If the music is good,
why not try harvesting it
like real food?
The Jake Armerding CSA (Bushel Explanation)
Ladies and Gentlemen, friends and fans, listeners all,
It's my great pleasure to announce the Jake Armerding CSA 2012.
What's a CSA? Sounds like a government agency, doesn't it. It really stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It's a business relationship between you and a farmer, in which you buy a "share" in the farm and the farm brings you a box of wicked fresh produce each week. By establishing a direct relationship, the farm avoids paying crippling fees to "middle men" — trucking companies, packaging companies, supermarkets — and you eat better food for less money. It's the way groceries used to work, when the milkman came to your door.
For our purposes, CSA stands for Community Supported Art. I, the organic music farmer, am selling shares in my next project — next year's crop of songs — and am inviting you to invest and share in the harvest. Think of it as Fair Trade Music.
What does a share cost, and what does it look like?
First, it's a song – a song off my new album, which begins recording this Fall. A subscription costs $1.00 a month. The first CSA Box arrives on January 1, 2012.
Also, as a special bonus for those signing up before the end of the year, we are offering four CSA "seasonal surplus" digital boxes — one each for Winter, Spring, Fall and Summer — containing live video bootlegs of Jake's new songs, images from the studio sessions, lyric PDFs, and a choice seasonal recipe.
Is delivery guaranteed?
You'll receive your JA CSA Box on the 1st of the month, every month. (Our produce truck doesn't get flat tires.)
What if I feel weird about signing up for a monthly charge?
Paypal is about as secure as online purchasing gets. They'll be handling the financial end of things. They work with subscription payments constantly, and will safely debit your card $1.00 each month, keeping your credit information secure. It's exactly like subscribing to an e-magazine. Here's a basic rundown of Paypal security. You need a Paypal account to subscribe to the CSA — simply create a password during the subscription process, and you're ready to eat.
Is there a minimum number of investors you need to make this work?
Yes, and no. We're going forward regardless of numbers — I've sown the songs, they will be harvested – but your participation has a huge effect on the harvesting. Once we have a rough idea of a budget, we can plan where to record, who to collaborate with, and how long the process should take.
Are you cutting out a middle man?
Absolutely. When you spend $0.99 at the iTunes store, $0.36 of that — over a third — goes to Apple. Now, I like Apple, and I buy their products. But why should they collect a third of my art when I own the same technology? Why not leave the big corporations out of it?
Will Apple be hurt financially by this little scheme?
Really?
What if I want a CD? Since when did you start doing everything electronically? What gives?
Many of us, myself included, still like having the option of inserting a tangible piece of media into a player. If you want a physical CD, you'll be able to indicate this at the end of the year, after the album has been completed. But before you decide you want one, read on.
CDs have long been the choice for sonic quality, since the low-resolution mp3 can wear your ears out. But these days, most of us have room on our hard drives for the complete file (usually around 50MB). Since we're offering you complete files of these songs, a CD is pretty much a moot point.
There's also the environmental impact of producing thousands of pieces of plastic. Especially these days, when CDs often have a life span of 24 hours, just long enough to be imported into a digital music library. We can save a lot of junk this way.
Best of all, eliminating our manufacturing costs lets us spend more on other parts of the recording process. (See "Is There a Minimum Amount of Investors You Need To Make This Work?" above.) Such as hiring the best upright bassist in Boston, for instance.
What about exclusivity?
These songs will be available to non-members for $2.00; CSA members pay only $1.00. (Not to mention all the lovely perks of being a member.)
Couldn't I just email the song to my friends? Why should each of us pay $1.00 a month?
You could, but we would ask you not to. That would completely defeat the purpose. And if you're still reading this, we can assume you have an interest in artists continuing to make art, right? We could spend hours and dollars to acquire the kind of technology that prevents file sharing, but that means fewer hours and dollars for recording, and we would rather just trust you.
The great thing about songs is, they're imperishable, you can enjoy them for decades. So this CSA has a real advantage over your typical box of produce.
Plus ... it's a buck. You know?
Do you need startup capital? Can I make a donation to help get this crazy idea off the ground?
Valued patrons of the arts, we are re-opening the Truth + Beauty Fund! This program allows those so inclined to invest more substantially in the music of Jake Armerding. Investments of any size are humbly and gratefully accepted. You can invest at different levels, each with its own set of perks and rewards. Visit the Truth + Beauty page for more details.
Can I cancel my subscription?
You can opt out at any time, just like a magazine.
I signed up in November or December, and Paypal has already billed me for those months, even though I haven't gotten any music. What's going on?
We hoped to take subscriptions through the Fall and delay everyone's payments until January 1, 2012 -- the day your first CSA box arrives -- but Paypal doesn't allow for delayed billing. So you're essentially a month or two ahead of the game in your subscription payments.
No worries, you'll receive all the music you've paid for!
Why are you doing this?
I am completely sold on the relational, artistic and environmental advantages of CSAs (both kinds). Community is hard to come by these days, and this is a chance to come together in support of something, even if by electronic means (at least for now). I'd like to think our small-yet-mighty CSA Community fits into its own hybrid category – more personal and substantial than a Facebook page, but more convenient than a two-hour drive to the farm itself. Sustainability is the key here, and often it's a simple question of more funds going to farmers, writers, artists and musicians, and perhaps a bit less going to Amazon.com. (They'll be fine.) We're going for relational, rather than transactional. We've all got enough transactions going on around us — maybe charging a dollar instead of $0.99 is our way of calling things what they are, instead of playing mind games with you.
It's a new approach to getting new music into your hands. The music industry changes daily, and the challenge is to stay culturally relevant while making as few compromises as possible. (If you think about it, any recorded music, regardless of quality, is a compromise of the magic of a live performance.) There will always be an old school and a new school, and I think the artist stays fed by keeping a foot in each. Technology is not to be depended on OR boycotted — it is what we make it, however good or evil that might be. People have subscribed to newspapers for hundreds of years; this is just the 21st-century version.
I want to get the word out about small farms, and what Community Supported Agriculture is. Food and art are, in my mind, of equal importance – each just nourishes a different part of us – and small farms, whose only purpose is to grow real food, are in real need of help. And I'll put my money where my mouth is: If you subscribe to a CSA already, or plan to, we'll give you a free subscription. Just let us know.
It's our pleasure — keep eating real food.
All right! Want to invest in art?
Cheers and much love--
Jake
*Have an infrequently asked question? Let us know — we'd be happy to answer it.
