Update 25/07/2010: K. Philipson has posted this on the appropriate thread over at Global Domination: “STOP THE DONATIONS UNTIL I SAY OTHERWISE! SOMETHING JUST HAPPENED AND UNTIL WE KNOW THE EXACT STATUS OF THIS – DO NOT DONATE! I WILL SHARE INFORMATION AS SOON AS I CAN.
(don’t sweat it, I am not stealing your donations or anything)
Update July 24th: I wish I could spill the beans right now, but the important thing is that none of you donate for the time being. Hopefully everything can be explained next week or the week after. All of the money that’s been donated is safe and sound in the PayPal account and will be returned to their owners when the time comes. Keeping them for now is just a precautionary action in case it actually has to come down to donations in the end anyways, but now I doubt it.
Just hang in there. I will explain everything asap.
This Saturday is a day of celebration anyways. Now let’s just hope everything goes as planned and promised.”
So it has come to my attention today that Örebro’s finest The Project Hate MCMXCIX (Myspace here) has made a post about recording their next record. Funding is a serious problem, as we’re all aware, in the music industry in 2010. There are any number of reasons for this and it can be easily said that most of the readers of this blog are probably at fault for this in a way because free music has become the standard now, and bands are finding it harder and harder to keep on doing what they love because while the consumption of music has changed dramatically, the production of music is still very much mired in the old ways, labels, recording studios and so on. After what sounds like a very weird situation with a label, “Lord” K. Philipson has posted a message on MySpace about raising funds for their new record. Let me say this: while I’m not going to give a lot because I’m fucking broke, I plan on personally donating to this process because I think this sort of stuff in music is a good thing. While this strategy may not exactly be the best strategy ever, I think that this kind of stuff is a step in the right direction and therefore I am re-posting the entire note here and I strongly suggest that you head to PayPal and give a bit of cash to get these guys to the studio.
Summary of the following blog entry: Holy shit the industry sucks. If the band wants to record a new album they they’re going to need some cash to do it. If you donate and they don’t make their goal ($5,000) then they will give the money back to you. If they do, then it sounds like people who donated will have access to a download of their choice (because there is no guarantee that the band will be able to make physical copies of the CD on their own). Also, they got a new female vocalist from Portugal and the drummer from Vomitory will be playing on this new record (fuck yeah). So fuck the business, go to your PayPal and send money to: [email protected]. Är du i Sverige och vill ge pengar direkt frÃ¥n ditt bankkonto sÃ¥ kan du göra det via Swedbank: 8452-5,913 513 683-7 – And if you want to send money via snail mail the address is below in the note.
Prepare for quite a rant, Haters, ladies and gentlemen.
First off I wanna say that I didn’t know we had such a strong fanbase. I had this idea a while ago…. Would it actually be possible to have fans help out and finance the recording of our coming album since labels obviously can’t put any money into smaller bands these days thanx to the illegal downloading situation with labels not getting paid for the product they put out, as well as the band in question not seeing a dime thanx to non-existing sales? Would people give a shit? Since everyone is used to get everything “for free” over the net these days, would anyone actually care to help out getting the funds for a small band in need of just that to be able to enter the studio and create another record? If this was the only way to be able to get that album done, would it work? I had no idea. I didn’t think so, I guess. I hoped, sure I did, but I didn’t think so. In the end, it’s hard to get something “for free” if there’s no actual product to get, you know…
In less than 12 hours or so people signed up to donate almost 2400 dollars for this cause of recording our 7th studio album. In 24 hours almost 4000 fucken dollars (“fantasy” dollars though – I just wanted to see if this could work if needed. Meaning having people get in touch with me and tell me if they would help out and with how much). With those numbers in front of me I actually started to believe the fact that it could work to finance this recording this way. I am absolutely moved by it and I have no idea whatsoever how I can ever thank you guys for showing that kind of dedication to us and our music. Lemme just say that it’s one of the most precious moments I have experienced when it comes to the business. Maybe we will face the exact same situation again down the road, who knows… Feels amazing to know you guys are there, supporting the band. Again, I can never thank you enough and this band can never thank you enough.
And now it has come down to it having to become a reality.
This is the time when we will see if it’s doable. Will people help out as promised when it came to the fantasy donations?
I will not mention any names, but people from other bands have contacted me, people from some smaller as well as bigger labels have contacted me (as private persons, not label representatives) telling me they will donate a few bucks or more for the cause. People I have never been in contact with have approached me and literally told me they will donate everything from a 100 bucks to 500 bucks just to get this album recorded. It needs to be said again; I can never, ever thank you enough for the support, but let it be known that you will always be remembered for it and I will always be incredibly thankful for it. You guys are phenoms.
So, this will be interesting to see – will the donations stack up to make it possible to record this 7th album? We can only hope. If everyone who fantasy-donated actually go thru with their donations – yes, it will work. I think this would be the first time in history that actual fans actually make it possible for a band to get a new album recorded. If it works – it’s something that should go down in history. It should be considered a groundbreaking move. And it’s all thanx to you, Haters.
We will not be able to actually print this album in physical copies as it looks, the fantasy donations we got offered wouldn’t cover that – coz it’s not cheap to actually professionally print cd’s. There will however different downloadable versions of the album, in different qualities, making it possible for you to choose what format you want it in. Flac/mp3/whatever. And of course it will come with a complete printable booklet and anything else you could possibly wish for. I also believe that all of you guys who donate (be it 1 dollar or 10 – doesn’t matter) for this cause will have exclusive access to a page where you can get this coming monster. Then it’s up to you if you wanna spread it or keep it to yourselves.
Naturally, the easiest way to do this donation thing is to use PayPal:
Or you can do a bank transfer directly to the TPH account:
For Swedes: Swedbank: 8452-5,913 513 683-7
Foreigners: SE41 8000 0845 2591 3513 6837
Iban/Bic: SWEDSESSSnail mail is also fine as long as you hide the cash well. Send to:
The Project Hate MCMXCIX
Philipson
Höglundagatan 22
70368 Örebro
SwedenOnce I know that we have reached the goal of having the whole recording covered I will let you all know and no more donations will be taken. I will also keep you updated with how the donations are stacking up with notes at our official site and the forums. And if I notice that we will not reach the goal needed for this recording, I will naturally send back the money to those who donated. The goal is 5000 US dollars, that’s what the fantasy donations showed could probably be done, and that will cover everything and get this album recorded.
Let me finish off with the following, most of it is not news to ya, but I wanna state it again:
This album is something I have worked on more than I have worked on anything in my life. It’s another step up the ladder for me as a musician. This year started off with some changes in the band, which all of you into the band already know of, but hey… We got a bunch of new people in The Hate. First up is new vocalissa Ruby from Portugal – a chick with a voice that literally got me going “I need this kid in the band coz she is fantastic and will bring everything I ever wished for vocal-wise into TPH”. She’s an amazing girl who’s doing fantastic work with our material.
Second, we got one of my absolute closest friends in Vomitory’s drummer Tobben Gustafsson on board. A drummer who is everything I could hope for. A drummer who’s so determined to enhance the material I have written it amazes me. A drummer and a friend who’s so talented and awesome he gets bonus points just for waking up in the morning. He will not only blow you guys away with his playing, he will be laughing while doing it. And I’ll continue to wonder why the fuck I didn’t get this guy to play with TPH 10 years ago, haha… Now, excuse us while we continue to work on this majestic piece of Domination that is our 7th full-length.
It’s you guys who will make this album a reality if everything goes as planned.
On behalf of TPH, I sincerely thank you all – more than I can ever explain.
/ K
