Imma stand on a soapbox for just a moment. Thanks in advance for your attention. *clears throat* You know what Im sick of? Musicians that use Kickstarter/IndieGoGo/a pre-order system and then have absolutely no regard for their promised release dates. Now, I get that manufacturing delays are a very real problem, especially when youre pressing vinyl, but as of late, release dates seem like an arbitrary date that no one takes seriously anymore. This is a problem because it takes advantage of the blind faith that your listeners have in you. They have heard your pitch, and theyve trusted you to deliver a product by a certain date in exchange for their hard earned money. When you dont meet deadlines, folks are less likely to support independent artists through these avenues at all. It looks as if youre saying well, Ive got your money, so youll get what you get when you get it. Ive seen Kickstarters where the album was recorded *a full year* ahead of time, and people were still waiting for the physical copies nearly a year later. The key to fixing this is pretty simple: overreach your release date. Account ahead of time for at least a months worth of delays. If its done early and you ship it out before the rest of the world gets the music/product? Folks will merely be pleasantly surprised. Its like theyre getting a bonus for believing in you, and in turn, youll probably get some extra social media attention when they take to the internet to boast about receiving your wares sooner than expected. Youll look better, and people will think youre really on the ball. And just in case the delays get really out of hand? Update, update, update. When people pre-order things from you, theyre not just investing in your art, but theyre also saying with their dollars the following: we recognize that you cannot do this alone, and as your investor, we expect to be kept abreast of the outcome of this project at every juncture. Some folks might get annoyed at the constant influx of information, but thats a better outcome than having someone get excited to hear your music and then being left to wonder if theyre being ignored, right? Its not a hard thing to do. Your fans respect your art enough to bankroll it. Respect them enough to keep a realistic deadline. Thank you for listening. Imma step off this soapbox now. Have a nice day! -Marc
Posted on: Sat, 02 Nov 2013 18:28:02 +0000
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