Music Ally

In October, Public Enemy announced plans to fan-fund their next studio album, using SellaBand’s platform to raise $250,000 in individual donations of $25. It was big news for SellaBand at the time, and renewed proof of Chuck D’s eagerness to explore new music business models. So how’s it doing?

Er… not so well, to be honest. So far, Public Enemy have attracted 916 ‘believers’ on the site, donating a total of $71,625. They reached $50,000 from 700 fans on 21st October just a couple of weeks after the announcement, so the fundraising has slowed down considerably since then. With more than $178,000 to go, that new album may not be on the way anytime soon.

Proof that the fan-funded model doesn’t work? It’s a bit early to say that. Maybe the $25 minimum donation is too high, maybe the band’s fanbase has dwindled more than we thought since their heyday, or maybe people are looking at the huge amount still to be raised and deciding not to bother.

It’s to SellaBand’s credit that we can see this data openly, of course, and to Public Enemy’s credit that they’re trying this model. But it will be interesting to see how they try to reinvigorate demand from their fanbase to get the record made.

Hip-hop pioneers Public Enemy have announced plans for fans to fund their new album – but also take a share of the revenues. The band are working with SellaBand to raise $250,000 in individual donations of $25. Fans chipping in will get a numbered copy of the album, but also a share of the profits – although exactly how this will work hasn’t been announced at the time of writing.

“SellaBand’s financial engine model goes about restructuring the music business in reverse,” says Public Enemy’s 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 coming to create a new album with fans first, already on board.”

Public Enemy are the first established act to benefit from SellaBand’s new business model, which now allows artists to hold onto their publishing rights, and raise money in different ways to the scheme originally proposed by the site when it was targeting just unsigned artists. The band are one of the more experienced when it comes to digital, having been one of the first to release music as MP3 files.

“Working with Public Enemy is an incredibly exciting way to take the European success we’ve built over the past three years and offer it to stateside bands,” says SellaBand CEO Johan Vosmeijer.

We’re chuffed this week to have had Public Enemy’s Chuck D writing the comment piece for the Music Ally Report. We enjoyed his piece so much, in fact, that we wanted to publish it here for a wider audience. So without further ado, read on!

“While this year marks the 20th anniversary of Fight The Power, I’d like to point to a lesser known commemoration from ten years back, when Public Enemy left Def Jam and entered the world of digital distribution.

About a year before, in 1998, smack dab in the middle of Public Enemy headlining the Smokin’ Grooves tour, we created www.publicenemy.com and it became one of the very first artist sites in rap and hip hop. The Terrordome became what netizens would later call a ‘blog’. My points were heard and read beyond any interview I could do, direct from the source.

For the previous years leading up to it, I wondered when there could be TV on the web, if people could eventually email songs, and how about folks becoming one with the artistry. A seamless artist-audience relationship. All I could do back then is dream, wish, write, and wait. So I waited. And wrote.

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