A Sound Of Thunder – Kickstarter Fund Raiser

Update added – 10/31/13

As of this morning ASoT have passed both their initial funding goal of $10K and their first stretch goal which was $12K, meaning they will record a cover of the Manowar classic “Pleasure Slave”. But, this thing isn’t over and the next stretch goal at $13K is easily within reach, which will bring the world a live feed of the ASoT CD release show! Very cool for all of you who won’t be able to make it in person to the show. But, that’s not all; if the fund breaks $15K the band will commit to a tour of the West Coast of the USA, so let’s make that happen, alright? You know that would be a good thing, right? Who knows… if this train keeps rolling, what could they do if they hit $20K… a European tour perhaps??? Wherever this fund ends up, think about it…. this fund has already well exceeded that raised by many so called “name” bands! Go ASoT!

Original post follows:

So, unless you live under a hedge and have done the same for the past 20 years, you’ll know that the music industry basically doesn’t exist in anything like the same size or shape as before, and consequently most bands have to “do it themselves”. Gone are the days of record advances and marketing budgets. Welcome to the new austerity of the modern digital age. Whether you blame Napster for the beginning of the end, or any one of the other umpteen other file-sharing sites (or even all of them…), once it became possible to share an almost perfect digital copy of a music recording, then the bottom fell out of the music industry. Whereas once-upon-a-time a record would sell 10’s of thousands of copies in the first week or so, now the total sales of an album may only reach the low 5 digits. Why anyone wants to be a musician these days is a question to ponder?

But, the good news is there are still people that enjoy making music and insist on releasing it to their fans. The trick now is figure out how to afford to do this? Strangely, the exact same mechanism that led to the music industry downfall is now providing at least a partial solution to the conundrum – bring on the internet and “funding sites”. Some of these sites are more focused on arts, while others provide platforms to raise money for people who fall on hard times, and other just seem frivolous, but many work and raise large dollops of hard cash. Of course musicians and bands have jumped at the chance to promote new projects and put their hand out for a few Dollars here and there, in return for various “rewards”. Often you’ll receive an advance copy of the album and your name in the “Thanks” section in return for a $25 pledge or similar which is pretty cool, especially if you’re already a fan, but equally, these funders are becoming a way of discovering bands and music you might never have come across and helping them with a few $$$.

So today I want to highlight local favorite, “A Sound Of Thunder” and their latest fund-raiser, for their new album, “The Lesser Key of Solomon”. They have already completed the basic tracking of the album on their dime, but now they need some help to get the thing in the can and pressed up for public release. Their previous release, “Time’s Arrow” was also funded in part by a fund raising campaign, so once again we’re back on Kickstarter with a great array of rewards, all of which stack to give you a bountiful array of goodies in response to your pledge. Their target is $10K, which is a big number of course, but just 4 days in, the fund currently stands at $6,303…. wow! Pretty good, huh? However, as with all these fund raisers, the first couple of days are always busy, and then things calm down and pledges become much less frequent.  The band gets nervous and it all becomes a guessing game – will they reach the funding target or not. The issue here with Kickstarter is the fund is only “released” if the target is reached… miss it by just $1 and you get nothing!

So my message today is to please think about putting in a pledge. Just $8 will get you a digital copy of the album… $15 a physical limited edition CD and more. I won’t repeat the rewards here, so head on over to: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/asoundofthunder/a-sound-of-thunder-the-lesser-key-of-solomon

If you are a metal fan and want to help keep this music alive, drop these fine folks a pledge so they can get this next record finished up!