Protest The Hero are known as a progressive band. With their record label contract up, and the band decided to take a progressive step in recording their new record, by going directly to the fans and asking for them to help fund the album. The page has been up for less than a day, and currently the band has $130,000 in funds (of their $125,000 goal).
How did they do it? Creativity!
First off, the band made an incredibly entertaining video explaining why they need the money:
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/57246728[/vimeo]
Additionally, this solicitation for money is unique from other solicitations in that they were offering really cool things in exchange for donations. The base donation of $10 is basically a pre-order of the album, digitally. $25 would get you a CD digipack, as well as a thank you in the digipack.
As the donation amounts got higher and higher, the band got more creative. For $150 bucks, bassist Arif would send you a postcard for an entire year. For $400, frontman Rody Walker would write a song based on a topic of your choosing, and in a stroke of genius, if you donate $5000 to the band, you could play on the album. Two people have already claimed that, so we know there will be some guests.
Any way you slice it, the band came up with the funding for their record in less than a day because they have build a loyal following for the better part of the last decade (no doubt with help from their major label contract) but the band have smartly kept fans in on their fun and thus it allowed them to go to their fans for support to record the new record. Kudos to Protest, and I can't wait to hear the new material.
If you'd like to donate to Protest the Hero, click here.
