The Orchard Live

 

And The Winners Are... 

 

 

After several weeks of  round after round of nail biting nominations and voting, to rival anything currently happening State Side, we’ve reached D-day. Hundreds of votes have been cast, our blood pressure has certainly gone through the roof  (and that’s nothing to do with over indulgence at Christmas time), and it’s time to announce the winners.

To remind you briefly, Second Person and Francis Rodino will be joined live on stage by 2 Artists, one voted for by the Believers, and the other selected from the runners up by The Orchard. The 10 finalists were announced in the Christmas Day Tribune and the past couple of weeks have been a flurry of votes and pleas. We had a pretty obvious winner almost from day one, and despite a brief stint in second place over the weekend, there’s been a clear favourite.

So, with no further ado, the winner of The Orchard Live presents SellaBand, live show in Ginglik, Central London, on 28th Feburary is…..drum roll…..KAITEE PAGE!!!!!

With an amazing 462 votes at close of competition today, Kaitee was home and dry with an 80 vote lead.  We’ve tried to get hold of Kaitee today so she could add a few words but she is incommunicado, doubtlessly out celebrating! Congratulations Kaitee!

And The Orchard were soon on the case listening to the 9 runners up…and, after much deliberation, have made their selection. So more drum rolls… and congratulations… to TRAIL!!!! The fourth act on the bill. As Simon Lait, of The Orchard UK, reported: “After some heated arguments in the office we decided on the band that we thought had that little something extra. We've gone for a band who, we think, sound really exciting and modern, and we envisage a great future for them - it seemed like a fitting choice for the night!”

 

So, we are very proud and excited to announce that the final line up for The Orchard Live gig in London on 28th February will be:

Second Person, Francis Rodino, Kaitee Page and Trail.

Unquestionably a brilliant brilliant line up.

So, many of you will be itching to know how to get your hands on tickets for the gig. Ginglik is a small venue so capacity is limited with only 200 tickets available, at GBP5 each. 100 of those tickets will be made available exclusively for Believers on the condition that they are collected in person on the day of the show. If not, then they’ll be put back on sale. So this is what you do:

-    Send an email to concert@sellaband.com with your name(s). We can allocate a maximum of 2 tickets per Believer. So you can either get a single ticket  (GBP5) or a pair (GBP10).

-    Once we have 100 names you’ll be alerted that no more tickets are available in pre-sale i.e the only way then to get tickets in to turn up on the night and get in the queue!

-    A member of the SellaBand team will be at the venue from 3pm – 5pm  on the day of the gig, 28th February, so you can collect and pay for your ticket(s) N.B GBP CASH only.

-    If you do not collect your ticket(s) then it will be returned to the box office for sale later on that evening.

If you don’t manage to get one of the 100 tickets all is not lost. Make sure you get to the venue early and get in the queue! Box office will be open from 6pm.

Doors:8pm; no entry after 12.30am; show closes 1am

Address: Ginglik, 1 Shepherds Bush Green, London, W12 8PH

Opposite Shepherds Bush tube Central Line

Ginglik telephone number: +44 208 749 2310

We’ll publish all these details again closer to the date.

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A Solid 50K Artist...

Early on Sunday morning we welcomed our lucky number thirteen: Solidtube (only the fourth band from main land Europe!) officially became a SellaBand Recording Artist. More than a year after signing up, but the Austrians are just as proud as all the other artists. And rightfully so. Here is their story...

Dear all,

We have been asked to report on how that was, that "Route to 50k for Solidtube", so we will try to tell you, tell you mostly in quotes from some people involved in this amazing journey so far.  

We like to start with a quote from the amazing artist Jess King, which she sent out, shortly after we had reached this important 50k step on that ladder to climb up:  

"Watching Solidtubes' 50k video today nearly brought tears to my eyes. I really am just so happy for them, their music comes straight from the heart - and it's warms mine to know they've made it." - thank you Jess, for describing, what we feel ourselves, not because of the video, but because of the journey behind us. We hope, that 2008 will become 'your' year as well!  

When we look back on the highlights - not really on the downfalls, but for everyone reading this, be sure there have been many - we think the first highlight have been these early 100 parts form the still today mostly unknown believer "pp" very shortly after 6 month of having registered a profile on SellaBand, but just had decided to give it a serious try. In June we had one of our intimate concerts in the "Casablanca" bar/venue, meeting and greeting for the first but decisive time our Believers MaWa, Walter Braunsteiner and Namor. In November, we had our real kind of breakthrough as a band with the "Roll over Austria" concert in Salzburg - a very very important experience for us. Want to have more highlights? The SellaBand deal with Amazon really surprised us very positively and that beyond the 100 part extra push ;), well, and we admit the really amazing final to the 50k is still kind of blurred for us, that was really one hell of a roller coaster ride. To everyone watching that: you can really be glad, that you not have been in that, like we have, we think it made all of us at least 10 years older, luckily only in total ;)

 

More quotes:

Mandana: "I am so happy, that we did it. Unfortunately I missed the final, because I had to be in the Operation-room and my laptop battery had given up already. I would never had thought, that we can make it. This is like a dream."

Mike: "50k, now, we are able to make a really great CD. It was a very special experience to come in contact with so many talented artists. Special thanks to Walter Braunsteiner and MaWa. I admit, I underestimated the potential of SAB in the beginning."

Docnik: "It was an amazing and thrilling journey with all the ups and downs, I will forever remember this party feeling in the final. I started SAB out of fun, it turned out to be serious very quickly, what I hope will remain is the connection to the great people I had the pleasure to meet through SellaBand. And a special mention please to  Mysti Mayhem and her cover version of "Welcome to Africa" - show her some love!"

And, last but not least, this is what "The Boss" wrote coming out of his holidays:

JohanV: "And here we are in 2008. Woke up this morning, only to find Solidtube in the Recording Artist Section as well. I love these guys for their endurance, musical talent and their business skills. Keep a serious eye on these Austrians, they might become a shining example for other aspiring artists on this platform. Plus they had been around for more than six months before they really started to dig SellaBand and went for it. Again, this could be a lesson for other bands as well, as Mark Knopfler would say: Here on SellaBand you don't get Money For Nothing..."  

In essence, we second this statement, and so we look back on the way behind us, but more on the road in front of us. We think, we have planned the tasks ahead of us as good as we could so far - off course there are always things still to define in detail - and now it is about making a stunning and amazing record with our producer  Pete Strobl. And than, we need to go with all we've got and this means: business. We will keep all of you updated, because as of now: we are Business Partners - and trust us: we take that very seriously.   

Thank you SellaBand for making this possible, thank you to all our believers - we will not disappoint you!

Rock'n Roll !!!

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Adam’s Apples (1)

Skitzo Calypso

 

This LA band appear to have everything together. A well developed sound built around excellent songs and their collective strengths as musicians and singers are perfectly channelled in smart and effective arrangements. They're already establishing themselves as part of the SellaBand Community ("The S.C.") and are attracting Believers fast. Dead certs for $50K before you know it.

Playlist: The Sickness Of Dreams

Civilized Tears

 

Tim Bennett is a very interesting man. He conceives, writes and sings all Civilized Tears' music with the assistance of collaborating musicians in the UK and USA. He has also lived a rich and full life - maybe what makes his music so good is that he's really got something to say. So go listen to something very special indeed.

Playlist: Black Rain

Weekly Update

 

 

Welcome in 2008!

A new year has begun and we feel it is going to be an important one. Maybe not a make or break 12 months, but crucial nonetheless. There are some cool events coming up, new partnerships commencing and more artists recording their SellaBand album than ever before. Speaking of which... The first batch of new releases are expected in February and we plan to launch them in a big way! 

The new year comes with a resolution as well: in 2008 SellaBand, the company, will strive to be as open and transparent as we possibly can. Without making the competition any wiser than they already are (we have spotted at least 6 new initiatives with frightening similarities to our concept in the last two months), we will give you more tools and information that will keep you up to date on things. Sales information, for example (see elsewhere on this page), but also on Believers numbers, total sums of money invested in artists on SellaBand and proof that the escrow account does exist. For the latter, we refer to next week's Tribune which will contain an official statement and written evidence that your money is indeed safe with SellaBand.

But it's the music that counts even more. Your music is safe with us as well. As a company we have embraced the tag 'music label of the future' and we know there is already quite a reputation to live up to. No less than 5 acknowledged and renowned trend watchers and - gurus have included us on their list of companies/trends to watch in 2008. In other words, the pressure is on, it's up to us to deliver...

 

Chart Analysis

With a Final Countdown that they can be really proud of, Solidtube say goodbye to the Weekly Charts with a whopping $8,000+ in their final week. Equally impressive is the more than healthy $3,000+ that Skitzo Calypso collected in their first week on SellaBand. Less than a week in fact, because they only joined last Thursday, but still end up at #2 on the Weekly Chart. Thomas Boissy is still going strong and being the new overall #1, we can expect his Final Countdown to start any ttime now. Another impressive debut at #4, for Civilized Tears an ambitious band currently based in the U.K. One overall comment: There is no Biggest Gainer this week, because apart from Solidtube, none of the acts on this week's chart actually went up. They went either down, stayed where they were or disappeared. Which explains the high number of new entries; no less than 50%. Including our Special Mention of the week: the fine people from Private Nation. They've been absent for quite some time (and had their reasons for it), but look at them now: more active than ever before and, completely revigoarated, they jump in at #13 on the  first Weekly Chart of 2008...

 

The Week That Was

It was the week in which a New Year began and musically, it began with a BANG! Solidtube at 50K in the early (European) hours of Sunday, becoming the first of hopefully a big number of SellaBand Recording Artists in 2008. And judging by the very high quality of a healthy number of brand new arrivals, this promises to be a very exciting year for new music. And some of these newcomers are diving in head first on the Forum, the profile pages and promoting us outside of our own platform. Just the way we like it. And for all of those newbies who would like to know what could become of you once you have joined the ranks of the SellaBand Recording Artists: Here's a link to an episode of very popular Dutch TV-series Onderweg Naar Morgen (yes we admit, it's a soap-series...) Fast forward to a little over twelve minutes in this program and they are playing a beautiful duet: Nemesea featuring Cubworld: The Way I Feel. Could this collaboration become our first serious HIT SONG of the Year...?

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Limited Editions now also in stores...

 

As of this week*, SellaBand has a new offer for Believers: To sell your superfluous Limited Editions via third parties. Our Music Director Dagmar Heijmans tells you about why, when and how it all works...

 

Availability of LE's
Many of you have been asking what's happening with the Limited Editions. More specifically you wanted to know how many of them have been sold and how many are there still available. We wanted to give you an answer, so we used the quiet holiday period to count all the stock we have of the Limited Editions of Nemesea, Cubworld and Second Person, and after some recounting, due to an overdose of alcohol and food, we came to these numbers; of Nemesea there are still 2.791 albums available, of Second Person 3.527 and of Cubworld 3.596. So that means that there still quite a few available.

How to sell more? 
Sure you can do something about it yourself by promoting your artist(s) even more, but you're probably promoting the keys out of your PC already. So we've decided to look for ways to help you on this. As you all know we have a sales and distribution deal with Rough Trade (Benelux) and just signed one with  Amazon.co.uk and soon more will follow. All these parties are very interested in selling your Limited Editions. We did an experiment with Rough Trade in the Benelux. For this experiment we've asked a small number of Believers if they were willing to cooperate in the program. The thing they had to agree with was a lower revenue per sold Limited Edition as there are more costs involved for the physical distribution and we don't want to sell them for $30,-. And it's a huge success, Rough Trade has sold three times more Limited Editions than regular editions. And that was just the Benelux. Amazon.co.uk is currently pre-ordering the albums of Second Person, Nemesea and Cubworld and it appears now that the Limiteds are more popular there too. We don't have exact numbers of them yet, but it's really encouraging to see that Nemesea is currently at #43 out of nearly 800 albums to be released on January 21st. 

I Want That Too!
Ok, so now you want to know how you can have yours sold by Amazon and Rough Trade and Co. For the albums which haven't been released yet - excluding the ones for which you've already indicated how many you wanted to sell via sellaband.com- it's easy. On your profile page you can indicate how many Limited Editions you want to sell through SellaBand, and then indicate if you want us to sell via third parties or not.If you're offering Limited Editions of Nemesea, Second Person and/or Cubworld, Clemence, Lily, Maitreya and/or Mandyleigh it's slightly different. For these albums you can indicate if you want us to offer them to third parties or not. The default option is 'yes', but if you choose 'no', nothing happens, and your Limited Editions will still be available at  www.sellaband.com.  The deadline to make your choice is February 1st, which we realise is not far off , but we're running out of Limited Editions.

Oh, and what can I earn?
An important question, that's isn't that easy to answer. For the sales of Limited Editions on SellaBand nothing changes, so $11 for the Believer and $1- for the Artist. For the sales through third parties (and sales at concerts, festivals, on tour, etc.) it all depends on the discounts they have to give to retailers and the exchange rates. This especially makes it hard to give you an exact number. But you'll receive 90% of the net profit and the Artists receive the other 10%, so it looks right now that your earnings will vary somewhere between $7- and $8,-. But they can be slightly lower and higher. OK less per CD compared to a sale on SellaBand, but rather a little less on a lot than a lot on a little, or next to nothing. And if you want to ensure yourself a bigger revenue you have to either promote the hell out of your own profile page to sell your own Cd's there or  don't sell them through SellaBand and use other ways. 

 

* An e-mail will go out later this week to all Believers concerned, to announce that this new feature has been added to your profile page.

 

Office Powerplay

Anna: Civilized tears -  Blue Sunrise

Dolly: Skitzo Calypso - Lennon

Alix: Trail – House of Regret

Pim: Skitzo Calypso - Lennon

Dagmar: Civilized Tears - Blue Sunrise 

Rey: Civilized Tears - Blue Sunrise 

Johan: Civilized Tears - Blue Sunrise 

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Adam's Apples (2)

Silvertung

 

Listen to Slow Me Down - it might just have made me a "Tunger". I'll admit it's a little generic but isn't most good hard rock generic anyway? This band from Baltimore, Maryland play hard and really do sound like they mean it. There are vocal harmonies too - but thankfully nothing too pretty. Let's see some live video footage soon.

Playlist: Slow Me Down

 

Alison Stereo

 

Rising from the ashes of Dutch punks The Regiment comes Alison Stereo, a more mature version of the old band with a rockier edge. On the strength of the rough but extremely likable One More Second 2 Go, Bart and Thomas' new venture is worth keeping an eye on.

Playlist: One More Second 2 Go

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