Progress, progress and more progress

Last weekend we worked with neverendingly enthusiastic and downright brilliant Mr Robbie Williams. No, not that Robbie Williams, that would be stupid and expensive and he probably doesn't know anything about pro tools or even own a studio. It was the Robbie Williams at the desk in the attached photo. Rob runs a studio from his house in Bedminster and we decided to go there 3 years ago to record our first single (Obsessive Compulsive) because Rob had always managed to get us sounding amazing at the Louisiana. Having an engineer that knows what you sound like and knows what you want to achieve is invaluable when recording. You can work so much more efficiently, and we really needed efficient working at the weekend. Our task was to finish the album, seven songs in 2 days. Hard work by anyone's standard but we managed it with two 12 hour days with regular breaks chatting with the chickens in the back yard. I can't wait to hear the finished results when I return from holiday.

We have settled on the date and venue for the launch show, which means that the album will have to be completed by this date (otherwise there will be little point launching it). We shall be at our spiritual Bristol home of the Louisiana on 26th September with the premier Bristol party band The Get Outs and one man band dark pop sensation Matt Prosac aka Cabaret Rat. Check out their tunes here:

http://www.myspace.com/cabaretrat

http://www.myspace.com/thegetouts

Obviously all share holders will get free entry to the show. We're also going to sell the album for a fiver on the night which will include a free download code for people to give to their friends. Talking of shareholders, we're doing well but we're not quite there. We have officially sold 70 of the 100 shares. We have 23 shares allocated but have not received money for. I don't think this is much of an issue, it's just a bit embarrassing chasing people for cash. So really we've only got 7 left, which is pretty pleasing. We have definitely covered the cost of all the recording and mixing and hopefully some of the duplication. But if anyone wants one of those remaining 7 shares please get in contact.

I've also had a few more ideas in terms of what we offer shareholder, partly because of the very frustrating economies of scale in music duplication, meaning we will initially have 1,000 copies of the album instead of the expected 500 and partly for actual logical reasons. I recently read an interesting article by Andrew Dubber, who is quite big in the whole 'electronic music marketing' industry, about how best to distribute promo copies of music. It led me to the concept of giving shareholders more than they need music wise so that they can pass it on to other people. This won't particularly help generate revenue but will help spread the FOTG message. So all shareholders who own more than one share will get two copies of the album, on the proviso that they give one to a friend or family member who they think might like it and haven't heard of FOTG. All single share holding share holders will receive a free download code for the following site:

http://firstofthegiants.bandcamp.com/

The code will allow one unique download of the whole album. Again, it would be put to best use if given to a friend (obviously the CD can just be ripped to iTunes so would be pointless for the shareholder to have). It's all about targeted marketing. Promo can be so hit and miss some times. Throw enough shit at the wall (I am not saying our album is shit, it's just an analogy) and some of it will stick. Andrew Dubber's point was that you shouldn't underestimate the power of giving someone who isn't used to receiving free CDs, a free CD (compared to someone who gets 100s of free CDs a week). So that's the plan anyway, we'll see if it works.

Obviously we will do the usual bombardment of online and physical music magazines. I find this process very mundane to be honest. I have built up a reasonable contacts book by now so I don't have to do that ground work. But the process of printing labels, writing press releases and packing envelopes really isn't the most entertaining thing I can think of. Then of course there is the chasing up that needs to be done. But then reviews can tend to make or break a record. Having none obviously doesn't help matters! So it's all a necessary evil if you like.

So thus concludes today's lesson in online music marketing and recording works of art in a short space of time. Homework's due in on Monday.

Steve P

xxx

All Around The World

We've made it to Canada and we've made it in to Venue. That's proper international that is!

We've struck a chord (probably a made-up one knowing us)

Firstly, apologies for the lame title of this post, there are probably only 6 people that get the joke. Three of them are in the band with me and the other three have been in the band with me.

Thanks to a friend of a friend we've had a bit of coverage and some nice comments from people who don't even know us. Check Steve Clayton's Geek in Disguise blog. Thanks very much to Steve and the nice comments in response to his blog. This has generated some interest and we're now up to around 60 or so confirmed purchases (a few people still to pay in there so please get on to paypal or mail me for bank details, which is the preferred payment method).

I wanted to pick up on a point that someone made in response to Steve's blog post and was also made to me by a friend in the 'music industry'. Basically, there are a good handful of sites that offer very similar finance means. Slice the Pie is the one that was mentioned and the first one I was aware of a while back, but there are definitely others. As I understand it you sell yourself as a band and investors buy shares in you. I believe you have to get past a certain stage before you're actually considered for serious investment. The investment is also much more extensive than we are offering because it allows you return from (and presumably some say in, as a shareholder) the band's future.

I was initially very positive about this means of selling a band. I like the fact that there isn't a single person deciding who is most eligible for investment. I am sure it does have its flaws however. Presumably investment generates popularity in itself, so it almost becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Are people really going to trawl the site for bands with limited or no investment so far, or will they follow the 'smart money' so to speak? Anyway, a friend of mine's girlfriend secured significant finance for her album via this site with no label or media support, so it must be a good thing for some people.

The reasons I chose not to use a ready made site for this exercise are three-fold. Firstly, I am not entirely convinced how much effort it takes for a band to enter the site and put themselves on the market. Whilst this isn't (and shouldn't be) a criteria for it being a successful marketing tool, I like to think that if people see you putting in a bit of effort and ingenuity, then they are more likely to take you seriously and support you. I have thought this for the last 5 years I've been playing in FOTG, in terms of the gigs we play at, the ones we promote and the CDs we produce. If you put in some effort then people seem more prepared to invest some time listening to you.

The second reason is that we don't want immediate world domination so want to do things on a smaller, more personal 'DIY' scale. Yes, of course we want the album to sell well and, by proxy, our shareholders to do well from the investment. But we also want the people that invest in us and the people that buy our album to have a little sense that they were involved in something a bit special. Judging from the feedback we've received so far this seems to be the case. I mentioned to a friend the other day who asked how it was going that I was most surprised with the people that had bought more than one share. Hopefully this is because of the way we have pitched the idea and the fact that it has captured some imagination more so than if we had just used a conventional music investment site.

The third reason is that I once met an individual associated with one of these sites. I will give this person the benefit of the doubt, in that we were both relatively well oiled and I am sure, otherwise, he has a great personality. But we had quite a frustrating discussion about the music business and how it really wasn't anything to do with the quality of the music, it was down to one thing and that was marketability. Also, DIY record labels were dismissed as pointless. Whilst I am prepared to admit that there is a massive part of the music industry that is a cynical musical conveyor belt, I will not concede that "good music will out" and "if you want to do it right, do it yourself" are not good mantras to live by. Plus DIY record labels were the largest growth area of the industry this year. So yes, this little discussion rather soured what I thought, on the face of it, to be a good idea.

A quick note on the share certificates and MP3s. We are currently working on the certificates and would like to get these finished first so they can be sent with a link to the files in a nice email package. We should have them done in about a week or so but if you're really desperate to get your hands on the MP3s then please drop me a line and I will send them through.

Have a good week y'all and keep on doing it yourself (not like that though!).

Steve FOTG

Share our band......

The share offer is underway.

An invite to 100 of our family and friends has been sent. So far 45 of the 100 shares on offer have been purchased. Hopefully we haven't missed anyone out who might want a share. Please feel free to let us know if we have.

In order to present a modicum of seriousness to the offer, we have written a share prospectus document highlighting the terms and conditions of the offer (much the same as in our last blog entry but a bit more belt and braces). I'd love to say it took an hour but it actually took two whole evenings. So it better bloody be worth it.

The share offer will be open to everyone from 1 July. There will be a small feature in the music section of Venue magazine before then. If you are interested in receiving a copy of the prospectus document in advance of this date then please contact us on:

itoldthemabouttheshares@firstofthegiants.co.uk

Rock and roll

FOTG
xxxx

The Ultimate Sell Out

We are currently in the process of recording our album. We have three tracks completed now: Mr Robinson, an ode to men loving other men, available to listen to on our Myspace; The Elephant In The Room, a 2 minute math rock epic; and Mirror Mirror which is our tribute to The Knack (we did it before Wheatabix!). We also have an album title, 'I Told Them About The World', which I thought was suitably egocentric of us. We are due back at Ruby Studios in July to record the final seven tracks and then we will move on to mastering, artwork, promo and reproduction. I am hoping that we are in a position to have a launch night in September before the birth of the first FOTG offspring (FIRSTOFTHEBABIES if you will).

I often spend many a restless night lying in bed thinking about how best to market the album. I find it is the best time to do some thinking, probably mainly because it's the only time of the day I am not working, watching the TV, or posting on Choke/Facebook/Twitter (yes, I really am that sad). We've spoken to some independent record labels but, as sterling a job as these labels do, they want young 20 somethings prepared to jump in a van and promote the record for months on end on the toilet circuit. Given our love for nice hotels and plasma TVs and our advancing years (except for Adam who is still a youngster) this isn't really practical for us. What we want is something that generates some promotion and also gives a little back to the people that have supported us for the last five years (who are invariably the first people to buy any CDs we produce).

A few years ago I stumbled across a band (who I've completely forgotten the name of, but that's not really relevant) who were setting up a record label. To finance the record label they offered an opportunity to buy a share in the business. I liked the idea because it eliminate the middle men, who take around 98% of the revenue from most album sales and also gives fans some feelings of ownership of the fortunes of the band they're supporting. The shortfall of the idea was that it required significant investment, 100s if not 1,000s of pounds, which doesn't open the idea to the every day CD buyer. So I've borrowed (stolen) the best bits of their idea but amended it a bit for our purposes. We will, therefore, be selling shares in our forthcoming album!! You can literally own a part of FIRSTOFTHEGIANTS.

How it works?

There will be 100 shares available to purchase, each share will initially be on sale for £5. Each share must be purchased with an advance copy of the album at a preferential price of £5 (so £10 in total). We will own 100 shares each per band member so there will be 500 shares in existence. One person can purchase a maximum of 5 shares for £30 (this will only include one copy of the album though).

There will be 500 CDs manufactured initially (more if demand requires it) and the remaining 400 albums will be sold at £10, online and at future shows and for 79p a track on iTunes. Each share can be redeemed at any point (following the actual physical release of the album) either by selling it back to us or by trading it with other people. The share price will be affected by the number of sales following the initial 100 made to shareholders. So if we sell 200 albums in total (100 on top of the initial share and album sale), we will make 100 x £10 = £1,000. This revenue will increase the share price by £1,000 / 500 = £2 per share, so each share will be worth £7. The following spreadsheet illustrates how the share price will be affected by future sales:

Shareholder_example.xls

So if we sell 350 CDs in total, the share price will be £10 and all shareholders will make £5 on the initial share price, covering the cost of the CD! If we sell 1,000 copies of the album, the share price will be £23, giving a profit of £18 per share. If the album sells as many as Michael Jackson's Thriller (109 million copies) each share will be worth £2.18m. I'd go as far as saying that the album is better than Thriller, so who knows?

What does the shareholder get out of it?

Well the obvious answer is that each shareholder gets a preferential album price of £5 and will, hopefully, make that back also (so a free album!). However, in addition to this benefit, shareholders will be entitled to a number of other 'perks'

• Shareholder certificate
• 3 high quality MP3 of the currently recorded songs and limited edition artwork
• Their name on the finalised album artwork
• Free entry to the album launch show
• Regular sales updates via email (and text message if desired)
• First call on future share offers
• Overwhelming glow of helping out an independent record label and band
  

Entry to the album release party alone is worth £5, so all in all, a complete and utter bargain!

What do we get out of it?

Well, for a start, the revenue generated from pre-sale of 100 copies of the album and the shares will provide the funding we need to finish the recording and production of the album. We then hope that owning a share in the album will encourage people to recommend it to their friends (this obviously isn't a requirement of purchasing a share, you can just sit back and do nothing if that is your want). Hopefully, the process in itself will generate a bit of publicity too. If the exercise is successful we will follow the same process for the Christmas single and future releases. As already mentioned, the shareholders for the album will be the first to be offered the opportunity to purchase future shares.

So there you go. FIRSTOFTHEGIANTS are officially for sale!

Shares will be released for purchase on 1 June 2009 via Paypal. You can follow the progress of the album from recording to manufacturing (and general musings on the failings of Arsenal Football Club) on our twitter feed at:

Twitter

If you would like further information and to register your interest or if you have any ideas or suggestions then please email us at:

itoldthemabouttheshares@firstofthegiants.co.uk

Thanks for listening.

Steve and the rest of FIRSTOFTHEGIANTS

Day 44 - Back on the case

Facebook members: 284

So an 8 day holiday turned in to a considerably longer hiatus from the blog. I must confess that I lost the impetus thinking of powdery hills and vin chaude (I don't actually like that stuff, I mean lager obviously). But I am back now, ready to step on the accelerator pedal in the Christmas number one driving seat!

So my first incredible innovation in our continuing quest is to join this Twitter thing. If you'd like to follow us then you can do so by going to this link and clicking 'follow' (I think):

http://twitter.com/firstofthegiant

I am not sure I really get how it's any different to Facebook but it's in the Guardian so it must be really big with all the middle class pseudo-socialists. At the moment I am following Stephen Fry because the newspaper I read about it in said he was the most popular twitterer (twit?). Nothing he has said so far has been very interesting. I am actually enjoying Ashton Kutcher more. Hopefully he'll upload some pics of Demi in compromising positions. Actually, what am I talking about? Why would I want to see that exactly?

First practice in a few weeks next week and we'll get the rest of the song down. May be I'll film it and upload it somewhere. That would, of course, require me to work out how to do shit like that which is pretty unlikely.

Auf Wiedersehen for now

Day 28 to Day 43 - Hiatus

Facebook members: 284

Away on research. It was very Christmassy, check it!