Camper Van Beethoven Funds Their SXSW Trip By Letting Fans Sponsor Songs At Their Performance

from the that's-a-nice-rtb dept

American rock band Camper Van Beethoven is traveling to South by SouthWest this year without the support of a record label, so in order to raise funds, they're selling off the right to choose the songs that go on to their setlist for the 2 shows that they're going to play. The first 35 fans to pony up $102 get:
  • A Santa Cruz Roller Derby Girl will walk/skate across the stage carrying a placard announcing your sponsorship of the song, within full view of the audience or cameras, to have the moment captured on film or video for all of eternity!
  • You can have up to 4 names or one business on each placard.
Sounds like an excellent leveraging of a few of the scarcities that we've mentioned here before, in this case, attention, exclusivity and patronage. With the "Santa Cruz Roller Derby Girl," CVB's personality definitely shines through in this unique offer that should resonate nicely with their fans (in fact, I learned of this promotion via a friend sharing it through Google Buzz). So, once again, it's great to see yet another label-free band (who once was on Virgin, years ago, actually), explore new and creative ways to give their fans a reason to buy.
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Filed Under: business models, camper van beethoven, cwf + rtb, sxsw


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  • icon
    ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 18 Feb 2010 @ 5:22pm

    Fantastic idea

    I bet they sell out in a couple days.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Derek, 18 Feb 2010 @ 5:28pm

    Sold!

    So for $102, I can get Santa Cruz Roller Derby Girl to skate across the stage with my name on a card, plus they'll throw in some music!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    :), 18 Feb 2010 @ 6:24pm

    Copyleft.

    Its GPL or CC SA?

    http://wiki.creativecommons.org/RSS_2.0

    yah I know I will miss a lot of things, but the license is actually what I care about.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 18 Feb 2010 @ 6:44pm

      Re: Copyleft.

      They're encouraging you to vid it, so it seems to be defacto CC NC SA.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        :), 18 Feb 2010 @ 10:39pm

        Re: Re: Copyleft.

        Appearances can be deceiving.

        The webseries Riese got a lot of attention and now the guys who produce it made some deals with some entertaiment industry guy's and they told them to take the original episodes out from the web.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    martinpasha (profile), 19 Feb 2010 @ 7:39am

    CVB

    Aaah, Camper Van Beethoven! I am glad they still exist, haven't heard anything about them in years. I was listening to them as a teenager.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    jes, 19 Feb 2010 @ 5:52pm

    existence

    actually the weird thing is that CVB has existed *longer* since reforming in 2000 than we did in the 1980s.
    plus there's even new cds out!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Suzanne Lainson (profile), 8 Mar 2010 @ 6:05pm

    Read this interview to better understand today's music environments

    An interview with Jonathan Segel of Camper Van Beethoven.

    Some excerpts from the interview
    ___________

    I think we've all heard many pro and con argument regarding the vast potentials of digital distribution of music, or even that music is information and it should be free!* ...but the real outcome for musicians and most music-based business has been lowered income. ...

    Most of the musicians I read about who are in favor of "freedom of information" are either already wealthy due to hard-copy sales or never made a dollar ever. That's sort of classic supply-and-demand. Once again, capitalism rears it growth-oriented head: there is no such thing as sustenance level capitalism, it can only exist in a growth oriented market.

    To say that merchandising or concert ticket sales should pay for the creation and distribution of music is asinine. Take a quick look at the actual money made from these things -- it virtually precludes anybody from making money unless they are assured of having 300+ people per night for extended tour (and that the club is paying them!) How many bands can do that and how long can they do that? Rock music is ghettoized the same way jazz was. Imagine jazz musicians trying to monetize the music by means of merchandise. How could an act playing at nightclubs where ~50 people listen support a tour, much less further CD recording. The financial breakdown of time, equipment, musicians, travel, merchandise manufacturing, etc. means that almost all "professional" musicians you see, have seen or will see are basically hobbyists; their time and materials are almost never paid for by listeners. like 98% of them.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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