After a whole lot of thinking and talking about it, I finally got off my butt and launched my Patreon campaign!
I know you’ve all been clambering for the opportunity to give me money for writing music, and this is pretty much exactly that. There are a lot of models out there for selling the product itself, but I’m not really a professional recording artist, or even performer. I like the idea of giving away the end product, and intend to continue doing exactly that. The patron model is fundamentally a way to encourage the creation of new works by funding that activity proportionally to how much is created. This is how I start making a few bucks here and there specifically as a songwriter, while still giving away all my recording and production, not only free of charge but also under Creative Commons licensing.
The hardest parts of launching the campaign were:
1) deciding on all the levels of rewards to match the amount being pledged. I ended up thinking of it in yearly terms. For each reward, I imagined writing about a song a month for a year, figuring the amount made, and asking myself if I would take that amount as commission to produce the reward independent of Patreon. So at the high end, the largest reward is a complete custom song written just for you. At $89 pledged per song, that would end up right about at $1000 for the year, which is what I already charge someone approaching me for a new song (for a wedding, graduation… some event where an original song would be appropriate and meaningful). The other levels fit in the middle with decreasing time and effort from me (covers are easier than originals, collaborating is easier than performing/producing a cover, etc.). Even so I had to limit the numbers of some of the high-cost rewards, just in case people actually want them. I’m not going to spend all year writing other people’s songs and covers just for the money. I want to write my own songs too.
2) The video. My first idea for the video was to emulate a charity pitch, called “Stories”, complete with somber background music transitioning to more upbeat music when the campaign gets mentioned. It featured a couple toy sharks eating a Barbie, Donkey Kong, a zombie, etc. Characters from my songs. The conceit was that they are incapable of telling their own stories, so I must tell them, and through this campaign you can help get these stories told. It was awesome in my head, but too difficult to pull off for this video novice. In the end I settled on my “Neighbor” script, which is based on the idea of just doing it in the style of the Mr. Rogers Neighborhood opening shot, but taken a bit farther than just swapping outerwear and shoes. Patreon suggests keeping the video around 2:00, and I almost doubled that, so we’ll see if I need to tighten it up.
Comments