frYars next album Dark Young Hearts and Patrick Wolfs Battles will be released with the financing of their fans. Bandstocks give you the opportunity to invest in your favourite artists new albums and become sort of a stockholder in them. Its a win-win situation because the fans are ensured that their (favourite) artist will be able to continue making music and the artist get the funding that they need for their artistic vision without any unnecessary interfering. I tried to click the invest button yesterday for both frYars and Patrick Wolf, but they have restricted it to only include UK citizens, which is a huge disadvantage. These guys have lots of fans in other countries that would have loved to chip in aswell. One of the benefits harder to give to the stockowners/fans in other countries are the secret shows that would only be possible to arrange in UK, perhaps. But I am willing to live with that. I just simply want to invest in my favourite artists and this brilliant new business model that gives the power to the right people.
Patrick Wolfs own words on the issue:
My roots in the music industry have always been firmly placed in independent music. As a teenager I was inspired by visionary labels such as Digital Hardcore, Fierce Panda, Planet Mu, and Tigerbeat 6. As an 18 year old, I was given full creative space by the small label Faith and Industry to grow and to make the records and sounds I had to. After two independent releases I decided to experiment to see what would happen when a major label and my third album collided. It was very beneficial and a great learning curve for me, but I am very happy to be back in the creative, free world of independent music; on my own label, Bloody Chamber Music (A bloody chamber being a heart, a tribute to the book "The Bloody Chamber" by Angela Carter), started earlier this year.
So, here I am. Album four with my own record label. With the old world recording industry a rapidly sinking ship; recording studios closing weekly, free downloads daily, more musicians hitting the long road than ever before to feed themselves, I am happy to have come across a new intimate system of audience and artist participation called Bandstocks. This will be funding Bloody Chamber Music, and the international physical and digital release of my fourth album, Battle, and its collective singles. It’s an exciting game we can play together; you get to be an investor and stakeholder in the album. You will get special editions, first copies of the album, private privileges and mixes... and we get to conquer the world together and show that independence and self sufficiency are the two ways forward and out of the mess the industry is in.
When I pressed my first EP we made one thousand vinyl copies. We sold these at friends’ shops across the UK, and with the money made we funded the mix of Lycanthropy. The music industry needn’t be so complicated or Wizard of Oz. It’s time to drop the curtain and stop relying on a stale patriarchy. I'm excited, I hope you are too. Welcome to the future!
Thank you mister Wolf. I am very excited aswell!
