Heard about this ‘fan pledges’ thing yet? First we heard was when Asobi Seksu got involved, and now Duke Special is the latest artist to ask his fans to fund his work, in return for bespoke (well, kinda) perks and privileges. Want to chat to the Duke for 20 minutes on Skype? That’ll be £55, please. How about photographing him for two hours? Yours for £200. What’s that, you want a sightseeing tour of Belfast with him? Bad luck. It would have cost you £1,000, but they have all been sold today. In fact, it has all been going so well, that he has apparently raised £10,000 since his site opened today.
The Duke is preparing to release three albums – a collection of Bertholt Brecht lyrics set to his music for the play Mother Courage & Her Children; a collection of songs written by Kurt Weill for a never-finished musical based on Huckleberry Finn; and a collection of songs based on the Paul Auster book The Book of Illusions – and money raised from the pledges will go towards the launch, promotion and tour of the records. Anyone who pledges will receive a copy of the project when it is complete, and the Duke will contribute 15% of the proceeds (after a target is reached) to DePaul Ireland, a charity which helps chronic alcoholics. Full details and the chance to pledge are available here.
So, a fun way for fans to interact with their heroes? A necessity for survival as a full-time musician? Or a sordid piece of glorified prostitution?
Posted on: 27th January 2010
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