Music Dish

Grammy-Nominated Artist and Voice Of CDBaby Successfully Crowdfunds Latest Record on RocketHub

 

Portland, OR -- (SBWIRE) -- 10/12/2010 -- Portland, Oregon-based Hello Morning successfully completed an innovative fundraising campaign to support the release of their upcoming album. This talented quad utilized the power of crowdfunding to galvanize their fans through RocketHub, a revolutionary crowdfunding community developed for Creatives by Creatives. Hello Morning, described as "a monstrous band united by a common passion for creating big, epic rock songs," offered unique and personal rewards to their fans in exchange for financial contributions - including an "advance copy of the CD with a personalized Haiku" for $20, tickets to "a listening party at the studio where the album was recorded" for $100, and a custom written song for $1,000.

Crowdfunding establishes a web-based event that harnesses a musicians's network and audience for funds, awareness, and authentic feedback. RocketHub Co-founder and President, Brian Meece sums it up as "a new spin on an established idea: Beethoven + Social Media = Crowdfunding for the modern musician. Welcome to the re-birth of patronage." Hello Morning drove over 2,000 fans to their RocketHub page and created a wide buzz surrounding the new record. The band raised their financial goal in less than two months.

Kevin Breuner, member of Hello Morning, a Grammy-nominated artist, and the revolutionary voice of the CDBaby Podcast described the process as "a challenging experience (in a good way). It makes you examine every little detail about how you communicate to your fans. Crowdfunding is an idea that people in the music business have been talking about, but for most in the fan community, it's completely unheard of. You have to make sure you are communicating clearly with your fans and educating them on the process. It also makes you really look at your 'fan' list to determine the number of people on your list who are really the type of fans that are emotionally invested in your music - i.e. the type of fan that will want to throw their support behind the project."

Kevin also described the value that RocketHub provided to his fundraising effort: "To me, what sets RocketHub apart from other crowdfunding sites is their commitment to educating the independent creators on how to effectively manage and promote a crowdfunding campaign. My band, Hello Morning, would not have successfully completed our crowdfunding goal without their insight and advice. Their site functioned perfectly and we heard no negative feedback from our fan community concerning their interactions with RocketHub. I would definitely recommend their site to any creative considering a crowdfunding campaign."

Like a musical Voltron, the members of Hello Morning established their musical identities early on in groups such as Jonah, Boy Eats Drum Machine, Smalltown Poets, Sappo, and Chris Robley & The Fear of Heights. Now, these individual creative forces have come together as one to form Hello Morning - a monstrous super bad robot band igniting a laser blaze of camaraderie among them. Born amidst Portland, Oregon's famously burgeoning indie music culture, Hello Morning isn't hoping to mesh perfectly into the scene. While the Northwest is overflowing with plenty of folk, experimental, electro-pop, and other brilliant (and sometimes accidental) oddities, Hello Morning has developed a big, fresh sound, complete with big drums, cascading guitars and anthemic choruses. Their debut EP is something more akin to stadium rockers Muse, Starsailor, and Longwave… and at times, maybe a little closer to the aesthetics of Phoenix, Interpol, and even Keane on steroids. Recorded at Secret Society and mixed by Jeff Stuart Saltzman (Death Cab For Cutie, Menomena, Decemberists, Sleater-Kinney, Dolorean), Hello Morning's self-titled EP is being released on Timber Carnival Records and looks to be the first of several releases the band has planned for 2010.
http://www.HelloMorningBand.com

RocketHub is a grassroots crowdfunding community for Creatives by Creatives, founded by Brian Meece - singer-songwriter, Jed Cohen - actor/producer, and Vlad Vukicevic - tech-thinker/writer. RocketHub is a bootstrapped indie-company that is not backed by venture capital or other corporate investors. The concepts behind RocketHub stem from the founders' own personal challenges as creative people, therefore RocketHub supports a DIY-ethos that is welcoming and supportive to all Creatives from around the world. "We are the creative underdogs with a mission to liberate creativity through our platform and educational support. RocketHub is the center of the crowdfunding revolution and the foundation of the new creative economy."

http://www.RocketHub.com
http://www.RocketHub.org