Pledge For Al!
- Category: Artists
- Published on Wednesday, 21 September 2011 21:11
- Written by Mario
- Hits: 727
Additional Info
... seems to be the most common battlecry in Woodditton, a small village in Cambridgeshire, and across the web these days. Alex Highton is raising funds on Pledgemusic to promote his debut album "The Woodditton Wives Club". I talked to him about his experiences on Pledge and how the project goes ...
50K MUSIC: You're raising funds for album promo on Pledgemusic at the moment and have already raised 55% (now 65%) of your budget in just about 2 weeks. You're steaming ahead, aren't you? How do you feel now?
Alex: I feel really happy, humbled that people are getting involved who believe in the album. I didn't expect to be at this point so soon but I'm not going to get complacent. I need to keep on getting the message out, trying to bring people onboard and spreading the word.
50K MUSIC: Have you noticed any differences between your SellaBand project and the current one?
Alex: Yes. Firstly Pledge system is much simpler. You get what you pay for. Fans don't have to buy "parts" and build up an interest in an artist, they just buy what they want. Also the people behind scenes working for Pledge are very, very helpful. Sometimes on Sellaband you couldn't get anyone to answer your query for weeks! If ever. The actual website is brilliant too, functional and easy to use. I thought of a difference between Sellaband & Pledge which I think is pretty important. Pledge has no community. There's no denying that, as many problems as Sellaband has, there are people there who are looking for artists to invest in. Not half as many as Sellaband would suggest there is, and you have to work hard to find them, but if I hadn't met them, I wouldn't have recorded the album and I wouldn't be at 61% on my current project on Pledge.
50K MUSIC: It seems like the whole Woodditton village supports you?
Alex: Yeah I think so. We've got a great community here and people look out for each other. Sometimes its difficult for me to explain to some of them what I do, as they just think of me as Al who lives up the road with Trish. It's great though, I love it here. Lovely people.
50K MUSIC: What are your plans with the money once you've raised your budget?
Alex: I've one very simple plan for the money. Pay people, who are very good at their jobs, to get the album out into the wider world. I put a lot into this record, it means a great deal to me, I want people to hear it. Unfortunately that costs money and money I don't have.
50K MUSIC: Any other plans for the next few months you'd like to share with us?
Alex: Plans are pretty much on hold until we know if the Pledge Project is succesful because if it's not we're back to square one. So I'm just putting everything into this at the moment. In the longer term I've two more records recorded in my head. However first we've got to deal with this one.
So come on and ... Pledge for Al!
