Tales from the Crypt

The following is a post from Rich Huxley of the UK band Hope and Social. Rich will be contributing a monthly series giving insight into his experiences as an independent artist. 

Following on from my first guest post here on Creative Deconstruction, I wanted to focus on the wider implications of one of the special events I talked about there, and the release that followed; to expand on the financial viability of the event/the release and the other reasons why this special box-set and concert package are proving valuable for the band.

The Deal

On the 17th October 2009 Hope and Social held a special concert in our studio ; the ticket-price was also to include a box-set (band blogs about the event and the box set here). Exclusively limited to 110 places, and priced at £25 ($40), we asked our fans to join withus in the place that gave birth to our debut album, to bring themselves in good voice, to bring a candle to light the way to the studio and a piece of writing for use by the band, and to help us make an artifact, a work of art and a record of the night. Strong advocates of the Pay What You Want model, we made this one-off event and it’s accompanying box set our first ever minimum price package.

The box set

What you got:

1. A ticket to the “Be the Architect” show at our studio “The Crypt”; a two hour performance.

2. A leatherette (woo, posh!) box containing:

• Two CDs: a 68 minute live recording of the night’s performance “Be The Architect” and the band’s debut album Architect of this Church (the architect of the church is buried within the crypt. The wall bears a plaque, which is where the name of our album came from) with accompanying download.
• An 80 page book containing photos of the night, and the writings of all the attendees (we asked that everyone bring a piece of writing, a hope, a though, a wish, or, seeing as we’re in a crypt, a “prayer”).
• A brand new Hope and Social song with lyrics made up of people’s “prayers”, on download.
• A 139 page PDF photo slideshow of the event.
• A credit on the album for your part in its creation.

The Benefits

Community

It’s very important to us that our fans have a sense of community. We have a great time with audience participation and want people to feel like they’re a part of this thing, and that everyone matters.

This sense of community is our key currency as artists in the new music landscape. Attention and love are just as important as having great music that people want to consume. If the band did one thing on this night it was to make our fans feel special, like we’re all in this together.

It’s worth mentioning that this single event has done more to bring our fans together than anything else we’ve done. It gave our fans the opportunity to connect not only with the band, but also with each other. And while the vast majority of those who came to the Be The Architect Crypt Gig were existing fans, the reach to new fans has been wide and far, and continues.

The Internets

The internet footprint for this show and for the box-set has by far surpassed any single event we’vedone before, even including our Glastonbury shows.

The twitter hashtag #cryptgigwas very well populated before, during and after the event. On the day of the show in particular fans, helpers and band alike were uploading pics of the venue as we set up, audioboo-ing, tweeting their geographical progress on their way to the show, uploading twitpics during the show and generally spreading good vibes for the band and the event. More recently, as people havebeen receiving their box-set, #bethearchitecthas been spreading the news of the lovely artifact.

"Community is our key currency as artists in the new music landscape."

Even more pronounced however has been the blog footprint. Not only have we featured in fan’s blogs, but the box-set has created enough of a storm for being a beautifully crafted and crowd sourced artifact that it’s been featured on new music blogs like newmusicalorder.com and included on the bandcamp blog about physical releases. There have been photo blogs about the event, as well as the box-set, and the band’s facebook pageis still pickingup comments around the release. Our blog page for the release is populated with comments and flickrand facebook photos again are spreading our word for us.

A video made by Phil Barber, photographer for the night is now up on Vimeo, again it’s something that our community can share. This feeds back into the community aspect again as now we’ve made the connection with Phil. He wants to work with us again and make a video for a new track.

The Money

We had 110 people at the show which brought in £2750-00 ($4,400.00) and after expenses and the manufacture of 200 of the box sets, we’d slightly overspent. We spent £3,000-00 ($4,800-00), so as we are selling the set for £35 (£56) after the fact, we actually needed to sell another 8 sets to break even (bit of an error of planning but hey, that’s being in a band so far as I can tell).

Fortunately, the day the box-set went on sale we sold 12 units, so we were straight into the black, every box we sell now, online or more likely at shows is pure  profit… I say profit – this doesn’t account for any time put in by band members, probably in the region of 300 man hours pulling this together. We don’t get paid as such. What’s interesting to me is that really supports Kevin Kelly’s “1,000 True Fans“. If we were selling 1,000 box-sets, then we’re making £30,000-00 ($48,000-00); that would pay for a quarter of the bands year to live and be able to work on music. Hopefully, we’re getting there.

The Invisible Benefits

Something that people never seem to talk about in new music industry blogs is that there are some people that you just can’t reach online. Additionally, they leave no internet footprint. There is no blog to follow an event or a release, there’s no twitter feed, flickr pics, facebook page comments, this is stuff that’s not trackable and not online.

What’s more, it’s probably the majority of people, even ardent music fans may not be active as a force for artists on the internet. I can’t count the times (certainly up until this year) where I’ve bought a CD or a download or went to a great gig, and didn’t talk about it online… what I would do though is talk about it with friends, play them the music, recommend going to a gig. These are invisible benefits.

Inertia

I find it particularly interesting with Be The Architect, that people are actually sharingtheir own work, their own writings and pictures of themselves. Whether traceable or invisible, the sharingof the “Be The Architect” night and box set is all the more because it’s much more than just a gig and a box-set; it was a unique experience for band and audience alike, and that the fans made this happen with us seems to make them all the more passionate about sharing.

There’s a number of reasons why the band I’m in are called Hope and Social. We’ve always been sociable people, always wanted our shows to feel like it’s a gang of us, like we’re all in this together, a community. Also, we’re optimists. We believe that people are generally good, and that most people want good things for all human beings. We hope that if we invite people into our world for a few hours at a show, for an hour on a record that we can connect with and lift people a little, make people forget the humdrum, and see beauty. We hope that our sociable tendencies are a force for good. (Also, there’s a great record called Hope and Adams by a band called Wheat that’s just incredible, so we stole shared in that idea a little bit.)

It’s through this that everyone who worked on the Crypt Gig with us was willing to work for free, from lighting to the bar, from manning the door to baking brownies and refreshments to sell. It’s because of this that many of our fans will go to the ends of the earth for us, and it’s this passion that gives the band energy and inertia to move forward.