You guys keep telling us how good we are (thank you) and how our music should connect with more people (thank you again) and we hear you. We love to write, record, perform and connect with people and haven't often had the financial backing to do it to the extent we would love.

We've always chosen to keep our music independent.  There was a time when Kiki was working with a major label (Capitol) for awhile and before a deal was signed, her folks at the label were "replaced" by the staff of another record company. At that point Kiki realized she wanted to be in charge of her own career. 

In 2003, we started a little indie label called Sunblossom Records for the purpose of recording, promoting and selling our own music. We've recorded and released 2 full length CDs, Meadowdance and Rice Cakes from the Moon on a shoestring budget with incredible support from our friends (thank you.)

While we cherish our artistic independence, we realize that in order to give our new CD wings, we need a budget that allows us to take our music farther than it's ever gone.

That's where you and the Producer's Team comes in.

What is your budget?

The budget for this new CD is $120,000.  This takes us through the recording process and leaves the lion's share for promotion and marketing and tour support.  In the past we've recorded our CDs on a shoestring budget with little, if any, funds left for getting the CD out there into the world.

Why is your budget so high?

We want to make a truly exceptional CD.  Truly exceptional CDs cost a lot money to make.  We also want to promote it. $120,000 is a two-year minimum budget which is a fairly modest budget in this industry.  It is not unheard of for a record label to spend $1,000,000 to make and promote a CD. Yikes!

What are the donation levels?

You can contribute at any level from $10 - $10,000.
 As a thank you, we offer you a gift in return.

I can only afford $10, will that even make a difference?

Absolutely! 1000 people sending in $10 each equals $10,000.  Whether you send in $10 or $10,000, we totally dig that you are supporting what we do.

How can I help you spread the word?

Well, if you are a computer savvy type there are a couple of things you can do that are really helpful. 

1.  You can put this graphic on your blog, personal webpage, or myspace, facebook, etc. page.  By using this graphic off our site, you agree to link it to http://dancinglight.us/newcd.html, and not to use it for any other purpose.  Feel free to deploy it anywhere you feel is appropriate and only where you have permission to do so.




2. The other thing you can do is enter your e-mail and check the little box that says "street team"  We use the e-mail list to send you newsletters, to let you know what we're up to and when we're playing in your area.  The Street Team  is a group of our supporters who help with important projects. Projects include things like spreading the word online or helping out with concerts in your area.





What does the street team do?

We contact our street team when we have specific projects to be carried out.  We have contests with prizes which is a lot of fun. The activities vary from mission to mission.

What is your timeline?

That's a really great question.

Okay, here's our process... this is a list of tasks and some of these things happen simultaneously

FIGURE OUT THE BUDGET

This actually took quite a bit of time, but we felt it was well worth it. We think we've remembered to include everything we'll need for this project.  Some of the expenses include creative teams, studio time, engineers, musicians,  producers, CD replication, publicist, marketing team, tour support, promotion, graphic design ... it's quite a long list

Our budget's most expensive item is a touring vehicle. We've settled on the 2009 Honda Fit Sport.  We need a vehicle that will get us to concerts on time without issues and Honda has an exceptional track record. The Fit Sport  is economical to purchase, gets exceptional gas mileage, and holds quite a bit for a little car. You can add a factory installed GPS system which will be an excellent tool for us when we're touring.When we took it for a test drive we were getting between 38 - 44 mpg as we were cruising down the highway. (And if you guys from Honda are reading this, we'd be happy to accept a demonstration vehicle, put some groovy graphics on it and drive it around all over the country!)

Our budget's least expensive item is $8 for guitar picks.

SELECT THE SONGS FOR THE CD and ASSEMBLE THE CREATIVE TEAM
 We select the songs for the CD ... we have about 40 to choose from and let me tell you, choosing between them is like choosing betwen your children. Next we start the process of arranging and practicing the songs, find the right creative team. We choose the studio and the studio musicians we'd like to work with, then we hole up and start recording the basic tracks.  Once the basic tracks are recorded, then we mix the songs (think of recording the basic tracks as collecting the ingredients for a cake from your kitchen cupboard.  The mixing process is getting all the ingredients measured in the right proportion for a really yummy cake.)  Then the CD gets mastered so all the songs sound equal in volume and so the songs sound great when they're played both on the radio and as mp3s (now we're icing the cake and smoothing the frosting.)  When everyone who has a stake in the artistic quality of the CD feels great about it, we move to step 2.

MAKE THE CD BEAUTIFUL, INFORMATIVE AND INTERESTING TO LOOK AT
After getting bids from the replication houses and deciding which one we're going to use,  we get their graphic design templates and start creating the artwork. We come up with a graphic design concept for the CD cover, the booklet art, gather all the lyrics to the songs and text for placement in the booklet and we start rocking and rolling on the graphic design and the text for the inside. (Dare we continue with the cake metaphor and say that we are now decorating the cake?) 

SEND IT OFF TO BE REPLICATED AND FIND A PLACE TO STORE ALL THEM BEAUTIFUL CDS
 When the CD is mastered and the graphics are ready, checked, rechecked, checked and rechecked again, we cross our fingers, say a prayer, let go and send it off to the replication house. The replication house makes thousands of beautiful copies of our CD and sends them back to us in boxes and boxes of CDs.

FULFILL OUR PROMISES TO OUR PRODUCER'S TEAM
We fulfill our promise to our Prorducer's Team and send everyone their digital downloads and autographed advanced copies of our CD and other cool stuff with big kisses and hugs and an invite to the CD release parties.... and deep gratitude for the amazing things we've all just accomplished together.

DISTRIBUTION
We get the music where it needs to go to the online retailers, where they encode the music for digital sales or sell actual copies of our CD.  We get the music in place so that when we launch our publicity campaign folks can find our music.


PROMOTION AND MARKETING
Now we start with the marketing and promotion phase. Since we are musicians and there are other folks out there who are exceptional at publicity and marketing, we work with a publicist and a marketing team (we've actually already started this process as it's good to have this in place when the CD is finished.)  This is also where the street team is involved to a great extent.

We let the publicist do what she does best, the marketing team do what they do best and we do what we do best, which is writing, recording, interviews and touring.

TOURING
Then we hit the road and share the music in a live and personal way.  We book some anchor dates (larger venues) around the country and we include more intimate venues like house concerts along the way.

***If you would like to host a house concert in 2009 (or know someone who would like to,) just let us know.  There is a ton of info on the web about hosting house concerts.  We recently saw a good video series about hosting house concerts over at  Expert Village.   You can also Google "how to host a house concert."  You'll find a multitude of resources.


How do you know this is going to work?

We really don't know what will happen.  We know that it has worked for other musicians and that's where we got the idea. We are grateful for whatever support comes our way.