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Artist News Digital
Beardyman to collaborate with fans on new album
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 21 July 2022
Beardyman has announced a new crowdfunding project for his next album, which will not only see fans fund the recording of the project but also be given the opportunity to directly input on its creation. The project – dubbed ‘Milking The Community’ – features two funding tiers, Production Team and Technical Consultant, which respectively cost £6.75 and £10 a month.
Fans participating in the programme will be able to make creative suggestions to Beardyman, who will then create tracks based on those suggestions and subsequent conversations. Some of those tracks will appear on his next album, and – where that’s the case – the fan who inspired each featured track will get 10% of the recording rights and resulting royalties.
At the higher Technical Consultant level, fans will also get access to videos, tutorials and Q&As that provide more insight into the producer and beatboxer’s creative process; a special Discord server; and a load of demoes, stems and other studio content.
“To my knowledge this is a unique proposition in the history of music, and is a potentially industry-disrupting funding structure with the marginal possibility for patrons … to see a return on their investment in an artist”, says Beardyman.
“I will call you personally, we’ll talk about music, life and the universe, we’ll exchange inspirations, thoughts and influences, get inspired together, and what we make will be a song we have both had a hand in writing – and here’s where it gets really interesting”, he goes on. “If I really love the track we make I will include it on the album. We both have an incentive to make it as good as it can be, as I will be including you as a writer on the track. You will share in the streaming revenue”.
“This is the investment a record company would normally make in an artist, the leap of faith they would normally take in funding an ‘advance’ to keep an artist in the black whilst they craft their next career-defining piece of art”, he continues. “A record company will appoint an A&R person to oversee the creation of the work to ensure it pleases the record company. This is not the vibe. I have a better idea. I want to make you guys the A&R rep for a label made entirely of my true supporters, the ultimate consumers of the art itself. This has never been done before”.
Commenting on the project, Patreon’s UK & Ireland Creator Partnerships Team Lead, Gee Linford-Grayson, adds: “Patreon is hyper-focused on providing the platform and infrastructure creators need to create on their own terms and be successful in growing and running their creative businesses, and Beardyman is taking his community along with him”.
Find out more about the project here.
