This is a good idea and can be easily copied by any band or musician. Great publicity for the band as well as helpful to the community...
I've seen the idea of "charity" come up a lot with musicians, but most are afraid to go balls out like this. You'll notice that the money being donated is 100%, not 10% or something like that. Nobody cares about 10%. They want to see that you're serious and doing this for the right reasons, before giving money to a band they're never heard of in the name of charity.
So, with 100% of album sales gone, how does the band make money? New people will be exposed to the music, which will generate plenty of money via future album sales, catalog sales, live performances, and merchandising.
Still on the fence about an idea like this? Think of it this way... You can certainly keep 100% of the money and pay for all the publicity you'd otherwise get for free, probably not getting nearly the promotion result (or the cash) in the end.
So watch and learn...
The Michigan City Vandals (MCV) are releasing their first full length album on November 3, 2007 and plan use 100% of their album sales to build a Habitat for Humanity home in Benton Harbor, MI.
The band feels that recording and releasing this album has become a community effort to help the Benton Harbor Habitat for Humanity affiliate.
“When we decided to donate the money and try to build this house, we realized we needed to come up with the funds to actually record the album. We are not currently on a label and were going to try to pay for it all by ourselves, but then the most amazing thing happened,” explains Bassist and Lead Singer for The Michigan City Vandals, Julee Laurent. “Peak Audio in South Bend donated all the tracking and mixing for four of the songs, our friend Dustin Maust produced and played guitar on those tracks and Tom Jennings and Dave Maki at Czars in Saint Joseph, MI said they would record us live and mix it for us to supplement the studio tracks. It was an incredible feeling to see how this music community comes together and still believes that music can change the world.”
The idea came to the band when some of its members were in Guadalupe, AZ on Whirlpool’s® Second Annual Building Blocks Blitz helping Jose Molina and his family build their first home. The Building Blocks program, which is a partnership between Habitat for Humanity and Whirlpool®, is a signature program created by the appliance brand to raise awareness of the affordable housing crisis and to help eliminate substandard housing in the United States.
“To stand next to someone and help them build their home is more fulfilling than a record deal or fame. Those things don’t last, this house will. The Molina’s will watch their grandkids run around in it and they will maybe take a second mortgage to send their kid to college and change generational cycles, all because they have a home and a safe place. This is what Habitat does, and I am just glad we can be a part of it in any little way we can. It’s the proverbial pebble in the water causing a tidal wave or the butterfly flapping its wings. In the end, its how we helped other people, not how we helped ourselves,” says Laurent.
The Michigan City Vandals will be holding a record release party at Czars 505 in Saint Joseph, MI this Saturday November, 3 with a South Bend release party currently in the works. They are planning a regional tour for this winter in hopes of raising $75,000 so that they can break ground on the house in summer of 2008. The album is currently available on www.michigancityvandals.com by snail mail or digital download. Individual tracks are also available on myspace.com/michigancityvandals.
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