What is Happening at the FUMP

A FuMPFest fundraiser CD is available for purchase.  It is $20 for a two-CD set of over 40 live performances from last year’s FuMPFest.

Two new acts have been announced for FuMPFest as well: Drew Jacobs and TV’s Kyle.  Full list of guests on the site.

Pre-registration for FuMPFest goes up from $35 to $45 on April 1st and the room block for the hotel closes May 19th.

The great Luke Ski joins TV’s Kyle new show on Cartoon Network Might Magiswords as a Storyboard Revisionist.  Here about it on Kyle and Luke Talk About Toons.

Nuclear Bubble Wrap released a video for their song The Agenda.  A little song poking fun at those who fear a “gay agenda.”  It was animated by ThePivottsXX.

Luke Ski released a video for his song The Twilight Zone too.  It is about the TV show Twilight Zone, nothing about sparkling vampires.

Bonecage has done more on his YouTube channel as well.

Carla Ulbrich is using Indiegogo as a pre-sale to fund her next album.  The album is written and mostly recorded already.  Reward levels include skype guitar lesson, handwritten lyrics, concert in your living room, your name in liner notes, and a video of Carla singing, dancing, and raving about how great you are.

Marc Gunn has a Kickstarter campaign for new steampunk album Dragons vs. Pirates.

During February’s Album Writing Month TV’s Kyle wrote an entire album, recorded it, and now has it available for purchase.  You can download it for only $5.

Harmonix announced the release of Rock Band 4 and is requesting song.  Now Devo Spice is trying to get his song The Dumbest Song on Rock Band on there, so he is asking for everyone’s help in requesting it.   Go to the request page, put in “The Dumbest Song on Rock Band” for the title, “Devo Spice” for the artist, and then click Submit.

LeetStreet Boys Album #4 Kickstarter

The anime otaku band LeetStreet Boys are backing and looking to fund a fourth album.  After getting together to release their new Pocky Girl, they got excited to do another album.  They need to raise $9,001 for this album.  The band already has the gear and experience they need.  They just need the money to focus full-time on the album and have a back up in case of a disaster.  They can do this, they just need the money.  They have turned to Kickstarter for the first time to help them out.

By pledging $1 you get their new single “Pocky Girl” on MP3 (no immaterial “thank you” reward you actually get something for $1).  Other rewards are the digital album,  karaoke tracks, their other albums both digital and physical, thanked in the liner notes, access to song demos to give feed back on, get composer Matthew Myers to come to your con or event, they will write and produce a song of your design, the band will perform at your con, event, or private party.

The stretch goals for the project are an animated music video of one of the songs and physical CDs.

So far they have only been able to raise $2,873 (as of this writing).  The Kickstarter has only four more days to go.  The band has not gotten a chance to really tour or perform anywhere for a while and have started to wonder if anyone really cares about their music or at least willing to help them make it.  They is a good chance to help out a band for all the music they have given out over the years and get some stuff for yourself.  You have until Feburary 26th at 9:45AM EST.

Adam Warrock Donation Drive

Five years ago now Eugene quit his job as a lawyer to pursue his dream of being a rapper fulltime as Adam Warrock.  It has gone pretty well for him since then.  He has toured the country, produced some albums, and released over 600 free songs on his website.  He has no agent, no manager, no booker, no financial backing; everything is done by him and his friends.  Just straight up independent music.  He has not monetized his Youtube account with ads, covered his website in ads, does any form of crowd sourcing, and only asks for donation once a year.  This is that time, till Wednesday actually.  So if you want to help out an independent artist or give a few bucks cause you like some of his work or cause you get some sweet gifts for donating, then give what you can.

 

All donors to the drive will receive a new mixtape, a live band album, and a Super Art Fight pin-up gallery.  The live band album was recorded at The Sidebar in Baltimore, MD earlier this year.  You can hear a few of the sample tracks from the album and mixtape on his website.

Also while the drive last all of Adam’s music on Bandcamp is all free for download, so if you do not already have all his music (wait why don’t you?) you can get it now.

400 people have already donated some amount of money.  I will be doing so tomorrow.  I just had to wait for my money to move into my PayPal account first.

 

 

Celtic Avalon

Heather Dale has been a Celtic songwriter and touring musician for 15 years.  She launched her first crowd-sourcing fundraiser campaign this month on Indiegogo.  It goes until Friday March 21st.

The funding campaign is for three things.  The Celtic Avalon touring show,  a musical stage show retelling the legend of King Arthur set to tour North America in 2015.  A professionally produced concert DVD.  And finally a special Youth Educational Program offered to schools during the tour.

Perks for backing this project are: $20 get an MP3 album of Heather’s “The Legends of Arthur” book and exclusive King Arthur song, $45 add in a copy of the Celtic Avalon show on DVD, $75 add in two of Heather’s MP3 albums of your choice,  and at $100 add in a VIP Package with premium seating to the live show, a pre-show visit with Heather, and poster signed by the cast.  From there each level does not keep adding up, you get everything thing at the $100 and bonus that level has, and are of limited quantities.  $225 gets you a custom voicemail message plus set of 20 ringtones, $350 you get a handwritten letter with song lyrics of your choice, $500 and Heather will make a video of her playing any five songs of your choice, $750 and she will record three original songs of your own creation, $800 she will make you your own cloak based on a King Arthur character, $1,000 will bring a concert and in class program to the school of your choice, and at $3,00 she will marry you…… to someone else.

She has already raised (at time of writing) $11,659 of the $40,000.  Now Indiegogo is different from Kickstarter in that you do not have to meet your goal.  You will get whatever you perk level you backed no matter the outcome.  So get in there and help support an interesting and educational project.  There is much more about it at the site so go check it out if you are not sure or at least spread the word around.

Patreon Campaign by Inverse Phase

Patreon is a new kind of crowd source site.  Instead of just giving money for one project, you pledge to give an amount (your choice)  for each release of a creator.  When they make a release, like a new song, music video, EP, or album; you make the same pledge.  Your pledge is the same for any release.

Chip Music creator and panelist Inverse Phase is the first performer I know to use this and he has listed some cool rewards for higher pledges.  When he releases some that costs money you will get a code for a free download.  Free releases like video and some songs will just go straight to funding quality material.

Inverse expects no more than one release per month, so you know how much you will be spending over the year.  Patreon does let you set a monthly budget and you can change or cancel your pledges at any time.

Pledges start at $1 per release.  At the $4 level you get to be part of Skype chat per release, $8 gets you a one-on-one chat, higher levels gets you a sticker pack, handwritten thank you letter, Twitter mentions, one weird non-alcoholic beverage per release shipped to you, get your own music on Inverse’s releases, get credited as a patron on bandcamp, get on stage during a performance or a shout out during a show.

Goals for this project are to create a visual contraption to improve live show quality and even build his own instruments.  He has already made his album/EP The Midnight Chiptunes available for free.

One of the projects he is working is a soundtrack to the game Treachery in Beatdown City for PS Vita.  Also he is working on free music for Christmas.  Follow him on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ pages for an update on Christmas day.

FuMP Kickstarters

Two members of the FuMP have Kickstarter projects going on right now.  Two great albums for fans of Doctor Who and video games.

Devo Spice is looking for some help to with his latest project, I Am The Doctor.  A comedy rap album about Doctor Who for the 50th anniversary, with a song about the different incarnations of The Doctor.

His song I Am The Doctor will be the title track for the album.  Peter Davison (fifth Doctor) makes an appearance on the song “Companion Application.”  Other cameos are being lined too.

The CD is schedule to be released on November 23rd, the day of the anniversary show.  The album has already been funded so no need to worry about it not making it.  You can still get in on this till 2pm on October 31st.  The Kickstarter is to fund production of the CDs, professionally mastering of the songs, money for shipping.

The rewards for this you get a lot of great things for cheap: pledge of only $1 will get you two MP3 downloads of your choice, $10 the digital album, $15 the physical album with booklet, $25 get an exclusive Kickstarter poster with your album, $30 get an exclusive t-shirt with your album, $40 get the t-shirt and poster, $75 signed hand written sheet music page, $100 get credited as producer, $250 get a custom song on any subject you want, and more at higher levels.

In addition to regular rewards, there are also special add-ons.  Devo’s previously released albums are available at a discounted price.  You can get them as either downloads or CDs.  Just add the right amount of extra funds and pick your choice.

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Insane Ian is a comedy musician and a video game reviewer.  Now he wants to combine these two in a web series called “Reviewsicals,” musical reviews of video games.

Funding will go to the materials Ian needs to make the videos himself: new computer, video camera, green screen, and cost of printing CDs.  He already has access to all the games he will review and systems to play them on.  Expect 10 or more videos and songs to be made for the first season.   Each song from the series will be made available on Bandcamp and as a CD once the season is done.

The project’s goal is $2,750 and as of now it has raised $822.  The Kickstarter goes till about noon on November 7th.

Pledge of $1 gets you a personalized thank you and download of one song from the album, $10 for a digital download of the album, $25 for the physical CD autographed, $75 get a poster and extra limited CD as well, $100 gets you listed as an “Executive Producer,” $150 get a short song about yourself or chose a game for the reviewsical, $250 you get both a personal song and pick a song for the reviewsical, $500 get every release of Insane Ian autographed, and more at higher levels.

SRP Concert Kickstarter

Synthesized Reality Productions, SRP, is a new live Vocaloid concert group with a dream of doing concerts all over the wold.  To do this they need some better equipment (lighting and effects) for their first concert at year’s Pacific Media Expo, PMX, in Los Angeles, California in November.  So they are asking for some help raising the funds.

SRP include former members of Vocalekt Visions, another live holographic concert team, plus other producers, musicians, animators, and artists from San Francisco and all around the world.  With all the help from Vocaloid industry professionals they have been able to line up shows internationally already.  To make these shows the best they can possible be and to start things off with a bang they are running this Kickstarter.

The reward levels are light on physical awards.  $10 gets you a shout out, $25 three custom-made phone charms, $50 you get a CD from one of SRP’s producers and DVD of the show, $100 and $200 original artwork, $300 2 CDs plus an original song, and much more at higher levels. 

Their goal is $2,500 by November 3.  So far they have six backers for only $540.  Fans of Vocaloid might want to give this a look, both for what you get from it and for helping future live concerts in the future. 

Vocaloid is a vocal synthesizing program created by Yamaha, in its third installment. A Vocaloid concert uses 3D holographic images based on the character mascots of each Vocaloid voice banks. Each Vocaloid has a unique character design, as well as a different voice type for varied ranges and styles of music.