Jill Sobule and Giant Drag Seek Donations for New Albums

Perhaps I’m old fashioned, but I was brought up with the capitalist concepts of producer and consumer – someone makes something that I want, and I pony up the cash for my own copy of it. There are shared assumptions in this agreement – I believe that the company will make something that I want (and they will front the cash for the development of it) and they believe that what they’re creating is so good that I won’t be able to resist paying for it, thus covering the costs of the R and D and providing a profit as well. Simple enough, ay?

Sure…but as artists like Jill Sobule and Giant Drag are showing us, it’s definitely not the only way. As more and more record labels look to cut costs by eliminating “extra frills” like, say, production, artists are turning to their fan base to support their art. Now, there’s nothing new about this – artists have been selling everything from buttons and fridge magnets to posters and t-shirts to help fund their future endeavors; still, unless they’re a major touring act, those magnets rarely generate the kind of capital necessary to fund their next album. In fact, the purpose of a modern day label lies almost exclusively in being a production, distribution, marketing and financial resource for an act. As we all know, however, most of those functions have been put in the hands of artists these days anyways (certainly digital distro and marketing) – so one could argue that the primary value of a label to an artist is money. Effectively, labels invest in an act, hoping that their investment will pay off…and if it doesn’t, they’re out. So what if this last function of the label, money, could come from another source? Would there even be a need for the record label’s bank accounts?

The model being pioneered by Giant Drag and Jill Sobule is that of a music co-op, one where everyone contributes for the common musical good. This makes me wonder: what if this model truly WAS a co-op? What if everyone who contributed owned a share of the album? What if people could contribute their time and expertise for promoting, designing and distributing an album? CNN.com reports that Jill Sobule raised close to $58,000 in increments as small as $10 per person…that’s an army of 5800 people who care enough to support an artist without getting much more then the promise of advanced copy of an as yet unwritten album. What if those people contributed to the development of the artist not just because they liked them, but because they would “own” a share of the finished product? If people are willing to contribute money to see some random guy go on a date with Lady Sovereign (http://www.helpmegetrandomwithladysovereign.com/) then it’s a fair assumption to think that they’d be willing to throw a few bucks at their favorite artist, especially if they knew that their $50 investment would entitle them to small share of the profits. It’s an interesting concept, but a frightening thought (yet another) for the old guard of the music industry.

Maybe I’m just intrigued about the idea of being a musical communist, but I think it’d be awesome to see Giant Drag perform in front of a crowd of 500 shareholders.

~Asher Rapkin