.
Producing lots of 'bootleg' releases seems to have worked as the scores of songs that reached listeners on mixtapes and peer-to-peer
file-sharing networks fueled anticipation for an official release. This seems to have translated into considerable fan loyalty because although “Tha Carter III” was leaked online several weeks ago, many
fans have decided to buy the CD.
Before you get the idea that this happened only because of the new 'digital revolution', traditional marketing still played a significant role in the album's success. Robert Levine from the New York Times wrote, "Even in this era of mixtapes and MP3s, however, it took an
old-fashioned summer radio hit to market Lil Wayne beyond his dedicated
fan base of young men. “Lollipop,” one of the album’s singles, is No. 1
on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, where it has spent several weeks, in
part because it also appeals to women."
Sean Fennessey, the music editor at Vibe, was quoted as saying, "I don’t think Middle America got interested in him because his
mixtapes were so great, but they forced serious rap fans to care about
everything he was doing. Then he landed on a pop hit with ‘Lollipop,’ which was something he had
never been able to do before. And between that and the serious rap
fans, it became an event.”
According to BigChampagne, a company that tracks peer-to-peer online activity, Lil Wayne was the most pirated artist on file-sharing networks this past spring.
Fans who downloaded Lil Wayne songs took an average of 10 of his
tracks; fans of other pop artists only took an average of two per act.
Eric Garland,
BigChampagne’s chief executive says: “That speaks to the quantity of his output, which is plentiful, as well
as the depth of his audience’s engagement. If you’re a fan, you’re most likely a
serious fan. And while people who like an individual song are not going
to open their wallets for you, people who like 10 songs will. I think
the mixtape phenomenon is great for feeding the machine, which is what
the music industry is about in the 21st century.”
“Tha Carter III” was also promoted with television advertising and partnerships with MySpace, Yahoo and America Online,
and iTunes briefly offered a new song weekly. In addition to the
album’s success, “Lollipop” is now the best-selling ring tone of 2008.
Wired Magazine's cover story: FREE, by Chris Anderson, explores how the pricing of products from every digital business are headed towards $0.00. Somewhere in the middle of the story Chris mentions street vendors in Sao Paulo, Brazil who are selling "tecnobrega" CDs that, like most CDs sold on the street, did not come from a label.
Instead, they come directly from new bands, with names like Banda Calypso, who distribute masters of its CDs and CD liner art to street vendor
networks in towns it plans to tour, with full agreement that the
vendors will copy the CDs, sell them, and keep all the money. It turns out that this is OK for the band because the super-cheap CDs act as great promotion and regularly help to sell out shows of 5,000 people or more.
But Tecno Brega as a music movement did not start in Sao Paulo. It's birth actually happened in the unlikely city of Belem in the North of Brazil. Tecno Brega means 'cheesy beats' and the music involves some very creative sampling from mostly 80's pop tunes. Several hundred new Tecno Brega records are produced and released every
year by local artists, with both the production and distribution taking
place outside of the mainstream music industry.
In the documentary film 'Good Copy Bad Copy', Renaldo Lemos -- who is Director of the Center for Technology & Society and also the Project Lead for Creative Commons, Brazil, explains the model:
"In the North of Brazil, you have the Techno Brega movement. You have a music producer who has a recording studio. Probably a small one with good equipment. They invite the artists to these studios to make the CDs. They deliver it to the street vendors, so that they can replicate them. The only people making a profit out of CD sales are the street vendors. The musicians don't expect any money from releasing the CDs."
Renaldo continues: "The 'aparelhagem' or the sound system, is an important element in Techno Brega culture. The different sound systems complete against each other, about who has the most cutting-edge updated equipment. They already realize that CDs are not a good business model. CDs are merely an advertisement. They organize parties in weekends where you have 5000 people coming. Then you make money."
The tecno brega model is simple: the music lies outside the realm of traditional copyright and is used as a method of marketing events. Every weekend “sound system” parties attract thousands of people to the outskirts of Belem to listen to the Tecno Brega music. The parties are advertised by the distribution of the music itself. The numbers are incomplete, but the Belem scene alone brings in yearly revenues of several million US dollars.
Chris Anderson notes: "free is not quite as simple — or as stupid — as it sounds. Just because
products are free doesn't mean that someone, somewhere, isn't making
huge gobs of money".
In order for this model to work the music has to reach out to everyone. So, the street vendors (who we would call "pirates") have the freedom to copy and sell
thousands of CDs in cheap prices and they become the good guys. In this ecosystem,
the sound system show producers are happy, the artists are happy, street vendors are happy
and super cheap CDs make everyone else happy. And copyright? It's been thrown out with the bath water...
Last year I was lucky enough to attend the PortoMusical conference in Recife, Brazil. Each day of the conference I would emerge onto the street in company with several music industry delegates and bump into street vendors who were hawking CDs. There was quite a bit of joking about what these vendor's might think if they knew who they were trying to sell their products to as we walked by. But it turns out the joke was on us... Here we flown in from North America and Western Europe to ostensibly help Brazilian musicians learn how to 'make it' in the music business. It now seems that they might well have hired one or two of these street vendors to teach us a trick or two.
One of the most exciting and progressive aspects of Senator Barack Obama's
candidacy is the incredibly wide range of people he continues to
energize and inspire. He has become a true world figure now. One way this can be
seen is in the music Obama is inspiring globally. Here is a sampling of some of the tastiest worldbeat music currently being
produced as tributes to the hope Barack Obama is bringing to people
everywhere.
Track 1: Mighty Sparrow - 'Barack the Magnificent'
First up from Trinidad, is Mighty Sparrow,
the Calypso King of the World, whose career spans over five decades and
whose music spans the globe.
Barack the Magnificent
The respect of the world that we now lack,
If you want it back, then vote Barack!
Because this time we come out to vote!
Stop the war!
Stop genocide in Darfur!
No matter what,
Get health care for who have not!
The Foreign Relations Committee,
Can attest to his tenacity,
For homeland and job security.
He stood his ground
When the war was a conception,
Said it was wrong,
So he didn’t go along,
Jim Baker and Lee Hamilton
They said of Barack’s opinion,
"He’s a man of resplendent vision! ...
Barack! Barack!
On the Senate Affair Committee he’s a giant!
Barack!
Dignifiedly resilient,
And with rock star status he’s Barack The Magnificent! ...
Barack! Barack!
The first black President to lead this mighty nation!
Barack!
We’ll regain worldwide respect
with Obama’s vision and excellent comprehension!
Track 2: Fojeba - 'Fired Up & Ready to Go'
'Fired Up & Ready to Go' is by Fojeba, who is an Afrobeat musician born in Cameroon and now lives in Canada. His song is a Central African makossa. Fojeba uses samples from Obama's speeches in the music including his signature "Fired Up, Ready to Go" as a refrain. It's mixed together with intricate rhythms of the makossa and Fojeba's wonderful guitar work.
Track 3: Mariachi - 'Viva Obama'
Here we have a dashing mariachi band singing in pure Mexican country style with cuts between the lead singer and people on the street holding up 'iViva Obama!' signs. The video has the lyrics in subtitles so you can sing along!!
Track 4: Miguel Orozco - 'La Caminata'
Orozco says his imagination was captured by a self-described, 'skinny dude with the funny name'. "It doesn’t matter that I’m Mexican-American, born in East LA, raised in Utah, lived in DC and worked on the South-side of Chicago. What matters is what I’m doing now and how I’m helping my neighbor, my brother."
La Caminata Oye mi gente este es un hombre preperado.
La esperanza ha llegado.
Como Se Dice…Como Se llama?
OBAMA! OBAMA!
Dicen que no contamos…
Invisibles porque no votamos…
Pero aqui estamos y todo esto va cambiar…
We did the marchas y ahora vamos a votar.
Listen to me gente, es tiempo para algo diferente..
What we need is un nuevo presidente…
Como Se Dice…Como Se llama?
OBAMA! OBAMA! (Repeat)
Mexicanos como se llama?
OBAMA! OBAMA!
Puerto Rique_os, como se llama?
OBAMA! OBAMA!
Peruanos, como se llama?
OBAMA! OBAMA!
En esta gran nacion ya no existe una buena educacion,
Dicen que todo el dinero va a la imigracion
Es facil culpar el que no vota
El gigante Latino esta que brota
Despierta!
Vamos a eligir alguien que de veras entienda…
Colombianos, como se llama?
OBAMA! OBAMA!
Dominicanos, como se llama?
OBAMA! OBAMA!
Los Cubanos, como se llama?
OBAMA! OBAMA!
Los Brasilieros, como se llama?
OBAMA! OBAMA!
Salvadore_os, como se llama?
Latinos!!!
Es un Hombre preparado…
La esperanza ha llegado…
Obama! Obama!
Track 5: Coco Tea - 'Barack Obama'
Jamaican singer Cocoa Tea said this about Obama, "This is not about class nor color, race nor creed, it's about the changes, what the Americans need." His song goes on to call Obama a "trendsetter" and urge Americans "to unite as one" behind him.
Track 6: Will.i.am - 'Yes We Can'
One of the best is this offering by will.i.am, founding member and frontman of Black Eyed Peas. His "Yes We Can" song was inspired by the speech Obama gave following the New Hampshire primary. Will.i.am states, "It made me reflect on the freedoms I have, going to school where I went to school, and the people that came before Obama like Martin Luther King, presidents like Abraham Lincoln that paved the way for me. . . ."
The music video includes excerpts from Obama's speech and appearances from several celebrities: Scarlett Johansson, John Legend, Herbie Hancock, Kate Walsh, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Adam Rodriquez, Kelly Hu, Adam Rodriquez, Amber Valetta, and Nick Cannon. "I'm blown away by how many people wanted to come and be a part of it in a short amount of time. It was all out of love and hope for change and really looking at the world."
Possibly one of the most hopeful events to
come out of Iraq just came to pass last month
in Finland. Padraig O'Malley, academic,
author, and peacemaker, organized a meeting
of 36 Iraqi leaders from across the Iraq's
sectarian divide - Sunni, Shia, and Kurd.
Flown from Baghdad to an undisclosed location
in Helsinki, O'Malley described the meeting
as, "The most powerful group of Iraqis ever
gathered outside of Iraq to talk about peace
and finding a way forward together."
Here is the cool part: O'Malley, who has
worked to bring warring factions in Northern
Ireland also invited Martin McGuinness, a
former Irish Republican Army commander, to
chair this weekend's meetings.
Martin McGuinness, who now serves as the
leading member in the Irish National Assembly
and as a government minister was joined by
Jeffrey Donaldson, a leader in one of the
major Irish protestant parties, the
Democratic Unionist Party. Both McGuinness
and Donaldson, who once saw each other as
mortal enemies, are sharing their own
improbable story of reconciliation -- and are
helping the Iraqis see, through their
example, that it is possible to reach across
years of hatred and bloodshed and find a way
to work together.
"Think about it," O'Malley said. "Now two
people from Northern Ireland who just a
decade ago wouldn't fly on the same plane . .
. are working jointly to share their story
with the Iraqis and tell them how they now
work together in the same government."
One
of the most promising outcomes of this
weekend's meetings is that the Iraqi's have
taken ownership of the process and have a
greed to meet again in Baghdad for the first
time within the next three months -- and have
invited the two Irishmen to help them work
through their differences.
So far this exercise in unconventional
diplomacy has been funded by a single trustee
of Tufts University. Calabash offers this
playlist of Iraqi music as a way forward to
support this peace process. Calabash will
donate all of the net revenue we recieve to
O'Malley's efforts.
Please share this post and playlist - This
effort of citizen diplomacy could bring
lasting peace in Iraq. (Imagine if somehow we
could get all the Clinton & Obama supporters,
who have given online donations, to buy this
playlist - what that could do to bring peace
in Iraq.)
One of the artists featured on this playlist, Kazem Al Saher, who lives in exile in Cairo, is the top selling singer in the Arab music world. At the time of the American invasion of Iraq he led an American tour called 'The Impossible Love'. Kazem has played major US concerts for Arab
people living in America, but few other Americans know him. Today, the distance between Iraq and the United States is as great as
that between the rival clans in Shakespeare's tragedy, which as we know
was not only about love.
