Help fund Third String Records!
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WHAT WE ARE TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH
We are attempting to be a completely different type of record label. In my opinion, the days of new bands needing absurd budgets for their first EP or LP are over. We live in a day and age where a band can self-produce their music, get a friend to take awesome promo photos, and hire a talented music video director for a fraction of the price they used to. All of this brings down the overhead of putting out a quality product.
In asking people to donate to our record label, we are combining personal investments, outside investor funds, and your donations to create a label where bands can be 100% debt free from day one. Call me crazy, but I believe with enough hard work, both the band and the label can make money and neither has to be greedy. Let me further break it down for you with this example...
Third String Records signs BAND A and is able to record their EP, get solid artwork and photos, music videos, and minimal advertising done for the release for $4000. This $4000 has already been invested into the record label from myself, other investors, and your donations. With our business model, bands will begin earning money from the sale of their first song or EP and the label will recoup expenses it put into the band WHILE paying the band to continue operating as a business. This means that the label will recoup it's money slower, but if the band works it's ass off, the label signs bands capable of selling music, and the label works it's ass off to promote them, the label will eventually make it's money back and then some. Is it a slower growth than guaranteeing a faster return? Yes. But we are building a community here in which the label and the artists are all sharing in the success and it's not just one person getting rich because they can front the funds for the album. Call me crazy, but I think it's a cool business model.
That being said, anyone from a $5 GoFundMe donating friend to a private investor that is willing to give us capital in return for a split of our profits and partial ownership in the company, makes a difference.
The only costs that bands will need to recoup with this label are the smallest of basic costs such as the initial cost of putting music online (about $50 a year I believe), the cost of printing CDs (about $1 per CD, usually less), and the cost of printing any t-shirts we agree to release together (about $3 - $8 depending how complex).
We want to change bands from slaves to debt, to partners in profit. I know we are just the smallest of small labels, but I hope our efforts to help the artists more than ourselves is noticed and does good for this industry.
If you are interested in making a larger or private donation in return for equity and a position with the company, you can email me [email redacted]
ABOUT MIKE ZIEMER
Thank you for allowing me to pursue my dream while also changing up the traditional way labels operate.
My dream for over 10 years now has been to start up a successful independent record label that is not just run by myself, but also the bands we sign. The bands we work with will have daily communication with me and participate in running the label with me. We will make decisions together, share profits, and create a community that is mutually beneficial for the musicians and myself.
In spring 2014 this dream became a reality when I decided to take my savings account and invest it into a band I love and am a big fan of, Dear You. On October 14th, 2014 the band released their EP "I Can Only Blame Myself" which became the first release on this record label called Third String Records.
I first fell in love with music while I was in high school. One of the biggest things I always noticed was the importance of the record label. For me, if Vagrant, Drive Thru, Epitaph, or Victory was putting it out back then, chances were I was going to love it. It was easy to have faith in those labels to sign awesome bands after all the great bands that made their labels well known. That sort of faith in a record label is what I want to bring to the scene with this new venture. My plan is to sign great bands that write great songs. I am not limiting the label to any genre or location.
For years I have promoted concerts under the name Third String Productions and festivals such as South By So What?! and Unsilent Night under the name Third String Festivals. It only felt right to give back to the bands I love by helping them reach the next level of their career.
I decided to bring the fans into this as an opportunity for them to also be a part of the label, it's not about needing a certain amount of money to run a label, it's about building a responsive and engaged community that is just as much a part of what we are doing as the bands and the people running the label.
We are attempting to be a completely different type of record label. In my opinion, the days of new bands needing absurd budgets for their first EP or LP are over. We live in a day and age where a band can self-produce their music, get a friend to take awesome promo photos, and hire a talented music video director for a fraction of the price they used to. All of this brings down the overhead of putting out a quality product.
In asking people to donate to our record label, we are combining personal investments, outside investor funds, and your donations to create a label where bands can be 100% debt free from day one. Call me crazy, but I believe with enough hard work, both the band and the label can make money and neither has to be greedy. Let me further break it down for you with this example...
Third String Records signs BAND A and is able to record their EP, get solid artwork and photos, music videos, and minimal advertising done for the release for $4000. This $4000 has already been invested into the record label from myself, other investors, and your donations. With our business model, bands will begin earning money from the sale of their first song or EP and the label will recoup expenses it put into the band WHILE paying the band to continue operating as a business. This means that the label will recoup it's money slower, but if the band works it's ass off, the label signs bands capable of selling music, and the label works it's ass off to promote them, the label will eventually make it's money back and then some. Is it a slower growth than guaranteeing a faster return? Yes. But we are building a community here in which the label and the artists are all sharing in the success and it's not just one person getting rich because they can front the funds for the album. Call me crazy, but I think it's a cool business model.
That being said, anyone from a $5 GoFundMe donating friend to a private investor that is willing to give us capital in return for a split of our profits and partial ownership in the company, makes a difference.
The only costs that bands will need to recoup with this label are the smallest of basic costs such as the initial cost of putting music online (about $50 a year I believe), the cost of printing CDs (about $1 per CD, usually less), and the cost of printing any t-shirts we agree to release together (about $3 - $8 depending how complex).
We want to change bands from slaves to debt, to partners in profit. I know we are just the smallest of small labels, but I hope our efforts to help the artists more than ourselves is noticed and does good for this industry.
If you are interested in making a larger or private donation in return for equity and a position with the company, you can email me [email redacted]
ABOUT MIKE ZIEMER
Thank you for allowing me to pursue my dream while also changing up the traditional way labels operate.
My dream for over 10 years now has been to start up a successful independent record label that is not just run by myself, but also the bands we sign. The bands we work with will have daily communication with me and participate in running the label with me. We will make decisions together, share profits, and create a community that is mutually beneficial for the musicians and myself.
In spring 2014 this dream became a reality when I decided to take my savings account and invest it into a band I love and am a big fan of, Dear You. On October 14th, 2014 the band released their EP "I Can Only Blame Myself" which became the first release on this record label called Third String Records.
I first fell in love with music while I was in high school. One of the biggest things I always noticed was the importance of the record label. For me, if Vagrant, Drive Thru, Epitaph, or Victory was putting it out back then, chances were I was going to love it. It was easy to have faith in those labels to sign awesome bands after all the great bands that made their labels well known. That sort of faith in a record label is what I want to bring to the scene with this new venture. My plan is to sign great bands that write great songs. I am not limiting the label to any genre or location.
For years I have promoted concerts under the name Third String Productions and festivals such as South By So What?! and Unsilent Night under the name Third String Festivals. It only felt right to give back to the bands I love by helping them reach the next level of their career.
I decided to bring the fans into this as an opportunity for them to also be a part of the label, it's not about needing a certain amount of money to run a label, it's about building a responsive and engaged community that is just as much a part of what we are doing as the bands and the people running the label.
Organizer
Mike Ziemer
Organizer
