Sellaband

Sellaband

Sellaband Logo
File:Sellabandcombandpage.jpg A Sellaband profile
URL	http://www.sellaband.com/
Slogan	Fan Funded Music
Type of site	Social network / Music
Registration	Required for buying parts, not required for listening
Available language(s)	English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese
Owner	Sellaband AG
Created by	Johan Vosmeijer, Dagmar Heijmans
Launched	August 2006

Sellaband is a music website that allows artists to raise the money from their fans and the SellaBand community in order to record a professional album. It was set up by Johan Vosmeijer (ex Sony/BMG), Pim Betist (ex Shell), and Dagmar Heijmans (ex Sony/BMG) in August 2006. Their offices are located in Amsterdam, Netherlands, but they are incorporated in Bocholt, Germany.

On April 8 2008, SellaBand raised EU€3.5 million (US$5 million) in their Series A round led by Prime Technology Ventures.

In early 2009 Pim Betist left SellaBand to set up Africa Unsigned using SellaBand technology as a base and supported by the Dutch government.

New Model

On October 1st 2009 SellaBand launched a new model which gives artists total flexibility in their fan funding plan and does not take rights. Any artist either signed or unsigned can now use SellaBand to fund any project, as can record labels, artist managemers, publishers etc

Public Enemy was the first major artist to sign up for SellaBand with a target of $250,000 in $25 increments.

Believers

Individuals interested in supporting Sellaband artists do so by buying "parts" in them. Believers can purchase any number of "parts" in a single artist or "parts" in multiple artists.

Up and until the time all parts are sold, the money collected from Believers in exchange for artist "parts" is held in an escrow account managed by a third party (Dieter Roesing, Rechtsanwälte und Notare, Bocholt), regulated under German Law, and cannot be accessed by Sellaband or the artist. Any interest accrued during this period is kept by Sellaband. During this time Believers may sell back any number of "parts" they have in an artist, which are re-deposited into the Believer's Sellaband account, and buy parts in other artists. They can also request a refund of any and all amounts they have in their deposit account. Once the target is raised, the Believers' funds are committed to the artist and the Escrow Agent transfers the funds to Sellaband for the recording project.

Experts

Artists using SellaBand are free to work with whoever they like but one of the strengths of SellaBand is their ability to connect artists with top class producers. Among the Producers that have worked on SellaBand albums so far are Tony Platt (AC/DC, Bob Marley), Attie Bauw (Scorpions, Judas Priest), Peter Denenberg (Spin Doctors, Deep Purple), Steve Bush (Stereophonics, Corinne Bailey Rae), Mick Glossop (Van Morrison, Waterboys), Malcolm Burn (Patti Smith, Emmylou Harris) and Greg Haver (Manic Street Preachers, Super Furry Animals).

Partnerships

December 2007 a partnership with Amazon.com was announced. This was initially for the UK but has been successfully repeated with Amazon in Germany and USA.

March 2009 SellaBand announce a deal to launch in USA with Chuck D’s music company BTN (Bring The Noise) Management in which the former Public Enemy front man will function as Sellaband’s "US ambassador."[3]

June 2009 Sellaband.de launched. The first sister site is presented in conjunction with partner MerchandisingMedia GmbH.

Events

Since its inception, Sellaband has conducted several Official concerts in Europe.

• "New Years Party" (January 2007), the Paradiso, Amsterdam, NL^{[citation needed]}
• "London Calling" (June 2007), Gibson Studios, London, UK^{[citation needed]}
• "Sellabration - Birthday Party" (August 15th 2007 & 2008), the Paradiso, Amsterdam, NL^{[citation needed]}

Other Unofficial SellaBand events have included:

Sellaband artist appeared at "Concert At Sea" festival (June 2007) held in Brouwersdam, NL.^{[citation needed]} In addition, a number of concerts in Europe, Australia, and the United States have been organized through the collaboration of Sellaband artists and believers.^{[citation needed]}

Sell-A-Jam USA “One Night In Boston” took place on January 25 at Boston's Paradise Lounge and featured Sellaband recording artist Lily Vasquez, with Sellaband listed artists Jon Robert and Delco, Jess King, and Wetwerks. The Sellaband Rio Grande Festival, was held in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico on February 22 and February 23. On the 13th of november 2009 Rave 'n Rock artists Resistor headlined “Resistor presents Sellaband Live” at Amsterdams Club Panama with Sellaband listed artist Hangover Sunday and the Dial -a- Poets.

artists who reached their goal

There are several artists who reached their goal already. In December 2009 Cubworld was the first artist, closing his second budget.

The first 25 artists to reach their goal and release their Sellaband CD:

#	Date	Artist	Country	Budget
1	2006-11-02	Nemesea	Netherlands	$50.000
2	2007-01-12	Cubworld	United States	$50.000
3	2007-03-12	Second Person	United Kingdom	$50.000
4	2007-03-18	Clémence	France	$50.000
5	2007-05-21	Lily Vasquez (formerly known as Lily)	United States	$50.000
6	2007-06-02	Maitreya	New Zealand	$50.000
7	2007-06-28	Mandyleigh Storm	Australia	$50.000
8	2007-10-05	Julia Marcell	Poland	$50.000
9	2008-01-06	Solidtube	Austria	$50.000
10	2007-09-11	Vegas Dragons	Australia	$50.000
11	2008-03-02	ConFused5	Austria[citation needed]	$50.000
12	2007-11-05	T-ka	France	$50.000
13	2008-02-18	Mysti Mayhem	United States[citation needed]	$50.000
14	2008-02-02	Thomas Boissy	France[citation needed]	$50.000
15	2008-04-30	Daniel Ward-Murphy	United Kingdom	$50.000
16	2007-10-27	Francis Rodino	United Kingdom	$50.000
17	2007-12-21	BulletProof Messenger	United States[citation needed]	$50.000
18	2008-05-01	Angie Arsenault	Canada	$50.000
19	2008-04-18	So What	Netherlands	$50.000
20	2008-08-16	AIOIA	France	$50.000
21	2008-03-04	LUNIC (formerly known as Kaitee Page)	United Kingdom[citation needed]	$50.000
22	2008-06-07	Lady Haidee	United Kingdom	$50.000
23	2008-06-25	Electric Eel Shock	Japan	$50.000
24	2008-03-19	Ellie Williams	United Kingdom[citation needed]	$50.000
25	2008-11-30	Lucia Iman	Spain	$50.000

There are 17 more artists who have reached their goal and are currently recording their Sellaband CD:

#	Date	Artist	Country	Budget
1	2008-08-25	Gisel de Marco	Argentina	$50.000
2	2008-10-08	Nearfield	Portugal	$50.000
3	2008-10-21	Tiffany Gow	Australia	$50.000
4	2008-11-12	Natalia Safran	Poland	$50.000
5	2009-03-30	Slim Void	Norway	$50.000
6	2009-05-11	Radius	Netherlands	$50.000
7	2009-06-15	Radio Orange	Netherlands	$50.000
8	2009-07-21	Katie Thompson	New Zealand	$50.000
9	2009-08-17	Lori Greco	Australia	$50.000
10	2009-11-02	Civilized Tears	United Kingdom	$31.000
11	2009-11-03	Bonnie	Uruguay	$15.000
12	2009-11-11	Inge M	Netherlands	$50.000
13	2009-11-24	Ariel	United Kingdom	$20.000
14	2009-12-05	Hind	Netherlands	€40.000
15	2009-12-07	Kane Sole	New Zealand	$15.000
16	2009-12-08	Aly Cook	New Zealand	$20.000
17	2009-12-17	Cubworld	United States	$15.000
18	2010-01-26	Epyllion	Canada	$10.000

There are over 3.400 artists currently registered on Sellaband.

Old Model

On October 1st 2009 SellaBand launched a new model which gives artists total flexibility in their fan funding plan and does not take rights. Under the old model the funding was restricted for recording a album, revenue shares with believers was fixed and the total to be raised was set at either US$50,000 or US$100,000 with parts at $10. The new changes have seen established artists sign up as well as new artists who already have management or other representation.

See also

• Fan Funded
• Crowdsourcing
• Netlabel
• Social commerce
• Web 2.0
• Music 2.0

References

• BBC Radio 2 Interview (The Weekender with Matthew Wright - 3 November 2006)
• The Times (UK): Knowledge Section (26 November 2006)

External links

• Official website
• Sellaband on Amazon.co.uk
• Sellaband to crowdsource free music - TechCrunch review of Sellaband
• New Ways to Get Music - ExtremeTech review of Sellaband
• fanfundedforum.com website dedicated to Fan Funded Music