Re: (no subject)

[Stuart Winfield <stuart@li...co.uk>]

on 6/1/03 3:49 pm, Steve Burt at steve@pk...com wrote:

Happy New Year all.

Did anyone read the Doors supplement in the Sunday Times this week,
especially the Marillion article?

For those who didn't, it ran something like this:

The example of pomp rockers Marillion ? not the hippest of bands ? suggests
a new business paradigm. Dropped by their record company for being
unfashionable, the band had to cancel a US tour, until Jeff Woods, a fan
from Raleigh, North Carolina, took matters into his own hands. Woods, who
had been to 75 Marillion concerts, raised £37,000 online from other fans 
and
the tour went ahead. Realising the power of the internet to build a
like-minded artistic community, within months 13,000 fans had each paid
Marillion £16 in advance ? totalling more than £200,000 ? which allowed the
band to record their recent CD Anoraknophobia. Suddenly, Marillion had the
biggest recording advance of their career and no record company to call
their tune. 

?We were the first band to recognise the potential of the internet,? said
the singer Steve Hogarth. ?We have cut out the middle men in suits, who 
have
been taking most of our money for the past 20 years. What is so brilliant
about the net is that we can ask 40,000 fans at the touch of a button what
they think about a proposed release. It makes music incredibly democratic.?

Having sacked their manager and fired their booking agent ? fans now book
the shows ? the band employ a full-time web editor to keep 
www.marillion.com
up to date. He sits in the office next to their recording studio ? a fan
could not get much closer without being on stage ? and band members visit
the site?s forum twice-weekly to contribute to the debate.

?Sure, the net threatens the record industry,? Hogarth said, ?but it 
doesn?t
threaten the artist. It frees the artist.?


You can't say we didn't try with Swagger but an idea worth pursuing, maybe.
 
Steve B
    
ALSO IN THIS SECTION  Cover story: Reaching out to music fans
<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2103-524922,00.html>

 

 - <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2103-524948,00.html>

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I¹m sure a people would be more interested in investing in new material,
rather than investing into something they already own a copy of!

Stuart W