Joe Ziegler is a musician who writes, records and performs his own music under two separate acts. He is seeking an investment of $25,000 in exchange for 7% equity in the both musical ventures.
The investment will be used to purchase essential equipment, fund artist development, rent practice space and hire a booking agent. Some of the investment will be set aside for future recording costs.
Our Mission
Our mission is to generate as much income as possible with original music while retaining creative and personal freedom. We would like to be a "national act," headlining large shows, recording and producing music at the highest levels of quality and selling that music for a profit.
About
Joe is 36 years old and has been playing and writing music for over 20 years; namely the guitar, bass, and vocals. He resides in Safety Harbor, FL which is in the Tampa Bay area.
Joe's creations range anywhere from acoustic folk to hard rock and everywhere in between. In an effort to make himself more marketable, he has chosen to perform his "lighter" music under his real name and his "heavier" music under the name Anima Loki.
Revenue Streams
This project is, generally speaking, pre-revenue. We acquire some funding from performing, but it's fair to say that our earnings are marginal and cover very basic costs like guitar strings or gas. But there are several paths to monetizing our music, some of which can start immediately following the acquisition of more equipment. Here are the main categories:
Streaming
- performing live streams on Twitch
- posting content on Youtube
Recording Sales
- several platforms exist to do this, including Spotify, Apple Music, and so forth
Performing Live
- live performances can garner anywhere from 0 - hundreds of thousands of dollars
Licensing
- licensing the use of our music in films, commercials, etc.
Business Plan
Our plan to attain success is hardly a straight line. We've broken this down into a 6-month Preparation Phase and an Implementation Phase:
Preparation Phase
1. Artist Development
"The more you climb the mountain, the more you see the horizon line." Practicing as an individual and continuing to develop skill as a musician is paramount to the success of this venture. An average guitar or voice lesson is $30-60 for an hour. The cost of proper practice space can range heavily but certainly is not free. We would benefit most from what is called a 24/7 Lockout situation, where we have unlimited access to a space instead of paying hourly. These can be as low as $400 a month.
Also, learning how to best do our streaming, recording, mastering etc. requires capital so that we have the ideal equipment to do so.
Anima Loki needs to rehearse as a band in order to be successful as well. "A band needs to practice, in our opinion, at least 5 times a week if the band ever expects to accomplish anything.” - Kurt Cobain That means that this is a full time venture for the band. Some of our costs need to be offset in order to afford us this kind of time.
2. Content and Product Creation
Joe's existent album, Time and Everything In It , is not currently a commercial success. It has not been widely distributed or marketed. The songwriting and performance is good, but it's slightly lacking that "professional grade" feel to it. Some existent songs will be reworked and re-recorded, But we want to develop new music as well. The best path to doing this is to buy some entry level recording equipment to develop the ideas and then take it to a professional studio once ready. We want to put our best foot forward with our releases.
Implementation Stage
1. Performing
Once the preparation stage is complete and we have an impeccable product, there are several strategies to monetizing it. Performing is one of the chief ways. There is perhaps a perfect algorithm for how often and where to perform, but our current philosophy is to perform anywhere and everywhere initially. The usual progression is the following:
- Open mics and small venues
- Opening for other traveling acts
- Traveling to nearby cities (Orlando, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, etc.)
- Traveling in a tri-state area
- Doing an East Coast tour
- Doing a national or international tour
Performing is an integral part of building our fanbase. Gaining initial traction as an original band may be a more difficult path than, say, being purely a cover band. We're most likely to start with 30 minutes or so of properly rehearsed material with some covers added and work up from there.
2. Song and Merchandise Sales
At the end of the day we need products to sell and that stems from our songs. Everything boils down to great musical production and we believe there is a more than ample audience for our music Secondarily, we can sell merchandise in the form of clothing, stickers, buttons, etc. .
Conclusion
Our ability to move forward and be successful with this project depends heavily on certain elements being present in the overall equation. Primarily, we need the proper equipment to be able to record, stream, write and perform live. The elements that can be accomplished without a capital injection have already been largely achieved, such as musical proficiency and songwriting. This is a full time venture for us, and we are largely only limited by material constraints. It simply boils down to whether or not an investor believes in our potential and work ethic.
A comprehensive list of how the $25,000 would be spent is available upon request.