CASA - the contemporary a cappella society

Raising the Money!

Written by Freddie Feldman

Tuesday, 09 May 2006

Recording, mixing, mastering, licensing, manufacturing, and distribution. Wow, making a CD costs a lot of money! Also, most of this money needs to be paid before you get the CDs in your hands. Groups ask me all the time how to fund their album projects...well, I’ve got a few suggestions that will help you out. There are actually tons of ways to raise money, you just need to get creative. Obviously, doing gigs and selling previous CDs is a great way to finance your project. Here are some others...

Pre-Sales
Many groups have successfully raised recording funds by pre-selling copies of their CD before it was even made. Come up with some ways to convince people to buy the CD. If you’ve got previous albums already made, play them clips to show them the quality of your recordings. Maybe mix a couple tracks from this new CD early so that you can have a "demo" of the new album. I just attended a show where the group had a little slip of paper in their program so that audience members can easily pre-order the new CD. Get creative. Make it so easy to buy the CD that they couldn't not buy it.

Alumni
This one really only applies to high school and college groups. If your group has been around for several years, you may have alumns that would be willing to kick in some money here and there. Maybe a $100 donation or something. Make it worth their while. Give them a couple copies of the CD for their donation. It winds up only costing you a few bucks per disc anyways. Maybe get all the alumns together who have donated to recording and have a "Special CD Release Party" just for them. Make the alumns feel special and they’ll be more willing to help you with your special CD.

Tap Into Your Niche Market
Think about your group and what makes it different from other groups. Maybe you’re all Indian, all Jewish, all female, all male, all gay, all retired, all black, all latino, all green, or whatever. There's a whole market right there that you can tap into. Find community groups , youth groups, camps, or clubs. Talk to them about getting some financial help. You might be surprised.

Sell Ad Space in Your CD Booklet
I haven’t had a lot of groups take me up on this suggestion, but it might work for you. Basically, approach local businesses and see if they’d be willing to pay to have their logo or small ad inside your CD packaging. Space inside your CD booklet really doesn't cost you anything, but the businesses might get some great exposure from being in there.

Bake Sale...Car Wash...Thumb-wrestling Tournament
Anything you can do to raise money (LEGALLY) is a viable option. When I was in college, we did a thumb-wrestling tournament and rock-paper-scissors tournament to raise money for a charity. People pay a buck to enter, you get some grand-prize donated for the event, people play & have fun, and you raise money for your CD project. Just think about it ahead of time and make sure that you'll at least make some profit on the event.

Team Up!
Don't have quite enough money to make the whole CD yourselves? Team up with another group on campus who does! Minutes after I posted this article, I spoke with one of the groups I'm producing and they informed me that their new CD will now be a combined CD with them and another group on their campus. Share the expenses and the profits...

Get in Good with Your School
Lots of schools give money to their a cappella groups to help fund their CDs. Lots don't. Some will give it to you and some will make you work for it (calling their alumni for donations). In a school where there are 10 groups (like Northwestern University), there's not a lot to go around and it's hard to differentiate yourself from the myriad groups. In a school like Loyola University Chicago, for example, there's one group. If you're the one group on campus, make sure you make your presence known to the University Administration and your Student Government. Tell them you're representing the school. Record the Alma Mater and put it on the CD. Then they can give the CD out to prospective students, alumni, faculty, whatever. Schools love that stuff. If your group name has something to do with the school (Buffalo Chips, Tigerroar, Purple Haze, Amazin' Blue, Loyolacappella), it can only help things.

Just Get Creative
If you want that CD then do something about it! Don't be upset if all of these suggestions don't work for you. They're not for everyone. But there's more money out there than you realize. Just think about it and get creative!

Read more of Freddie's Blog on Managing Your A Cappella Recording Project here
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