If I’m getting e-mails from your publicist about your Kickstater campaign to fund your new album, you should not be using Kickstarter. This is a thing that happens and you have no idea how big of an entitled asshole it makes you seem. Does that make sense?I get why Kickstarter is totally appealing for a band. There’s no need to seek the validation of a label, or drop your own cash on pressing a record, just “crowdsource” it, right? It’s not even that different than a pre-order. Though, I guess a pre-order presupposes that said record is written, recorded, and manufactured and you’re just calling dibs before it sells out.If you’re a band that people have heard and enjoy and might have expectations and desire for a new record, then sure maybe Kickstarter is OK, but really just OK. It’s not good. But more and more I see things like this. Charlie Mars wants $20,000 from us to make his new record. And if you donate more than $25, you get a CD. Neat, a CD. Thanks grandma.Here’s the pitch:Making records that sound good takes time… And in the music business, time is money. Working with talented people is also pretty darned expensive. I'm extending my hand and I hope you take it and pick a donation that you can swing and we'll swing you everything from a CD in the mail to a dinner with yours truly to a concert at your house to your name in a song on the new album.You know what, man? You can get a good studio for recording and mixing for $60 an hour. Tack on some money for mastering and sell it online. (Because who the fuck presses a CD in 2011?) How much is that then? Less than a grand? And everyone gets roughly the same product. Or if you need CDs for whatever reason, you can get enough pressed for less than $500 to sell and pay for another pressing. So, now we’re at $1,500 or so.Or, hey big-spender, maybe you need someone like Steve Albini—you know, In Utero and so on and so forth—to engineer your record. You could even have that for about a grand a day.But $20,000? Instead, you just look like you’re trying to pull a scam on your fans. Jerkwad.The thing about Kickstarter, in general, is that music doesn’t need it. From distribution to recording, the associated costs of making and releasing music have gone through the floor. No kidding: with pirated software, you could have good-sounding records funneling into the ears of fans across the world for $0.And even back in the day, music somehow made things work, somehow things like punk and hardcore and black-noise got out into the world without establishment support or website donations. But I don’t imagine Charlie Mars cares a whole lot about punk ethos or any shit like that anyway, so I guess I’ll just finish by saying: get bent, bro.Reach this writer at michaelb@motherboard.tv.
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