We Want The Funds: A Crowdfunding Update

Name: Fascinator
Project: Vinyl and cassette releases
Current Status: One pledge, 1% of goal achieved, 46 days remaining.

Fascinator is the new project from Johnny Mackay of Children Collide fame and it has seen him do some pretty wacky shit thus far. Perhaps the best example is his recently launched PledgeMusic campaign in which he enlisted a shirtless Russian man to talk about what he is looking to achieve.

It's a basic pre-order system; you can get the CD, cassette or vinyl copies of the mini-album now to ensure that Mackay has enough money to get it made and for a little extra you can get a t-shirt as well.

The biggest package features all the perks packaged together, plus Mackay will remix one of your tracks for you (and love you forever). I'm not sure why I wrote all of this when the bloke up there makes it sound so much better.

Name: Lior
Project: New album
Current Status: 206 pledges, 76% of goal achieved, 48 days remaining.

Did you know that Lior was still around? Well, he is. He even played at the APRA Awards last night.

He's hoping that fans of his will dig deep to help him make his first record since 2010's Tumbling Into The Dawn and, as you'll see, he's doing pretty well thus far. There are still plenty of great perks for fans of his to score if you have the cash to spare though; for five grand he'll come and play a show in your living room (get some mates to chip in and you could have a pretty special night), alternatively you can drop $200 and have the man play you a song over Skype.

One particularly cool PledgeMusic exclusive is the $80 package that has Lior writen out the lyrics to your favourite of his songs on fancy paper, as well as a copy of his new record; a memento to be cherished, for sure.

Name: Jimi Beavis
Project: New album
Current Status: Nine pledges, 19.5% ($585) of $3,000 goal, 41 days remaining.

To make his new album, Jimi Beavis needs $6,000. This will pay for musicians, his producer, recording costs and the pressing of the albums themselves. He's able to pony up half of it, but he's hoping people will dig deep and help him come up with the other 50 percent.

He's offering his perks at a pretty good rate, comparatively, with $20 getting you his album and your name in the credits, $50 buying you the album and a harmonica lesson and $300 will get him and his band around to your place (one would imagine transport is not included) for a private show.

Also in Crowdfunding this week:

-          James Franco wants $500,000 in order to help fund his new film trilogy Palo Alto Stories, taken from his book of short stories. Watch what he's on about here.

-          Entrepreneur have run a story today about protecting the assets of those who invest in crowdfunding campaigns and the potentially complex issues that could surface should the industry become too regulated.

-          Dandelion Wine raised more than enough to get over to Europe for their festival dates and one of the pledges – choosing the colour of Naomi's hair – was purchased by one of the German festivals they are playing and you can vote for what colour it will be here!

Also:

If you want crowdfunding to work, you need to be forthright with those who are giving you their cash. So when Alien Ant Farm realised that they had promised fans a record that they just weren't going to be able to deliver at the promised time, they came clean and offered people their money back.

Check out what we said about their campaign here.

To You Our Fan, Friend-

We wanted to send over a personal note to you to thank you for your continued support during our Pledge Music campaign for the new record. As you can see the delivery date of the record has changed. While the date says October we are working very hard to get this record complete and into your hands before then. We want nothing more than to put this into your hands now. However in this business there is unfortunately things that present themselves that sometimes delay or in many cases stop the creative process dead in its track, which has happened to us more then a couple of times along the way. Please know that will NOT stop us.  We love making music and creating for you our fans and friends and will not allow anything to take that away. We are back in creating the record and will do everything we can to move that dat e up and get this new music in your hands as quickly as possible. It will be a record we are not only proud of but a record you will hopefully be glad you waited for. 

We can understand the frustration and disappointment you feel,  that hurts us more then words can explain as we care deeply for each one of you and appreciate your continued support of the band.  If you would like a refund we can make sure that happens for you. However if you can stick with us through this process we will be offering you an extra something special for those that pre-ordered during this campaign. We have a few US Tour dates coming up starting in July to get us out promoting the new single "Let Em Know" and this record. Please keep an eye out as we will be sending out an email regarding the extra items mentioned above that will tie into the upcoming tour. 

Please accept our apologies for the delay and hope that you continue to support Alien Ant Farm because without you and our fans there is no AAF!

Mike, Dryden, Terry, Tye

It will be interesting to see the response from AAF fans, though if they are still passionate about this band in 2013 we're sure they don't mind waiting a little bit longer to get that LP.

We will help you raise more funds!