https://thebluegrasssituation.com/read/fink-marxer-gleaves-connecting-songs-connecting-stories

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Crowdfunding is engagement that builds a sense of community. Community engagement is as important as the money.

Your communications planning is the heart of that engagement.

Don’t underestimate the time commitment. A one-month campaign involves three months of work.

Pre-campaign promotion and commitments are essential to success

Average contribution is $50. Thus, if you want to raise $20,000, divide by 50 to see how many donors you need – 400 in this case.

Economics: of the money raised: 57% net revenue. You need to bring in $16,000 to clear $10,000

Personal asks by the artist are essential. We are coordinating the artist’s campaign. The artist is not just the face by the leader of the campaign. People want to support the artist, not the publicist.

Have a private opening two days before public campaign

Build a content timeline and plan the number of touches

Have at least one song completed before starting.

Think big. Upsell. Don’t underprice perks.

Track and cross check data from email lists, social media, donors, web store customers

Continue to incentivize throughout campaign, keep offering more perks

Use the lowest goal that works.

            High goal does not mean more money; it is the % of the goal that is most important

            Get 30% of the goal lined up before the campaign goes live. This comes from the inner layer of your community.

Pitch

            Answer who, what, why

            Tell the story in two minutes: 30 seconds to grab attention and 90 seconds for the meat

            Close with a strong call to action and expression of gratitude

            Break up text

Video

            Hand held, up close and personal works best

            Show what is going on behind the scenes

            Spend your money on promoting the campaign – not on video production

            Remember that people have short attention spans 2 to 3 minutes

            Show who you are

            Be energetic and to the point

Perks

            Do not use t-shirts

Promotion

            This is where to spend money

            Maintain  constant, stable tone across all platforms

            #1platform is email

            #2 is social media

            #3 is advertising

Penny Parsons won an IBMA award for her collaborative biography of Seckler

Shortly after noon central time, Curly Seckler one of the last living links to pre-World War II southern music, died on December 27, 2017, two days after his 98th birthday. Curly began playing music professionally in 1935, more than a decade before he would become a bluegrass music pioneer. In 1938, Charlie Monroe hired him shortly after the Monroe Brothers’ streams diverged. Even before the 21st Century began, Curly had already played music professionally in seven decades.

Even when he was little older than I am now, he seemed to me of an early time, of music played in school houses, bars, and drive-in movie theaters. Like his friend Doc Tommy Scott, Wade Mainer, Aunt Samantha Bumgarner, Dellie Norton, Howard Armstrong, Norman Woodlief, or Joe and Odell Thompson. He could connect you to a time you’ll never know, in a place that hardly resembles what they knew.

Tennessean obituary for Curly Seckler (December 25, 2017)

Bluegrass Today obituary for Curly Seckler (December 25, 2017) 

No Wonder Millennials Hate Capitalism https://nyti.ms/2kq324J

44 percent of millennials would prefer to live in a socialist country, compared with 42 percent who want to live under capitalism. For older Americans, the collapse of Communism made it seem as though there was no possible alternative to capitalism. But given the increasingly oligarchic nature of our economy, it’s not surprising that for many young people, capitalism looks like the god that failed.

Nowhere is that clearer than in the wretched tax bill passed by the Senate in the early hours of Saturday morning, which would make the rich richer and the poor poorer.

Singer Rhiannon Giddens keeps winning with a ‘Genius Grant’ and $625K

http://www.newsobserver.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article178174231.html

Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn let their award-winning music reflect these ‘interesting times’

But on “Echo in the Valley,” Fleck’s upcoming third album as a duo with his wife, Abigail Washburn, Fleck winds up in the surprisingly traditional realm of protest music
http://www.newsobserver.com/entertainment/music-news-reviews/bluegrass-raleigh/article175768106.html

Upcoming Shows

9/30/2017 – Rev. Billy C.  Wirtz

10/7/2017 – Red Clay Ramblers 1990

10/14/2017 – Scott Ainslie 1988 and 1986

10/21/2017 – Pierce Pettis 1989

10/28/2017 – Joe & Odell Thompson

11/4/2017 – John Dee Holeman & Fris Holloway 1985 & 1989

11/11/2017 – Seldom Scene 1988 set one

Classic Eno Festival Live airs each Saturday at 11 AM Eastern on WHUP-LP 104.7, Hillsborough, NC, streaming at www.whupfm.org

The previous two weeks episodes stream at https://whupfm.org/show/classic-eno-festival-live/ 

Lunny will be honoured for his contribution to traditional music, and his career as a founding member of Planxty, The Bothy Band and Moving Hearts. The award has gone in the past to Pete Seeger, the American folk singer and activist, and Mavis Staples, the gospel singer and civil rights campaigner, as well as to Dylan.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/global-folk-leaders-honour-donal-lunny-m2qnrzwgl

No cover, all donations go to community radio station WCOM

Learn more via Aaron Keck’s interview of Art Menius on WCHL-FM 97.9 September 12, 2017