A Life Once Lost Hate Bands Who Use Indiegogo and Kickstarter
Crowd-funding campaigns through Indiegogo and Kickstarter are all the rage these days for bands seeking some extra cash to finance a new project. Just yesterday we reported that This or the Apocalypse are seeking donations to buy a new van while Early Man are collecting funds to record a new album. Shit, last month Protest the Hero earned themselves a quarter of a million dollars to make a new record of their own.
A Life Once Lost — and I’d have to assume either guitarist Doug Sabolick or vocalist Bob Meadows is the voice behind the band’s Facebook/Twitter accounts since they’re the only two remaining original members — are not fans of these campaigns. In a Facebook post seemingly directed at This or the Apocalypse, ALOL stated:
aww – touring is so hard. Can people give us money too? We’ve been at this way too long to ever think it is acceptable to “beg” for money from fans to fund tours, vans or plane tickets. Get bent
I understand the sentiment behind this statement — fuck handouts, a band should survive on their own merit — but I disagree with it. For one, these aren’t handouts, like, say, government grants or welfare are handouts; the band is only able to collect money from such solicitations because of the reputation that they’ve worked hard to achieve. Furthermore, it’s not a one-way transaction and it’s not “begging”; bands always offer something back to those who donate in the form of physical product (CDs, t-shirts, hoodies, etc) or other fun perks (VIP passes at the band’s show for life, etc). Admittedly, some of the perks offered are disproportionate to the amount of money being requested. But how do you place a dollar amount on inviting some random, potentially sketchy-ass fan and all of his friends over to your house for a party? Or letting some guitar player of indeterminate skill play a solo on your record? The market dictates the price; if someone is willing to pay it, then clearly it’s “worth” whatever dollar amount was being asked. Lastly, the industry is changing, and with a lot less money available from recorded music sales bands have got to scrap for money any way they can get it, whether that’s accepting touring cash from a sock manufacturer like Scion or organizing your own crowd-funding campaign. In that regard, ALOL’s statement reeks of “You young kids get off my lawn!”, a totally understandable sentiment given ALOL have been doing this for a long time and they’ve been slogging it out the old fashioned way, but one that doesn’t take into account a changing world.
While it’s safe to assume you won’t find A Life Once Lost asking fans for money any time soon, you can and should still listen to their most excellent new album Ecstatic Trance, streaming in full right here.
[via The PRP]
