ORIGINALLY POSTED AT MY BLOG HERE
In 2004, the Beastie Boys decided to do something creative and innovative. At a sold out show at Madison Square Garden, they gave 50 audience members a camcorder and told them to film the show. The band, the audience, everything, and to keep the cameras rolling at all times. Then after the show, they returned the cameras for a refund. The Beasties then took the footage that the audience filmed, and edited it together and released the results on DVD as "Awesome: I F*cking Shot that!".
What this did is go beyond the simple act of releasing a live concert, which damn near every artist that's relevant has done at this point. This not only provided an interesting and as far as I know groundbreaking release, but it also allowed those fans to become a part of the experience. As the title suggests, it allows the fans to sit back and be like "hey, I did that! I helped make that!"
In an era when the music industry seems to be failing at an impossibly high rate, you see labels coming up with various gimmicks to stimulate the music economy. Whether it's adding a few extra tracks on an "exclusive" edition available only at a specific store, or it's a bonus DVD that you don't get by illegally downloading it, they try a lot of things, but their focus is narrow.
99% of the "bonus" things they tack onto a regular release in order to stave off piracy, are all available via piracy. Once one person gets ahold of that edition, they have ripped it and uploaded it to Pirate Bay or any number of message boards. And at that point, it's out there. No amount of shutting down websites or killing rapidshare links is going to change that. It's been "payed forward" many many many times over at that point, and now it's not one person who's got it but thousands. And many of them are uploading it.
So any incentive people would have to go and give up their hard earned money, as far as bonuses and whatnot, is moot.
That's where you have to get creative. You need to do something like producer Kyle Murdock and rapper Random are doing with their latest release "Forever Famicom".
They independently released "Famicom" several months ago and it's gotten rave reviews and a lot of good word of mouth from consumers and critics alike. Now they're wanting to take that one step forward and put out a special edition DVD, with each track animated in HD. So far they've gotten two tracks that have been done, but as this is an indie group, they don't have the millions and millions of a label backing them.
That's where you and I come in.
Much like how the Beasties incorporated their fans into the dvd experience, here Murdock and Random are promoting an ingenious program with the Kickstarter website, where they solicit donations from the fans in order to put out a full length DVD.
As Random wrote
Random then goes on to list the different levels of support, and what you can get in return. Your benefits, aside from helping to fund an indie hip hop release, is varying depending on your level of support. You can donate anything from $10.00 and get a lossless .flac copy of the release + the Forever Famicom DLC, or you can donate as much as $250.00 and not only will Random and Murdock record a song by flipping whatever classic NES/SNES game song you choose, but Random will also shout your name out on the track by working you into the lyrics, as well as a personally recorded thank you from Ran, K-Murdock and Griff Morivan, who is doing the videos.
There's many packages in between there that are interesting where you can get various bonuses such as the entire discographies of Random and K-Murdock in either physical hard copy form ($125.00 donation) or digital format on a limited edition USB stick ($75.00). And the higher donation level you go, you get not only that level's bonuses, but all the bonuses from the lower levels as well.
So why not help out true hip hop music that's unwatered down from the labels? Check out the Forever Famicom videos below that have already been done, and just imagine the entire dvd of these? A video for each song. How awesome is that?
And then you can put it on one day and say "Awesome! I F*cking made that happen!"
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE FOREVER FAMICOM KICKSTARTER PAGE, AND DONATE.
In 2004, the Beastie Boys decided to do something creative and innovative. At a sold out show at Madison Square Garden, they gave 50 audience members a camcorder and told them to film the show. The band, the audience, everything, and to keep the cameras rolling at all times. Then after the show, they returned the cameras for a refund. The Beasties then took the footage that the audience filmed, and edited it together and released the results on DVD as "Awesome: I F*cking Shot that!".
What this did is go beyond the simple act of releasing a live concert, which damn near every artist that's relevant has done at this point. This not only provided an interesting and as far as I know groundbreaking release, but it also allowed those fans to become a part of the experience. As the title suggests, it allows the fans to sit back and be like "hey, I did that! I helped make that!"
In an era when the music industry seems to be failing at an impossibly high rate, you see labels coming up with various gimmicks to stimulate the music economy. Whether it's adding a few extra tracks on an "exclusive" edition available only at a specific store, or it's a bonus DVD that you don't get by illegally downloading it, they try a lot of things, but their focus is narrow.
99% of the "bonus" things they tack onto a regular release in order to stave off piracy, are all available via piracy. Once one person gets ahold of that edition, they have ripped it and uploaded it to Pirate Bay or any number of message boards. And at that point, it's out there. No amount of shutting down websites or killing rapidshare links is going to change that. It's been "payed forward" many many many times over at that point, and now it's not one person who's got it but thousands. And many of them are uploading it.
So any incentive people would have to go and give up their hard earned money, as far as bonuses and whatnot, is moot.
That's where you have to get creative. You need to do something like producer Kyle Murdock and rapper Random are doing with their latest release "Forever Famicom".
They independently released "Famicom" several months ago and it's gotten rave reviews and a lot of good word of mouth from consumers and critics alike. Now they're wanting to take that one step forward and put out a special edition DVD, with each track animated in HD. So far they've gotten two tracks that have been done, but as this is an indie group, they don't have the millions and millions of a label backing them.
That's where you and I come in.
Much like how the Beasties incorporated their fans into the dvd experience, here Murdock and Random are promoting an ingenious program with the Kickstarter website, where they solicit donations from the fans in order to put out a full length DVD.
As Random wrote
Random then goes on to list the different levels of support, and what you can get in return. Your benefits, aside from helping to fund an indie hip hop release, is varying depending on your level of support. You can donate anything from $10.00 and get a lossless .flac copy of the release + the Forever Famicom DLC, or you can donate as much as $250.00 and not only will Random and Murdock record a song by flipping whatever classic NES/SNES game song you choose, but Random will also shout your name out on the track by working you into the lyrics, as well as a personally recorded thank you from Ran, K-Murdock and Griff Morivan, who is doing the videos.
There's many packages in between there that are interesting where you can get various bonuses such as the entire discographies of Random and K-Murdock in either physical hard copy form ($125.00 donation) or digital format on a limited edition USB stick ($75.00). And the higher donation level you go, you get not only that level's bonuses, but all the bonuses from the lower levels as well.
So why not help out true hip hop music that's unwatered down from the labels? Check out the Forever Famicom videos below that have already been done, and just imagine the entire dvd of these? A video for each song. How awesome is that?
And then you can put it on one day and say "Awesome! I F*cking made that happen!"
CHAPTER 1: INTRO
CHAPTER 2: DREAM MASTER
Kyle & Random talking about Forever Famicom @ SXSW
CHAPTER 2: DREAM MASTER
Kyle & Random talking about Forever Famicom @ SXSW
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE FOREVER FAMICOM KICKSTARTER PAGE, AND DONATE.
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