Ingrown Records and Fest 10th Anniversary Year
Donation protected
I want to share a very heartfelt love letter to a large part of my life for the last ten years. I started Ingrown Records with some of my best friends back in 2011. I have been giving it my all ever since to make it the biggest and bestest little old label it can possibly be. We have come a long way, but it hasn't always been easy and we are still struggling to find our footing.
First and foremost, I wanted Ingrown to be a potential home for all of my friends and their amazing musical projects, and eventually I wanted to ask some of my favorite musicians to join, as well. I also wanted to meet all kinds of creative folks and discover fresh and interesting new music, and I really hoped to help share some of that music with the world. It has been the absolute blessing of my life to have been able to accomplish all of that with Ingrown so far, something I honestly never thought was fully possible. Hundreds if not thousands of people now know what Ingrown is, what we are all about, and it's not just because of me. I am eternally grateful to our customers and supporters, which most likely includes you reading this, without whom we would never have made it this far.
It was a rough beginning but we had some very high hopes! We started with the radio show in 2010 and were hosting events by 2011, but it took us until 2013 to start getting around to physical releases. I put thousands of dollars in to trying to make the label a reality in the early years. Countless tape deck failures, late night promo email sessions, getting to know artists and kindly offering/ begging them to release stuff, papercuts, trips to Kinkos or Staples or Fedex or OfficeMax, broken cassette tapes, ripped or crooked tape label stickers, dinged vinyl corners, heavy-handed post office trips, and both empty and fairly crowded music venues fill the photo memory banks of my experiences these last ten years. That's nowhere near the entire story of Ingrown, but a mere glimpse into what went on. The true story that resounds within me, is ultimately what I feel has become our legacy: this beautiful family of friends and all of the amazing releases we have helped facilitate, create, and share with one another. The friendships really are everything. Underneath it all, with love, will always be the music.
I am perfectly understanding of the fact that the harsh reality that is 2020 has not been kind to hardly anyone. I myself had a very serious health scare back in February, March, and April and have since had financial issues popping up left and right. All of my teaching and freelance work is gone so almost all of my income is going to food and housing. I have been thinking a lot about how to justify keeping the label going. I really, truly, do want to keep Ingrown going for as long as possible, so I refuse to give up just yet!
The time has finally come to officially ask you all for help. 2020 has thrown a wrench in our plans and we need funds for our 10th anniversary year! Money willing, we do have a plan in place for next year where we hit 50 physical releases, 200 radio shows, and hopefully, get to host our sixth Ingrown Experimental Music Festival in the fall. The only problem is we need all the help we can get to make all of these things a reality.
I estimate the following costs for Ingrown in 2021:
$3,000 - 10 physical cassette releases, pro-dubbed in realtime Hi Fi
$1,000 - To the Ingrown Music Festival Fund for space rental, artist gas + food stipend, technology costs
$1,000 - Web Domain Costs, Packaging and Delivery, Flyers, Promo, Stickers and other Merch, Contingency Funds
Any and all assistance in helping us reach these goals would be forever appreciated!
I'm only asking for one half the costs as I think I might be able to come up with the rest myself if I can keep my full time gig for one more year. Any additional funds raised after offsetting these costs would fund additional releases and events, such as our television and radio show Aura Borealis, or our new radio program Ingrown Radio. We are of course still inviting support through our Bandcamp page, and donations can be made via Venmo or Paypal as well. Money isn't exactly available for most people to spare at the moment, so we are welcoming any and all methods of support. Of course even a few dollars would help us tremendously, but word of mouth, social media shares, blog posts or radio play are all great ways to get Ingrown, well - more known!
Thank you so much to each and every one of you for taking the time to read this. Your support is not only appreciated, it is cherished forever and carried with me in the heart and foundation of the label. Let's keep Ingrown alive.
With love always,
"Raw Ryan"
IngrownRecords.com
AuraBorealis.TV
IngrownRadio.com
First and foremost, I wanted Ingrown to be a potential home for all of my friends and their amazing musical projects, and eventually I wanted to ask some of my favorite musicians to join, as well. I also wanted to meet all kinds of creative folks and discover fresh and interesting new music, and I really hoped to help share some of that music with the world. It has been the absolute blessing of my life to have been able to accomplish all of that with Ingrown so far, something I honestly never thought was fully possible. Hundreds if not thousands of people now know what Ingrown is, what we are all about, and it's not just because of me. I am eternally grateful to our customers and supporters, which most likely includes you reading this, without whom we would never have made it this far.
It was a rough beginning but we had some very high hopes! We started with the radio show in 2010 and were hosting events by 2011, but it took us until 2013 to start getting around to physical releases. I put thousands of dollars in to trying to make the label a reality in the early years. Countless tape deck failures, late night promo email sessions, getting to know artists and kindly offering/ begging them to release stuff, papercuts, trips to Kinkos or Staples or Fedex or OfficeMax, broken cassette tapes, ripped or crooked tape label stickers, dinged vinyl corners, heavy-handed post office trips, and both empty and fairly crowded music venues fill the photo memory banks of my experiences these last ten years. That's nowhere near the entire story of Ingrown, but a mere glimpse into what went on. The true story that resounds within me, is ultimately what I feel has become our legacy: this beautiful family of friends and all of the amazing releases we have helped facilitate, create, and share with one another. The friendships really are everything. Underneath it all, with love, will always be the music.
I am perfectly understanding of the fact that the harsh reality that is 2020 has not been kind to hardly anyone. I myself had a very serious health scare back in February, March, and April and have since had financial issues popping up left and right. All of my teaching and freelance work is gone so almost all of my income is going to food and housing. I have been thinking a lot about how to justify keeping the label going. I really, truly, do want to keep Ingrown going for as long as possible, so I refuse to give up just yet!
The time has finally come to officially ask you all for help. 2020 has thrown a wrench in our plans and we need funds for our 10th anniversary year! Money willing, we do have a plan in place for next year where we hit 50 physical releases, 200 radio shows, and hopefully, get to host our sixth Ingrown Experimental Music Festival in the fall. The only problem is we need all the help we can get to make all of these things a reality.
I estimate the following costs for Ingrown in 2021:
$3,000 - 10 physical cassette releases, pro-dubbed in realtime Hi Fi
$1,000 - To the Ingrown Music Festival Fund for space rental, artist gas + food stipend, technology costs
$1,000 - Web Domain Costs, Packaging and Delivery, Flyers, Promo, Stickers and other Merch, Contingency Funds
Any and all assistance in helping us reach these goals would be forever appreciated!
I'm only asking for one half the costs as I think I might be able to come up with the rest myself if I can keep my full time gig for one more year. Any additional funds raised after offsetting these costs would fund additional releases and events, such as our television and radio show Aura Borealis, or our new radio program Ingrown Radio. We are of course still inviting support through our Bandcamp page, and donations can be made via Venmo or Paypal as well. Money isn't exactly available for most people to spare at the moment, so we are welcoming any and all methods of support. Of course even a few dollars would help us tremendously, but word of mouth, social media shares, blog posts or radio play are all great ways to get Ingrown, well - more known!
Thank you so much to each and every one of you for taking the time to read this. Your support is not only appreciated, it is cherished forever and carried with me in the heart and foundation of the label. Let's keep Ingrown alive.
With love always,
"Raw Ryan"
IngrownRecords.com
AuraBorealis.TV
IngrownRadio.com
Organizer
Raw Ryan
Organizer
Annandale, VA
