I first have to give a big hat tip to Steve Clayton for posting about this originally back on Sunday. The post told about a band called FirstOfTheGiants and how they were going to be selling shares in their next album release.
Yup you heard that right. Selling shares.
Now I dropped by their site and even though I didn’t have a chance to listen to it first I bought a copy of their single called Hypochondriac. At the time of purchase though, and my misunderstanding, I didn’t get a download link for the single as I thought I might have. This was cleared up in a follow-up email from band leader Stephen Powell who said the only downloadable version at this point was via iTunes.
However I will be getting a physical copy of the single CD via regular mail which was just fine by me.
Now, not one to pass up an opportunity I asked him in my follow-up email about this idea of selling shares in their full length CD.
In his reply Stephen included the full shares prospectus which provided some of the following information first regarding how the share price is worked out
The initial price per share will be £5.00. Each share must be purchased with an advance copy of the album at a preferential price of £5.00. An individual purchasing one share will make a payment of £10 and receive one share, initially worth £5, and a copy of the Album one week prior to the official release
date. An individual may purchase more than one share (up to a maximum of 5 shares per Shareholder) but will only be entitled to one copy of the Album. The costs will be as follows:• One (1) share plus one copy of the Album = £10
• Two (2) shares plus one copy of the Album = £15
• Three (3) shares plus one copy of the Album = £20
• Four (4) shares plus one copy of the Album = £25
• Five (5) shares plus one copy of the Album = £30The Label reserves the right to limit the number of share purchases per individual to less than 5 if the offer is oversubscribed.
A little further down is the section on Shareholder Benefits part of which works out like this
3.1 Summary
In addition to the potential financial benefits of owning a Share of the Album, all Shareholders will be entitled to the following benefits:• Digital Share Certificate
• Digital versions of three currently recorded songs
• Name on Album artwork
• Free entry to the Album launch show
• Regular sales updates via email
• First call on future share offers
Now this is definitely an interesting way for a band to raise the money needed to make a CD and one that I think could have plenty of potential. I could just imagine if one of my other favorite bands, say Enigma for example, did this I would be first in line to grab a share or two of their next album.
So what happens if for the sake of argument that the FirstOfTheGiants music isn’t to my taste?
To be honest it doesn’t matter because I like the idea of what they are doing and being able to contribute in this fashion and with the potential benefits from doing so more than make up for any possibility I might not like the music. My only problem is that I could only really afford 2 shares at the moment so hopefully next month I’ll be able to go back and grab another three shares.
My hat goes off to the band and I sure wish them the best of luck in this interesting way to make creating a CD a social event. The shares purchase won’t be going public until July 1st but just incase you want to get ahead of the rush and give the band a big vote of confidence you can find the purchase page over here – but don’t tell anyone ‘cause it’s a secret between us.
You can also catch them on Twitter at @firstofthegiant – maybe give Stephen a holler and he’ll see about getting you one of those prospectus 
