Sellaband

Sellaband

Type of site	Social network / Music
Available in	English, German, Japanese
Owner	Sellaband GmbH
Created by	Johan Vosmeijer, Dagmar Heijmans
URL	http://www.sellaband.com/
Registration	Required for buying parts, not required for listening

Sellaband is a music website that allows artists to raise the money from their fans and the SellaBand community in order to record a professional album. Sellaband uses the mechanisms of crowdfunding and is to be seen as a Direct-to-Fan/fan-funded music platform utilising a Threshold Pledge System / Provision Point Mechanism. It was set up by Johan Vosmeijer (ex Sony/BMG), Pim Betist (ex Shell), and Dagmar Heijmans (ex Sony/BMG) in August 2006. Its offices used to be located in Amsterdam, Netherlands, but it was originally incorporated in Bocholt, Germany.

On April 8, 2008, Sellaband raised EU€3.5 million (US$5 million) in their Series A round led by Prime Technology Ventures.

In early 2009, Pim Betist left Sellaband to set up Africa Unsigned, using Sellaband technology as a base and supported by the Dutch government.

In January 2010, Sellaband filed for Bankruptcy. It relaunched days later, after an investor stepped forward. The office was relocated to Munich, Germany.

SellaBand 2

On October 1, 2009, SellaBand launched a new model that gave artists total flexibility in their fan funding plans and did not take rights. Any artist, signed or unsigned, could use SellaBand to fund any project. The new model also incorporated the change, that artists are free to choose how much money the want to raise. The minimum funding target is € 3000,-- and the maximum funding target is € 250.000,--. Artists can also choose if they want to integrate a revenue sharing option into their funding. The minimum incentive is a download.

Artists can now choose different project objectives they want to fund:

• music recording;
• record releases (digital/physical);
• promotion and/or marketing campaigns;
• live concerts / touring / festivals;
• an exclusive fan product;
• a combination of all of the above;

On June 1, 2010, SellaBand launched a German version of SellaBand.

On August 27, 2010, SellaBand announced that the Dutch Central Bank (DCB) got in touch with SellaBand to investigate whether or not the 'withdrawal option' at SellaBand was a violation of the law on financial supervision (Wet Financieel Toezicht/ Wft). From day one the DCB stressed that they were never under the impression that SellaBand was willingly violating the law. After a couple of months of investigating they came to the conclusion that it is a violation of the WFT (article 3.5 of the WFT) and that SellaBand, since SellaBand isn´t and is not going to be a Bank, has to stop the withdrawal option. SellaBand then had stop the offer to withdraw money deposited to SellaBand from September 1, 2010 on. However, revenue earned with investments made in SellaBands artists can still be withdrawn from a SellaBand account

On August 30, 2010, SellaBand announced that the lead currency would be changed from US$ to € after September 1, 2010.

Believers

Individuals interested in supporting Sellaband artists do so by buying "parts" in them. Believers can purchase any number of "parts" in a single artist or "parts" in multiple artists.

Until all parts are sold, the money collected from Believers in exchange for artist "parts" is held in an escrow account managed by a third party (Dieter Roesing, Rechtsanwälte und Notare, Bocholt), regulated under German Law, and cannot be accessed by Sellaband or the artist. Any interest accrued during this period is kept by Sellaband. During this time Believers may sell back any number of "parts" they have in an artist, which are re-deposited into the Believer's Sellaband account, and buy parts in other artists. No money deposited in Sellaband can be refunded to a Believer, but only used to buy parts in another artist, although any revenues gained on the platform can be paid out to a PayPal account upon request. Once the target is raised, the Believers' funds are committed to the artist and the Escrow Agent transfers the funds to Sellaband for the recording project, less 15% administration fees.

Partnerships

In December 2007, the company announced a partnership with Amazon.com. This was initially for the UK but has been successfully repeated with Amazon in Germany and USA.

In March 2009, SellaBand announced a deal to launch in USA with Chuck D’s music company, BTN (Bring The Noise) Management, in which the former Public Enemy front man will function as Sellaband’s "US ambassador."

In June 2010, SellaBand formed a partnership with Soundcloud giving artists the ability to import the music they have on their Soundcloud account into SellaBand without additional uploads.

Events

Since its inception, Sellaband has conducted several Official concerts in Europe.

• "New Years Party" (January 2007), the Paradiso, Amsterdam, NL
• "London Calling" (June 2007), Gibson Studios, London, UK
• "Sellabration - Birthday Party" (August 15, 2007 & 2008), the Paradiso, Amsterdam, NL

Other Unofficial SellaBand events have included:

Sellaband artist appeared at "Concert At Sea" festival (June 2007) held in Brouwersdam, NL. In addition, a number of concerts in Europe, Australia, and the United States have been organized through the collaboration of Sellaband artists and believers.

Sell-A-Jam “One Night In Boston” took place on January 25 at Boston's Paradise Lounge and featured Sellaband recording artist Lily Vasquez, with Sellaband listed artists Jon Robert and Delco, Jess King, and Wetwerks. The Sellaband Rio Grande Festival, was held in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico on February 22 and February 23. On the 13th of November 2009 Rave 'n Rock artists Resistor headlined “Resistor presents Sellaband Live” at Amsterdams Club Panama with Sellaband listed artist Hangover Sunday and the Dial -a- Poets.

Artists who reached their goal

Currently there are 86 artists who reached their goal already. In December 2009 Cubworld was the first artist, closing his second budget. Less than two weeks after bankruptcy, Aryn Michelle was the first artist, closing her budget under the new SellaBand-management. In October 2010 Epyllion closed the first budget on Sellaband that is not used for recording new but for promoting of already released music.

In October 2010 Hind was the first Sellaband artist, reaching a top 10 entry. Her album Crosspop started on No. 8 in the Dutch charts. She was also the fastest funding artist on SellaBand managing to collect 40.000 EUR within 11 days.

Public Enemy was the first major artist to sign up for SellaBand with a target of $250,000 in $25 increments. After a disappointing effort Public Enemy lowered their target to $75,000. They achieved this total on 28 October 2010.

There are over 700 artists currently registered on Sellaband raising funds.

The following table shows the most notable artists that reached their funding goal on SellaBand:

#	Artist	Budget	Project aim	Closing date	Country	Notes
1	Nemesea	$50.000	Album	2006-11-02	Netherlands	first artist ever to complete a funding on SellaBand
2	Cubworld	$50.000	Album	2007-12-01	United States	first artist ever to complete two fundings on SellaBand
3	Julia Marcell	$50.000	Album	2007-10-05	Poland	first eastern European artist to complete a funding on SellaBand
4	BulletProof Messenger	$50.000	Album	2007-21-12	United States	artist with most believers on SellaBand
5	Electric Eel Shock	$50.000	Album	2008-25-06	Japan	first Japanese artist to reach a funding goal on SellaBand
6	Hind	€40.000	Album	2009-12-06	Netherlands	collected €40.000 within 11 days and charted on #8 in the Dutch charts
7	Epyllion	€1500	Promotion	2010-10-20	Canada	first artist raising funds for promotion of an already released record
8	Public Enemy	€59.100	Album	2010-11-28	United States	first established artist raising funds on SellaBand
9	Jonathan Davis	€25.000	DVD	2011-04-14	United States	lead singer of KORN and first artist raising funds for a [DVD]
10	John Coffey	€4.000	Album	2011-10-23	Netherlands	first hardcore punk band that completed a funding on SellaBand
11	Lana Wolf	€3.000	Album	2014-07-05	Netherlands	artist that will record a country album in Nashville

See also

• Comparison of crowd funding services
• Crowdsourcing
• Music 2.0
• Netlabel
• Social commerce
• Web 2.0

References

• BBC Radio 2 Interview (The Weekender with Matthew Wright - 3 November 2006)
• The Times (UK): Knowledge Section (26 November 2006)

External links

• Official website