There’s certainly nobody waiting in line any given Tuesday to grab the latest CD from their favorite group at the local record store. Heck, there are barely any local record stores left. (Except for in the Valley, it seems.) The exit of record stores has seen the pressing of CDs — or even the concept of a full-length release — closely follow.
So what and who will emerge from the proverbial rubble of brick and mortar stores? Singer-songwriter Ellis Paul doesn’t purport to have all the answers. But he also doesn’t need to enlist the services of CNBC’s financial expert Jim Cramer to figure out what’s working for him.
“Crowdfunding is the new paradigm,” Paul declares as he prepares to roll into Noho’s Iron Horse this Friday, April 17 in support of his recently released 19th studio effort, Chasing Beauty. “It’s allowed me to have a greater budget than any record label has ever given me before to record, promote and manufacture. Plus I only have to answer to the people who support the project directly.”
Beauty marked the second time in his more than two-decade career that he has turned to fan financing for a record. In this most recent campaign, more than 600 donors helped Paul amass a war chest of more than $100,000 for the project. He was able to record at multiple locales, including Atlanta, Charlottesville and Boston, and enlist the services of producer Kristian Bush, best known for his work with Sugarland.
Similarly seeking cyber-funds from fans is fellow singer/songwriter Stephen Kellogg — who has taken his ambitious, coast-to-coast recording concept to the PledgeMusic.com platform.
“With the help of PledgeMusic, I have begun making my new four-part album South, West, North, East,” he explains. “It will be recorded in four different regions of the country with four different co-producers and different groups of musicians.”
Fans who pledge anywhere from $15-$15,000 score rewards that include everything from receiving a handwritten note from Kellogg to having a song written or a double date with the Kelloggs. Kellogg says he will be trickling out new material with hopes of a full-length proper completed by year’s end.
Quite an undertaking. Yet Kellogg has also left a small window open to get something else cooking — literally — for at least one weekend this summer. The fifth annual Stephen Kellogg Family BBQ will consume various Northampton parks and venues June 26-27. For $125, guests will be treated to a day of field games, a barbecue lunch, a mock game show and, of course, two nights of concerts at the Iron Horse. One will be all acoustic, the other all electric, with a promise of no repeats.
While we’re talking about funding and the arts, be sure to ask your local music or art teacher — if you can find one — if they take money for new projects for granted. Probably not, which is all the more reason schools, organizations, and individuals should get hip to the Northampton Arts Council’s ArtsEZ grants.
This year, the council will distribute up to $15,000 in funds, including $750 to the Northampton Jazz Festival, $650 to Northampton High School for Skin Of Our Teeth and $500 to Wire Monkey Dance for Embryolo. This year’s deadline to apply is May 1. Grants can support a variety of artistic performances and activities in Northampton, Florence, and Leeds, including exhibits, writings, festivals, performances, and workshops that must take place between July 1, 2015 and June 30, 2016. To begin your application online, kindly point your browser to application.northamptonartscouncil.org.
Last but not least, those unable to travel to Music City, U.S.A. can check out Live From Nashville, who’ll deliver the hits of Patsy Cline, Brooks & Dunn, Garth Brooks, Lady Antebellum and more live at Springfield’s Citystage (citystage.symphonyhall.com) this Friday, April 17. Tix are $30-$39.•
Send correspondence to Nightcrawler, P.O. box 427, Somers, CT 06071; fax to (860) 394-4262 or email garycarra@aol.com.
This column seems like a missed opportunity to point out that there actually will be people waiting in line to buy records. Tomorrow. It’s called Record Store Day and is a huge national event that inspires people to camp out at Newbury Comics downtown so they can… buy music. In a physical store. I actually found this article because I was looking to see if the Advocate had written anything about what local stores are doing for RSD. What a disappointment to find this instead.
Yes, there are a lot of record stores in the Pioneer Valley and not only that, there are a lot of record stores that have just opened up in the last few years and are doing just fine. This is not a phenomenon limited to the Valley either – CD sales continue to plunge but sales of new vinyl records have been climbing steadily for years, and new record stores are popping up all over. In the last year, 2 new record pressing plants have opened to keep up with the demand.
It’s true that if you compare current sales numbers to the heyday of physical media, they are small. And it’s really cool that artists are finding ways to release music outside the label system. But unlike 10 or so years ago, record stores are now opening, not closing. CDs are on the way out but it’s clear that people still want physical releases. And when they want that, they increasingly reach for records.