What Your Support Means
Here's where I say, "Thanks!"
When I hop in the car and drive home from my commute from work, I look to the radio to provide me weather forecasts, local news, and a familiar song to help me unwind from the stress. I take my hair band off, turn on the A/C, throw on my favorite pair of purple shades and head home. I never really take time to think about how much all it all costs. All I know is that I either pay for it by listening to advertisements (regular radio) or by subscription costs (like National Public Radio, which is about $15 bucks a month).
But let's take a look at how much it costs me (the artist) to get one song written, mixed, mastered, and distributed. Then, let's include video and photography (pre-advertising costs). Mind you these are costs before I even get one song to you or put the song on the market. I write this not to bore you, but to kind of explain the economics of things.
Guitar | $2000 |
Bass | $2500 |
Computer | $5000 |
Reference Monitors | $800 |
Microphone & Stand | $550 |
Cables & Interfaces | $300 |
Mixing, Mastering | $1200 |
Distribution | $20 |
Photography & Videography | $1000 |
Total | $13,370 |
So, that's how much it costs to get one song finished. If I make an entire album, costs can easily exceed $20K. And those are justifiable costs. Note: I didn't pay myself, or a tax lawyer, or a copyright fee, or a host of other things to ensure I can make something out of the intellectual property in the future. I didn't even include the cost of pressing the vinyl record. Suffice it to say, the cost (and believe me this is modest) for making an album can exceed $30K. Many Tier 1 albums cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to get right.
What I'm getting to here, is that's how much your support means to me. It keeps me going. It shows me you care and are invested in keeping ROCK alive!
Every dollar I get keeps me afloat. You believe in my music so much, that you'd rather fund everything yourself, rather than have someone steal the dream (see Ronnie James Dio's words on this). You know the costs are rather high. And that's why it takes so much time to get it to you. Your day job funds my day dream.
So, Thanks for your $20 bucks! I can help get things to you faster and at less personal expense. So, thank you dear friends, for sending me your hard earned money and trusting this process. Just recall, this is my second time through and I know a bit more than I did last time.
It will take a few months to get everything finished, and when I do, you'll get your personally signed vinyl pressed album with songs on it you can't find anywhere else in the world months ahead of anyone else.
Do you remember KISS ALIVE II? It was the Love Gun tour. But on the back side of the second disk, there were songs on it from the studio you couldn't find anywhere else. I'm not saying you'll get two disks. But I am saying you'll get music no one else will get well ahead of the album's official release. Well before I start advertising.
And you'll get some videos where I team up with Ken Manning and Phil Thomas Katt, as well. This is very exciting.
What else is exciting? I'm pulling a band together so we can take the show on the road. That's right! You'll get to see Hook, Line & Sinker live!! This way, we can drive ticket sales to support the album and offset costs. We'll start small and local and see where it goes. I'm very excited to begin now that there's so much material to show you.
Thanks so much for your support. I'll attach a link so you can get your pre-order here. Expect to see this ask at the bottom of each blog for a little while.
Click here to GET YOUR PRE-ORDER!
Love & Rockets,
Russ