What is SellaBand?
Sellaband provides an alternative to the traditional music industry. It is a platform that empowers artists to record their next album, funded by their fans. The fundamental difference is that instead of taking a financial stake in an artists album we enable the artist to raise a recording budget from music fans. This will give the artist maximum flexibility and control over your music. SellaBand is able to support artists through the community and use it’s economies of scale to put together some very interesting deals, however the artists are responsible for the albums success and their own career.

What is a Believer?
A Believer is a music lover who comes to SellaBand and has found an Artist he/she likes and believes in. He/she can show this faith by putting his/her money where his/her mouth is, e.g. by purchasing at least one Part of an artist. Until the artist has reached the Goal Amount a Believer can move Parts from one artist to another or withdraw the money from SellaBand.

Why did you come up with SellaBand?
The idea came from a love of music and the frustration of hearing the same artists always on the radio, while so many talented artists remain unnoticed by the traditional music industry. At that time a small and select group of people in the music industry were deciding which artists were allowed to record an album and what the rest of world has to listen to. On top of that, because of declining music sales, record labels were signing fewer and fewer new artists. The effect was that more and more artists were not able to record that album that they have in them, and music fans weren’t hearing the music they wanted to hear. So we decided to change this situation by leveling the playing field for both artists and fans. SellaBand gives all artists an equal opportunity to record a great sounding record, we’re not the filter, it’s the music fans who decide.

How does it work?
Artists upload their music and profile. Music lovers find artists they like and believe in. $10.00 (plus transaction/administration costs) buys them a piece of the action. And this will make them a ‘Believer’ of the artist. The artist goes to the studio to record an album. Fans get an exclusive CD sent to their home. Artists make their dream come true. From now on bands and Believers are in it together.

Why should I join SellaBand?
If you’re tired of the traditional music industry deciding who can record an album, so deciding what you have to listen to. If you want to discover new talent and help them with the start of their career. If you want to help established artists to become independent from the record labels. If you want to be part of the creation of a new album. If you want to change the way the music industry works. If you want to make it possible.

Who can join SellaBand?
Every one with a love for music can join SellaBand.

Is there something in it for me?
It can be quite rewarding to become a Believer in an artist on SellaBand. First of all you’ll receive eternal love, hugs and kisses from the artist. The next reward is all the kudos you’ll get from your friends for not just discovering the next big thing, but also for making it possible. Still not enough? Fine, you’ll also get a unique, only available for Believers, limited Edition of the CD sent to your home. And there are more exclusive goodies available if you want to buy multiple parts of an artist. And finally, the financial component, as every Part gives you a share of the net revenue of the music sales. This share is equally divided by the number of Parts an artist has, divided by either 5,000 ($50,000) or 10,000 ($100,000). And by buying a specific number of Parts you can also earn on the publishing revenue.

Who is behind SellaBand?
Johan Vosmeijer – Co-founder and the CEO of the company
..has more than twenty years of experience in the music industry. Started as music journalist running his own music magazines Meltdown and Watt. Was part of the start of alternative radio station KINKFM as music director. Worked at SONY Music as Marketing Director and General Manager for the Benelux. But above all is a great music lover, although his taste of music is not always shared by the rest of the team. Is also a walking music encyclopedia full of useful facts like who played the harmonica on the 7th song of the 5th album - and I mean the Japanese version - of the first band of nephew of the drummer of....

Dagmar Heijmans – Co-founder and General Manager of the company.
As son of a DJ he literally grew up between stacks of vinyl and was destined to end up working in the industry. And that’s what happened, starting at the age of 15 in the mailroom of EMI Holland. After some years as press promoter at EMI he landed a job as product manager at Columbia Records/Sony Music where he got promoted to marketing manager Holland. He can’t imagine a life without working with music. But if you love your own hearing, don’t ever ask him to sing.

Adam Sieff – The A&R guy.
Adam played in several bands in the 70’s, one of them managed by a former Prime Minister. Then he produced records for artists including Matumbi, Wasted Youth, Big Country and Praying Mantis. His little black book full of producers, musicians and engineers is thicker than the yellow pages and more importantly, they'll probably return his call. If he doesn’t wear his electric green shoe laces he will probably wear his bright blue happy socks. Adam’s mission is to teach ‘those young kids at SellaBand’ about the great music of the past that formed the music of today and is forming the music of tomorrow.
Chris Kröner- The music manager.
One of ‘the young kids’, started at SellaBand as the first intern and refused to leave the company. Is famous for his creations at lunch, hence his alias ‘Food & Beverage Consultant’. When he’s not in the SellaBand office he’s probably watching bands in one of Amsterdam’s great live venues.

Pim Betist - Co-founder.
Pim is the guy who had the original idea of SellaBand and who made the call to Johan and Dagmar at SONY Music to get some feedback. Instead of getting feedback he got himself more than that, two partners wanting to start this company.

Producers – Some of the producers who have already worked on SellaBand albums include Tony Platt (AC/DC, Bob Marley), Steve Bush (Stereophonics, Corinne Bailey Rae), Peter Denenberg (Deep Purple, Spin Doctors),Sylvia Massy (Aerosmith, Skunk Anansie, Red Hot Chili Peppers), Mick Glossop (Van Morrison, The Waterboys), Malcolm Burn (Emmylou Harris, Patti Smith), and Greg Haver (Manic Street Preachers, Mel C).

What’s the Goal Amount?
The Goal Amount is the amount in US Dollars that an artist has to reach to get to the studio. There are two different Goal Amounts: $50,000 and $100,000. The number of Parts in an Artist is equal to the Goal Amount divided by $10.00.

What is a Part?
A Part is a declaration of faith in the artist and their music. The price of a Part is $10.00,- (ex transaction/admin fees).

How do I join SellaBand?
Go to the Sign Up page, fill in your name and e-mail-address and follow the instructions.

What does it cost me to join SellaBand?
Nothing! Yes, SellaBand is totally free, no entrance fee or anything else.

Can anyone be a Believer?
Well, almost anyone. Believers are music-fans that come to SellaBand and have found an artist they like and believe in. With $10.00 (ex transaction/admin. fees) you can buy one of 5,000 or 10,000 Parts of that Artist's music. Once you have officially registered yourself and have donated $10 on an Artist's account, you have officially become a Believer on SellaBand.

Can I invest in more than one artist?
Yes, you can. In fact, you can buy Parts in as many artists as you like as long as you make sure you have enough money left in your bank account to buy food and pay the rent.

Can I still join in after an artist has reached the $50,000/$100,000?
No, once the Goal Amount has been reached, all parties involved will be notified and the so called 'Gate' closes. So, if you hear an artist you like and believe in, just make sure you buy your Part(s) in time before the gate closes!

How do I report abuse?
If you find something on the website offensive or abusive, let us know by sending an e-mail to info@sellaband.com

Can I get my money back?
Yes. Until the Goal Amount ($50,000/$100,000) is reached, you can move your Part(s) from one artist to another. You can also press the big shiny refund button and get your money (minus a small transaction fee) transferred back to your bank account.

What’s happening with the money of the Believers?
The money of Believers is vested in an escrow account, so we can’t use it to buy any new and shiny cars. We can only get money from this account once an artist has reached the Goal Amount to pay the recording costs and to pay out money to Believers and artists.

Can I lose money on SellaBand?
No. Your $10.00 will only be used when your Artist of choice has reached the Goal Amount. When this is the case the artist will record a CD. An exclusive version of the CD will be sent to your home. Before the Goal Amount is reached, you can take your $10.00 and move it to another artist. Or you can withdraw your $10.00 (or whatever number of Parts you have bought) altogether.

What if the artist never gets to the Goal Amount?
No worries. You can always move your part to a different artist or you can press the refund button on your overview. Your money will be back on your bank account (minus a small transaction fee) in no time.

Can I deposit more than $10.00 on my SellaBand account?
Yes, you can. You can use this money to buy more parts later or buy products in the SellaBand Store. By the way, the more Parts you buy at the same time, the less you will pay for transaction costs.

What about transaction costs?
If you want to buy a Part ($10 per Part) in an artist on SellaBand, we offer several payment possibilities. Because every artist's budget is made up of exactly $50,000 or $100,000 dollars, it is imperative that each Part is exactly $10. Transaction costs are not included in that figure. Transaction costs include the costs of administration, fraud check, and a fixed fee for your bank or credit card company. Normally when you shop online, transaction costs are included in the total price but because of the unique character of the SellaBand program, we show the amount of transaction costs as a separate cost. By the way, the more Parts you buy at the same time, the less you will pay for transaction costs.

Why does SellaBand use the US-currency?
SellaBand.com is open for artists and music lovers from all over the world. And let's face it, there's not many places in the world where the $- sign is unheard of.

But I also see some artists with the Euro as currency
These are all artists from Germany and Austria who signed up with SellaBand.de. This version of SellaBand is targeted on Germany and Austria, two countries that have the Euro as their currency.

Can I use my dollar account to invest in “euro” artists?
Yes, you can. The price in dollars will be calculated with the current exchange rate.

What’s in it for me?
It can be quite rewarding to become a Believer in an artist on SellaBand. First of all you’ll receive eternal love, hugs and kisses from the artist. The next reward is all the kudos you’ll get from your friends for not just discovering the next big thing, but also for making it possible. Still not enough? Fine, you’ll also get a unique, only available for Believers, limited Edition of the CD sent to your home. And there are more exclusive goodies available if you want to buy multiple parts of an artist. And finally, the financial component, as every Part gives you a share of the net revenue of the music sales. This share is equally divided by the number of Parts an artist has, either divided by either 5,000 ($50,000) or 10,000 ($100,000). And by buying a specific number of Parts you can also earn on from the publishing revenue.

How can I earn money as a Believer on SellaBand?
Once an artist has recorded and released a SellaBand album, we’ll make it available via our partners. This means the music will be available for people to buy on Amazon, BOL.com, iTunes, eMusic etc. The net revenues generated with these sales will be split between the artist and the Believers involved on a 50/50 basis. In the case of a $50,000 artist, this means that for every Part you own you’ll earn 0.01% of the net sales revenue. And if you have five parts in this artist you’ll also receive 0.01% of the publishing revenue.

But what do I earn as a Believer from selling the music?
Well, 50% of the net revenues. Net revenues are the gross revenues minus costs related to the sale. These costs include manufacturing, mechanical royalties, distribution warehousing etc. It’s hard to get it more concrete than that due to different price ranges with different stores, changing costs and changing exchange rates. But to give you an example, if we sell an album via www.sellaband.com for $12.50, the Believers collectively will earn approximately $2.50 for every CD sold.

OK, but what kind of return can I expect?
Honestly we can’t tell you, and we won’t. It will depend on what artists you believe in and how successful they are.

Will I keep get getting revenues till the end of time?
No, that’s a little too long. You and the artist will share the revenues for a period of 5 years after the release of the album.

How can Believers get a cut of the publishing revenue?
SellaBand makes available 25% of its publishing revenue (that’s 10% of the total) for the Believers. For every full percentage of the Parts you have in an artist’s future recording you’ll get 1% of this share, e.g. 0.01% of the total publishing revenue. In the case of an artist going for $50,000, this means you get another 0.01% for every five parts you invest. With an artist going for $100,000, you’ll have to divide the percentage by two.

What is publishing about?
This is about the rights of an actual song, not a recording of a song. So it concerns not the performer(s) of a song but the composer(s)/lyricist(s) of the song. There are several ways publishing revenue is generated. The first is when a song is performed (played on radio, performed live, shown on TV etc.). This is what we call performance royalties. The second one is a fee for every reproduction of a song (download or on a physical product like a CD). This is what we call the mechanical royalties. A third important one is licensing royalties. These are generated when a song is licensed to be used in, for instance, a movie, TV commercial or game.

And is the revenue share the same with $50,000 or $100,000 artists?
No, as there are twice as many Parts in an artist’s future recording when the target is $100,000 instead of $50,000. Thus the revenue and publishing share per Part will also be divided by two.

Artists get a fee out of the recording budget? Why, how much is it and when do they get it?
Once the album has been recorded the artist wants to get out there and promote it. To do this properly you need money to go on tour, make posters, hire a promotion team, etc. Most artists don’t have the funds themselves to pay for these activities. And it would be a shame if the music didn’t get any proper promotion. Therefore, we think it’s pretty logical that artists get a fee out of the recording budget to do just this. The fee is 10% of the recording budget (e.g. $5,000 or $10,000) which should be enough to get the ball rolling for an album. Artists will get the money as soon as the album is finished.

And SellaBand also gets a fee out of the budget? How much and why?
SellaBand has a team of people working full-time to assist the artists record the best album as possible. They also co-ordinate and administrate the budgets and manufacturing process to make sure that every Believer dollar is spent wisely. To cover these costs SellaBand gets 10% from the recording budget.

How and when do I get my money?
At the end of each quarter we take our phones off the hook, set our mailboxes to out-of- office, lock the doors and windows, dust off the old abacus and get counting for a couple of days. After we're done counting and dividing-up the money, we'll deposit the money you've earned on to your balance. Why is this done on a quarterly basis and not real time? We need to take into consideration bounced credit card payments, charge backs and the fact that most of our partners work with quarterly statements.

What can I do with the money I’ve earned?
You can buy some new Parts in other artists, buy stuff on SellaBand or you can have it paid out to your own bank account. You do this by clicking on the big shiny Pay Out button on your SellaBand overview page. When you request a pay out, $1.50 will be deducted to cover the costs of the payment provider.

What’s the Goal Amount?
The Goal Amount is the amount in dollars that an artist has to reach to get to the studio. There are two different Goal Amounts: $50,000 and $100,000. The number of Parts in an artist is equal to the Goal Amount divided by $10.00.

Why did you make it possible for artists to raise $100,000? $50,000 is already more than enough, isn’t it?
Well for some artists $50,000 is enough, but others many need more for budget to hire extra musicians, rent more studio time for pre-production or recording for instance. And some will use the extra budget to create videos or other promotional tools.

Is every artist eligible for the $100,000?
No. Every artist is free to go for $50,000. But if an artist thinks they need a bigger budget, it can be requested.

So which artists are eligible for the $100,000?
Artists who have a proven track record. This can be either having successfully gone through the SellaBand program before (i.e. having raised $50,000), or having released a previous album that has sold more than 10,000 copies.

How does an artist apply for the $100,000?
They can fill in send an e-mail to info@sellaband.com. Our team of music experts will check out the artist and get back to them with an answer as soon as possible.

SellaBand wants to break down the barriers of the music industry by letting the fans decide who’s going to record and who’s not. Aren’t you killing this by implementing ‘filtering’ at the door?
No we’re not. First of all, everyone can go for the $50,000 goal without any filtering by SellaBand. And second, the music lovers on SellaBand will always decide who record and who does not, by buying Part(s) in the artists they like.

But isn’t it a safer bet to put your money in a $100,000 artist as there’s twice as big a budget so the end result will be much better?
No. Having a bigger budget isn’t a prerequisite to getting a better album. You have to like the songs and the artist, because if you don’t they could even spend millions in recording and you still wouldn’t like it.

$50,000 & $100,000 are both big amounts, do you really need so much to record an album?
Not all money out of the budget is used for the actual recording of the album. 10% of the budget will go to the artist as a ‘do-as-you-please’ marketing/promotion fee. 20% will be used to manufacture and post the incentives for the Believers (the CDs and other stuff they’ll receive for buying Parts). And there’s a handling fee for SellaBand of 10% to cover the costs for overseeing and co-ordinating the recording process. This leaves an actual recording budget of $30.000 or $60.000 respectively.

Isn’t $30.000 or $60.000 still a lot of money to record an album?
We know you can record music in your own basement on a laptop and spend much less money. But our philosophy is that we don’t want you to just tape another album, we want you to produce the best possible album you can with the help of a professional producer. And while everybody can record sound, only a few good men and women can produce great records. And they use particular studios and certain equipment to reach a high level recording. Obviously there are costs involved in making this happen.

The artist has reached the $50.000/$100.000 now what?
We’ll get in touch with the artist, to see what the ideas they have about their music. The next step will be to put the artist in touch with potential producers and studios. Once the producer and budget are agreed and finalised, the artist can start recording the album. After the recording is completed, the album will be mixed and mastered. When that is done we’re ready to manufacture the CD. As soon as the special Limited Edition of the CD is ready we’ll send it to you and the other Believers of the artist.

What happens with my money when an artist decides to leave SellaBand?
Your money will be deposited back on your balance. You can choose to get a Part in a different artist or to get your money back.

Can an artist leave at any time?
Yes. There are no strings attached. The only obligation for an artist is to record the CD once the goal amount is reached.

What’s this incentive program?
The idea behind the incentive program is to give (potential) Believers an extra reward for buying a Part or multiple Parts of an artist, next to the non-tangible rewards like the revenue share and the emotional reward of being part of the creation of an album. All incentives are stuff you can only obtain if you’re a Believer in the artist; a unique limited edition version of the CD, an award, or even a flight to the studio to see and hear the artist record the album.

Is an artist allowed to offer extra incentives to get more believers (for instance for the first 1.000 believers signed photos, free concert tickets, etc.)
Yes, they're absolutely free to do stuff like that. In fact we think it's a great idea.

Why don’t you have banner ads on the website anymore?
We honestly think that most banner ads are pretty ugly and don’t enhance the look or feel of a website. But more important than our own opinion is that we’ve changed the concept a bit and that artists and Believers no longer share in the ad revenue of the website, so there’s no reason to keep them.

So Believers and artists earn less?
No. Instead of 1/3 of the net sales revenue, both will receive 50% of the net sales revenue. Because we’ve changed the term of the agreement, Believers will earn on sales revenue for five years instead of two years. And artists will now receive a fee out of their budget directly paid to them once they’ve recorded the album.

Can Label a re-release/license my album
Yes, several artists have licensed their SellaBand albums to traditional record labels, however as they have not had to raise recording advances from the labels they have been able to negotiate much better deals.