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Hi all. A year and a half later, I thought our contributors might like to know the state of things in terms of our Indiegogo campaign, which so many of you contributed to, and which has enabled us to make inroads at several new places, including Rhino/Warner Bros. (where we currently have fifteen titles locked up - but which you know is a very long and slow process due to the change in approvals - for any Warner Bros. film Warner Bros. also has to approve packaging - that used to not be the case - and we've had one project sitting on a desk since last June - approved by Rhino then, and basically replicating exactly the LP release, and yet, there it sits nine months later), and now Sony, which we're very excited about. So, in those regards, the money raised has been put to excellent use.
So, here are some interesting things we've learned along the way:
Of the nearly four-hundred contributions we are down to fifty-six people who still get CDs, which means that all the other contributors fulfilled their perks. And after Two for the Road is shipped, that number will go down by at least ten, and by the end of this year, the active list will probably be closer to twenty people. I know it's been a very good deal for all concerned, but not so good for us in certain ways.
One kind of disastrous decision was giving free International postage - the free US postage was okay, but when we did the campaign, International was expensive but it's gone up approximately five dollars since then and we basically are giving away those CDs for free - not only a great discount but fourteen bucks of free shipping - it's actually costing us money to send those and over the year and a half, that's thousands of dollars. Would never do that again under any circumstances.
I know the opt-outs and ins were very important to people and I was ultimately happy to do them, but had no idea of how people would take advantage of it and what a pain in the butt cheeks it would be. We have one contributor who has literally opted out of every release - we are returning their money because I frankly don't ever want to see their name again. I mean, if out of the eighteen or twenty releases we've done since the campaign closed if you can't find one title worth ordering, then we're not the label for you. Others have opted out of more than half of what we've issued. It's daunting to always have to deal with that many opt-outs - as many as fifty to one hundred per title in certain cases. Not sure what the answer there is.
But I've gotten so many wonderful e-mails from folks for whom the campaign contributions worked perfectly - great discounts on the CDs themselves, the free shipping, etc. and never having to really worry about missing a title. In fact, I cannot tell you the number of people who've asked us if they could re-up of if we'd do a new campaign. I haven't really considered re-ups at all and certainly I haven't considered a new campaign, although, again, I've had many requests, some from people who weren't around for the initial campaign. I suppose it's something to ponder if I felt there would be sufficient interest, because lately I've also been thinking about two very specific scores I would like to record, in addition to going after more titles with new sources (money really does talk - go in waving a big check, they like you instantly).
So, mostly I feel this was a big success for all of us. Some hard lessons learned, of course, and one person did cleverly game the system and got an extra ten CDs, but I was impressed by how cleverly they did it, so no worries 
If anyone has thoughts and/or suggestions, would love to hear them, and again many thanks to those who came along for the ride. One final thing: There are about twenty to twenty-five people whose perks ended with the previous title, who may think they're getting Two for the Road but aren't. I've asked the helper to e-mail those folks, and I've put aside emergency copies in case they'd like to order - they'll be given those instructions within that e-mail.
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I'm not sure how many people you had with no changes at all (i.e, those who went with your in/out decisions on each title). Perhaps no one but me. But if there were a significant number who did that and wanted to play again, perhaps you could resurrect something like the subscription program that FSM used to have. For example, for one (hopefully discounted) pre-payment you get all of the next 10 soundtrack releases (or non-soundtrack releases, or both types of releases). No opt-outs allowed. You'd have the money up front and a guaranteed floor of sales for upcoming titles. To avoid having to keep track of new people entering the program (thus having staggered exit dates), you could establish a sign-up deadline. Sign up by such-and-such a date and you get the next ten releases. Miss that date and you have to buy them as they come out, at regular prices, until the sign-up time for the next batch.
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I have had nothing but positive experiences with this campaign, mostly because I've liked every film score release. The only titles I've opted out of were those that I already had from the Herrmann box set.
I know that my subscription is about to run out in about three or four releases right now, and I personally would love to sign on for another ride like this one. I would even like to extend this if that were possible.
I would like to keep the opt-out choice available, however.
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I must be on Bob's ignore list.
Just wanted to second the motion, using the FSM subscription series as a second (and earlier) example. The FSM differed from the Varese in that it was open-ended. The Varese differs from my proposal in that you were only billed as each CD shipped, rather than pre-paying so that Kritzerland has the funds up front.
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Some very interesting suggestions here - appreciate them very much. Believe me, I understand about the opt-outs and how appealing that is - but I can also tell you it's daunting to keep track of and a huge amount of extra work. I think figuring out how to keep that function (should we ever do this again, or if I find a way to do re-ups) would be key - and I kind of like the suggestion of perhaps an expiration date so that the opt-outs could not go on forever.
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I've been very happy with the campaign and used up all the CDs I had coming. I sort of wish I had contributed more money.
I hope Kritzerland can sneak in a few Fox & Paramount Golden Age CDs.
" ..... I've also been thinking about two very specific scores I would like to record....." Yikes!
I just keep hoping that Kritzerland, or any other label, might be able to release Elmer Bernstein's Where's Jack?(1969). Maybe the tapes still exist in the Paramount vaults or elsewhere, who knows? But finger's crossed! In the meantime I'm grateful for a lot of what is still coming out from our beloved labels.
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Me, since it was released on Rhino I'm hoping that one of the upcoming releases is Andre Previn's magnum opus Four Hoursemen of the Apocalypse. Complete.
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I'm not sure how many people you had with no changes at all (i.e, those who went with your in/out decisions on each title). Perhaps no one but me.
I also never did opt out, and in fact I opted in on a couple of the show-oriented albums. (It was indeed with Two for the Road that I had to start purchasing again).
But that's the thing. Kritzerland is a label that works for me because I have at least some interest in every genre Bruce releases. So I went ahead with items I might not have bought outright. And to be honest, I haven't listened to everything I've received yet, which is not the way I like to roll but happens. I do intend to listen to them all, and I'm glad I have them.
This seems to me the problem with the program - it worked perfectly for me - I even upped my contribution toward the end because I loved the idea of the lower-cost CDs and pre-blind purchases. And this is from someone who resisted the temptation to participate in FSM's gold and silver aged clubs years back. But doing it this way, as Bruce has said honestly, caused some real headaches because it was only ideal for some of us.
The thing is, even with less generous perks - like required opt-ins, or only X dollars shipping for free, etc. - I would have been happy to participate. But I wonder how much interest you would have gotten without the easy-to-understand perks you did have, and if it would have been worth it.
I'd sign up again in a heartbeat, probably no matter how the offer worked. (I did also participate in the Varese disc-per-month club, so maybe this just hits my sweet spot now in a way it didn't used to.)
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I've been very happy with the campaign and used up all the CDs I had coming. I sort of wish I had contributed more money.
I hope Kritzerland can sneak in a few Fox & Paramount Golden Age CDs.
" ..... I've also been thinking about two very specific scores I would like to record....." Yikes!
I just keep hoping that Kritzerland, or any other label, might be able to release Elmer Bernstein's Where's Jack?(1969). Maybe the tapes still exist in the Paramount vaults or elsewhere, who knows? But finger's crossed! In the meantime I'm grateful for a lot of what is still coming out from our beloved labels.
Niall, I think you, I and Cody should march over to Bruce's office and demands some answers to our questions!
Joking aside, I bought WHERE'S JACK? when it came out. Love the score, would buy a CD in an instant. In the meantime we have Elmer's SONS OF KATIE ELDER to look forward to.
Where's Jack seems to have baffled a lot of labels - I believe it's owned by Universal? As to Elmer, I believe we've done a healthy number of Elmer scores, including several world premieres. He is one of our most represented composers, maybe THE most represented.
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I've been very happy with the campaign and used up all the CDs I had coming. I sort of wish I had contributed more money.
I hope Kritzerland can sneak in a few Fox & Paramount Golden Age CDs.
" ..... I've also been thinking about two very specific scores I would like to record....." Yikes!
I just keep hoping that Kritzerland, or any other label, might be able to release Elmer Bernstein's Where's Jack?(1969). Maybe the tapes still exist in the Paramount vaults or elsewhere, who knows? But finger's crossed! In the meantime I'm grateful for a lot of what is still coming out from our beloved labels.
Niall, I think you, I and Cody should march over to Bruce's office and demands some answers to our questions!
Joking aside, I bought WHERE'S JACK? when it came out. Love the score, would buy a CD in an instant. In the meantime we have Elmer's SONS OF KATIE ELDER to look forward to.
Where's Jack seems to have baffled a lot of labels - I believe it's owned by Universal? As to Elmer, I believe we've done a healthy number of Elmer scores, including several world premieres. He is one of our most represented composers, maybe THE most represented.
Thanks for replying Bruce. I hope that you might someday release some more Bernstein titles, and many thanks for the splendid ones that you have released. According to the IMDB the Where's Jack? copyright is owned by Oakhurst Productions (Stanley Baker's company) and it was made in association with Paramount Pictures, but who really knows what the true situation is nowadays?
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