This album will only be available to Matthew Ebel dot net All-Access and VIP members for a while, so if you want your copy the second it’s out of the oven you’ll just have to grab a membership at www.matthewebel.net.

Now Available on iTunes

Buy it for yourself or use the iTunes Gift feature to make this a virtual stocking-stuffer for anyone who needs a good laugh this Christmas season.

Buy Now via iTunes…

However, if you’d rather get all of these songs as soon as they’re released, it’s not too late to sign up! Every All-Access or VIP Pass holder gets new music from me every single month. You can sign up at http://matthewebel.net/subscribe.

sellaband.com/matthewebel

That’s all changing. SellaBand is becoming less like a make-your-own record deal and more like a straight-up micro-financing site for musicians. I’m excited about this and more convinced that this is how I want to finance my next album. Read on for details…

Major Changes at SellaBand

They finally posted their plans on The SellaBand Site, but I’ll give you a breakdown of how this will affect you (my fans and investors) and me (the guy making all the noises in the studio)…

The Goal Is Now $10,000

Actually, the goal can be anything from $10k to $100k, it’s up to me (and you). I made Goodbye Planet Earth for about $5,000 including duplication, so two or three times the budget would mean I could hire a real engineer, more than one other musician, and maybe even a producer to help me improve my sound.

I Can Set My Own Incentives

Now I can add things like remixable tracks, posters, stickers, house concerts, or whatever I want as incentives to invest. Want to contribute $500 to the cause? You’ll get the deluxe box set with a video documentary about the album’s creation. $1,000? I’ll write you a custom song. It’s all up to me (and you) now!

Revenue Sharing Is Optional

Most of you who signed up have already told me you don’t care about the .01% (or whatever) of the net revenue you’ll get from album sales. Good, ’cause that posed two problems: It’s an accounting nightmare to keep track of all that. Also, it meant I had to sell exclusively through SellaBand’s store so they could do the payment processing. Fortunately…

I Can Use CD Baby, iTunes, and Amazon

I can distribute the album any way I want, which means it’ll still be available via iTunes, CD Baby, and at live concerts when it comes out. If there’s revenue sharing involved, it’ll be up to me to handle the accounting, but SellaBand is now willing to trust the artists to run their own business. Shocking, no?

“Artists will always own the master recordings and keep 100% of publishing rights.”

I put that in quotes ’cause the direct line from SellaBand is explanation enough.

Sellaband’s Fee: 10% of the goal

They will not keep any revenue from CD sales, just a tenth of whatever goal I set. Sounds fair to me considering I’m already at $5,000.

That last comment is the important one… Your contributions have put me at about $5,000 right now- exactly what it cost me to produce my last album. If we can double or triple that budget, I could create something truly stunning. I think Sellaband could be the best thing to happen to indie albums since the iTunes Music Store.

These changes won’t be enacted for another month or so, but I’m assuming it’ll take me longer than that to generate enough cash to produce “Songs for Geeks” (or whatever I’m calling the next disc).

WILL YOU HELP ME GET THERE?

Photo by Barton Creative

Ebel accomplishes something far more impressive: the songs, though catchy and great in isolation, are even more strong when listened to as a cohesive album… There are reprises, melody replications (where they makes sense), and the layout of the tracks was undoubtedly intentional.
YouMakeMedia.com

This was also posted on the album’s page in the iTunes Music Store. Very cool!

[tags]Matthew Ebel, piano rock, youmakemedia.com, Goodbye Planet Earth, album, review, iTunes, iTunes Music Store, iTMS[/tags]