Music – Seed Funding | eilee george

Welcome to my Music Seed Funding page! I’m just starting the process of this; I’ve never done funding before, but I thought I’d lay out some plans and ideas and welcome your feedback on how to go about it, and what you’d like to get out of it – while still allowing me to fund all that’s necessary to get my music “out there”.

I’m an extremely prolific songwriter. To date, I’ve written over 200 songs, and more come readily. To be frank, I can write about anything on short notice, should the notion hit me or someone ask and the request appeal to me. Additionally, I do some really nice arrangements of cover songs and have to figure out licensing and selling rules respecting copyright owners of other songs – multiple owners for a single cover album might be a chunk of work I’ll need a lawyer to help me with! It’s more than a mechanical license; there are percentages of income to pay and apparently there is the problem of trying to anticipate ahead of time how many copies I’ll sell – and hey…I don’t have a crystal ball, fellas.

There are a lot of expenses to publishing music. First of all is the copyrighting; that is an initial protection and expense I always invest in. That I can do myself, but there are other items that I need help with, and that involves paying an attorney or an agent or distributor, or even a label if I decide not to go it alone (I am trying to put together my own label, that will exclusively deal with my own work, since I am so prolific and won’t have time to promote anyone else). Then there are all the fees and commissions that come off of those activities and paying those helpers. A person can go bankrupt easily just trying to get started.

Luckily I don’t need to pay a graphic designer or web designer – I do that! And I’ve gathered the minimum equipment to make good multi-track digital recordings and save in proper formats, and have learned to use them and am honing my skills and re-recording songs I had previously done with lesser equipment in order to file the work I’ve already filed with the US Copyright Office before. But it’s a lot on my plate. On top of that I’m drumming up in-person Gigs and Lessons again – once it is safe to gather again. And by all means if you’re interested in hiring me for a venue or home concert, have a peek at my Media Kit page for performance and booking info. But back to the recording segment….

First I need to record, mix and master my songs for my first album, including an EP. Each album must be curated. These are going to be very handcrafted, intimate and special EP’s and albums. I like the sound of the work I’m doing; it’s not slickly produced, nor would it be for music of the eras by which I’m influenced. I rather wish I had more analog equipment, but it is not practical at this point…but I hope to implement it later.

Once I have good recordings, I’ll re-submit the newly curated albums to the Copyright Office, and get to finding a distributor, hopefully with some promotional aspect. I’m thinking of TuneCore or Bandcamp or Apple Music…but I welcome other musicians’ advice on these. I already have a particular attorney in mind for assisting in some of my endeavors, but again if anyone has any recommendations from personal experience, I am certainly interested.

I of course realize that individual downloads and streaming are common, but to get fractions of a penny for my hard work and talent is unacceptable. I’m researching some musicians’ co-ops to overcome the exploitation that is being imposed anew on musicians that thought they were finally relieved of the yoke of the big music companies, who keep buying up all of musicians’ alternative outlets and further profiteering off the talent, which chokes artists out of the industry whenever the greed machine is allowed to run amok.

All the recent changes in laws and the pandemic have greatly confused the process. With the strictest of restrictions on music venues, performing at local and regional venues is not something any of us can foresee reliably yet in the visible future. Many American musicians find that they get better returns touring Europe than here; Europe takes care of its musicians when they tour Stateside. I’m not able to even think of touring in Europe even sans virus; I haven’t the money nor the experience to guide me. I’m not going to be big enough to do that for some time. I also think, in general, that I’d like to be a bit more of a studio musician than a touring one at this point in my life. I’m also heavily considering licensing my songs out to other artists, but I intend to retain my rights not only for songwriting, but also of first recording/publishing of my own work. Too many songwriters gave this away without knowing it was even a thing, and forever lost significant residual income as a result. Same with retaining some income by being one’s own recording studio and label…I’ve formulated a brand for it already…I’m still doing my homework and the number of moving parts in this business are staggering. Planning for the future must be done at the onset.

Anymore, there isn’t as much of a demand for CD’s; yet I am constantly asked for them! I don’t have any yet, but I’m considering them for local distribution, to sell at venues where I perform. As far as distributing on a larger scale, I would have to receive requests from other areas to assess increasing use of this media.

I’ve looked into vinyl and the cost is so prohibitive that it would cost me a fair percentage over any reasonable price someone would pay retail; it isn’t viable for beginning artists without a large following. This makes me sad! Vinyl would be a great component to my vintage brand. Obviously I cannot work at a negative profit margin.

Still, the idea of a physical media allows for some nice printed material to accompany it. I always loved vinyl album covers and the inside sleeves, as well as the inserts in jewel boxes that came with CD’s; it enhanced the brand not only of the band but of the original release and its unique theme. I find that with digital downloads, we have lost the rich sensory experience of a multimedia immersion. When done well, it is almost a transcendent encounter during which one can suspend reality. Well, who doesn’t need that now and then these days? Being a musician, lyricist and poet, and visual artist with plenty of cinematic concepts, merging my different areas into a cohesive happening that one can “live” is a deeply desired fantasy project.

So yes, there is the timing and choosing of which songs to produce videos for, with the concept, theme, and messaging of those, and integrating with all of the other media and with other songs.

I can’t just throw songs out there without considering a bigger narrative. This is the storytelling age. I care about presentation and the delight of those who invest in my finished product. I want to do right by them and by my work to the best of my ability.

I have to research and choose an acceptable financial transaction facilitator and learn how to interact with them. Trying to get all of this in the proper order of operations and protocol is challenging in the volatility of the industry at this time. I want to do it right.

As I formulate my plan and it gels into an actual checklist, I will update here, and on social media, and on the platforms I add to the effort, including my crowdfunding platform, and eventually some merch venues.

I will obviously have a lot of art associated with my output, and it will figure in with “rewards” for funding contributors, just as much as will special recordings, exclusive limited advanced releases of future new recordings to members of my inner circle, framed lyrics, personalized swag, and other things I learn that fans love. What would you like? Tell me about it! It shouldn’t surprise you to know that some conceptual design work has already happened! This includes photography, fine artwork, word pictures, song development diaries and concept sketches. My mascot, our artistic “mews” Yeti, also makes a few cameo appearances. I have enough material for a dozen full albums; it’s been hard to parse all that information into cohesive groups, but I have to go one album at a time now. So there is ample opportunity for many future releases.

Now considering these details plus other as-yet unlearned ones, there are three major categories I must hurtle, partly with your help:

If I can get through the labyrinth of the ever-shifting path to release,
If we can get through this pandemic, and
If I can get the funding –

Then – I can get some really great work out to you!

If you have ideas or requests for me to consider, let me know! 🙂 Write to me via my Contact page for current old-school options for donating to this effort, [exact-amount, non-refundable Zelle transfer (domestic US only), wire, money order or (international) cashier’s check], until I establish a relationship with Stripe or PayPal or something. There will be stronger details the closer I get to a schedule with a conceivable release date projection. You can also tweet me or message me on my Twitter account. Support the arts and artists, to keep our world worth living in!

Thanks!

♥ – Eilee