MUSIC INDUSTRY BLOG

When SellaBand launched in August 2006, it introduced music fans and unsigned artists to a revolutionary approach to creating music together.

Today, I discovered that the service (as we know it) is down for good.

Posted on the SellaBand website:

On Friday February 19th, SellaBand AG requested provisional suspension of payments (moratorium).  This was granted by the Court in Amsterdam on the same day.  Yesterday, Monday February 22nd, this moratorium was changed into bankruptcy, with appointment of, Mr Paul Schaink, an amsterdam lawyer, as trustee.  The trustee wishes to inform the ‘Sellaband community’ that, apart from a few technicalities, the completion of a transaction with a potential buyer of the business, is to be expected soon, in order to make a fresh start, safeguarding both the rights of Believers and Artists.  More news will follow shortly.

On behalf of the trustee,

Johan Vosmeijer
CEO SellaBand

25-year old female singer, Hind, completed her fund raising project on SellaBand, the foremost fan-funds-artist platform.  In just 11 days, Hind, a former Pop Idol from the Netherlands, raised €40,000 ($60,000) to record a new studio album.  Almost 1,000 Believers (fans) from over 50 countries invested an average of $5,500 per day, a new artist fund raising record!

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Pubic Enemy is the first established act to sign with SellaBand, the fan funding platform for music artists.  SellaBand will facilitate the fan funding process for Public Enemy’s new album with the band aiming to raise $250,000 in increments of $25.00.  Fans who invest in Public Enemy will receive an exclusive, numbered copy of the album and share in the revenues from sales of the record.

“SellaBand’s financial engine model goes about restructuring the music business in reverse,” says Public Enemy front man Chuck D.  “It starts with fans first, then the artists create from there.  The music business is built on searching for fans and this is a brand new way for acts to create a new album with fans first, already on board.”

The news follows an earlier press release from SellaBand announcing an improved and more accessible fan funding platform for independent artists, which I wrote about here.

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Since 2006, artists raising funds on SellaBand had to reach the $50,000 mark to cash out (see previous post).  In a recent post on their blog, SellaBand announced that the company has reconsidered the model and will implement a flexible funding goal structure (from $10,000 to $100,000) which should make the platform accessible to more artists.

“When SellaBand was launched in 2006, we set out to make a difference.  A lot has happened, a lot has been achieved.  Over the years, the world SellaBand is operating in has changed, our environment has changed and our ideas of what the role of SellaBand as a company is has changed.  Almost on a daily basis we are being approached by bands, managements and labels, asking if they can somehow use the SellaBand concept and change it to their own liking.”

SellaBand is the first online platform to introduce the concept of fan funded music.  Anyone can invest in a SellaBand artist.  Once the artist has reached his or her funding goal, all Investors receive a free limited edition copy of the CD.  Artists and their Investors share equally in the revenues of album sales.

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How to raise $10,000
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When Sellaband launched in August 2006, it introduced music fans and unsigned artists to a revolutionary approach to meeting and collaborating with one another.  By providing a financial incentive at the very core of its proposition, the German upstart pioneered an investment platform that provided fans with a stake in their favourite artists’ assets, and artists with a means of raising capital for recording and distribution from the folks who care about them the most: their fans.  A seemingly far-fetched idea, the platform took off and, today, boasts an extensive fan funded artist base that has managed to raise over $2,200,000 collectively.  Although a handful of fan funded music dotcoms exist, including SliceThePie and TheNextBigSound, Sellaband is leading the trend that has yet to illustrate its full potential as an industry shifting force.  The company is now setting its sights on the US market with a high-profile endorsement from Chuck D.