Any parent, student, teacher, or academic booster that has sold candy door-to-door or spent hours of their weekend at a carwash or smoky bingo hall can tell you how dreadful fundraising drives can be. But they are necessary. Any worship team director might tell you their budget could always use a little enhancement for new equipment or expanded outreach. We love our programs, and we want to see them grow and succeed. Fundraising doesn’t have to be so bland. Live recordings of music related performances make great keepsakes. Studio albums aren’t always the right fit for every group but can work extremely well in the right context. So rather than spend time selling some completely unrelated product or service to raise necessary funds, why not make your program itself the focal point of your fundraiser?

One very popular option is to record a holiday themed CD such as the ever fashionable Christmas album. Because it is both relatively inexpensive and extremely personal, almost every member of the congregation or any parent with a student in band, orchestra, chorus, theater, etc. will have to have one. Plus these make great gifts for relatives. Unlike candy bars, magazines, or trinkets that are quickly discarded or forgotten, this would be a treasured memory that families and friends can enjoy for years to come. These projects require some advanced planning though. For a Christmas album example, product should be available for distribution no later than early December, though fundraising presales could still occur in advance of a release date. Turn times for delivery of physical CDs can take up to 4 weeks though it is possible to expedite at additional cost. Add a few weeks for recording and post production and mid-October becomes the latest realistic start date. So plan early. Estimate a couple of months in advance to be on the safe side.

Cost of physical CDs are relatively low even in short-run quantities. MediaBrain sources physical product through reputable third-party vendors that supply major recording artists and small organizations alike. Quality is professional at a reasonable price. A good ballpark estimate for CD and packaging cost might be $1-3 per unit plus MediaBrain’s recording fee. Most people will gladly spend an average of $15 on these types of items – especially since the proceeds benefit a good cause. There is a very realistic opportunity to triple your fundraising investment or better. Of course you should contact MediaBrain for a much more accurate quote as details such as order volume, packaging options, and delivery time have a big impact on final costs. MediaBrain understands these intricacies well – it’s what we do. We’ll work with you to come up with a plan that meets your goals.

So get creative with your fundraising efforts! You’ll be so much more excited and motivated to sell something that is important to you. Friends, family, and acquaintances will be eager to support something unique and meaningful to them. Make your next fundraising drive memorable and fun!

MediaBrain offers discount academic pricing and specialty rates for religious and non-profit organizations. Contact us to discuss what MediaBrain can do for your group.

It’s both an exciting and scary time to be a musician. The marketing reach of the internet provides independent artists the opportunity to share their art globally. Digital distribution such as iTunes and streaming services such as Spotify require very low overhead operating costs, so the potential for profiting from your music no longer requires such a large financial risk. Social networking, YouTube, and other avenues of digital promotion offer new ways of finding an audience and turning them into advocates to promote your work. And the possibilities for television, film, and commercial soundtracks have opened up more than ever. All of this empowers you, the artist, to be the master of your own destiny.

The downside of all this is that since anyone can reach an audience, it is terribly difficult to cut through all the noise. Plus attitudes on piracy and filesharing have made music a tough sell. It isn’t enough to simply put your music out there and hope fans will beat down a path to your door. You need a really great product and a very creative marketing angle. It requires thousands of hours of work and diversification of activities. It’s a marathon strategy as opposed to a sprint. Expectations of international superstardom and large bank accounts are unrealistic with the exception of a very lucky few, and even those glory days of the rockstar seem to be fading fast.

But you can make money doing what you love. Independent artists such as Pomplamoose and OK Go leveraged YouTube popularity into an advertising revenue stream, and they also turned that into digital distribution sales and royalties. Both bands started small with an internet presence, but they slowly grew and ultimately achieved commercial success. Pomplamoose was featured by Hyundai in a national television advertising campaign last year. You may remember OK Go from their last endeavor. It was a featured ad during the Superbowl. Musicians willing to do the work and think outside the box are finding a way.

So get motivated and start that project you’ve been putting off. MediaBrain will make it sound great at a reasonable cost. Working in the studio with a producer and other seasoned musicians and songwriters brings out the best in performers and that collaboration often sparks new ideas. MediaBrain will assist you to maximize your potential. And once it is done we offer free consulting for how to take advantage of the evolving marketplace. We want to see you succeed because. . . well it makes us look good too and MediaBrain could use the press! But seriously, the new music industry is a highly interdependent ecosystem. We either find a way to thrive together or we all go extinct. So let’s make music together!

The studio remodel is complete, and we’re back online. A lot of really great things have been happening over the last two months, and we’re very excited to share the news!

First, the new studio looks amazing and the recording light gleams like a beacon once more. MediaBrain facilities and equipment list have both been upgraded, and while the studio’s biggest asset is the talent running the desk, these tools streamline workflow and better help us maximize your potential. You’ll love the way your project sounds.

As you can see, the new website is live. Keep checking back for continuous improvements. For example, coming soon will be artist spotlight article series featuring musicians working with MediaBrain. We are also in the process of negotiating a songwriters open-mic night hosted by MediaBrain Records and Skinny Devil Music Labs. More news on that soon, but this will be a regular event for songwriters to socialize, network, share concepts, workshop, and perform their work in front of a live audience. The advance sign up sheet for performance slots at each event will be hosted on this website. Everyone is very excited about this event. Stay tuned for more details.

You can reach MediaBrain Records at either of the following URLs:

www.mymediabrain.com

www.mediabrainrecords.com

Also follow us on Facebook: facebook.com/mediabrainrecords

Lastly, the 2012 NAMM Show was a treasure trove of information. Meetings with Slate Digital, the MOTU team, AVID, and UA specifically yielded some wonderful insights as to how the industry will handle the future of digital audio. That knowledge will be put to work on your projects. Rest assured that MediaBrain works very hard to stay current with the latest technological developments. Just keep letting us take care of the techie stuff, and we’ll let you concentrate on the art of making music!

We’re working hard on our new website. Hang tight. We’ll be up and running shortly!

In the meantime, if you’d like to book time in the studio or discuss what we can do for you, please email us here.