005 Crowd Funding With Mandi Jarry |
The Gemini Project Podcast
Shownotes at : http://thegeminiproject.com.au/005
Adam: Session #5 of The Gemini Project Podcast where I had a chat with
singer-songwriter Mandi Jarry
on crowd funding and how it can help you launch your next album.
Recorded introduction: Soundcheck. Welcome to The Gemini Project Podcast, where
your host, Adam
Spencer, and his special guests share their secrets on how to take your music business
to the next level.
Visit thegeminiproject.com.au or find us on Facebook to take the next step. Now strap
yourselves in.
It’s showtime! (music)
Adam: Hey guys. Welcome to Session #5 of The Gemini Project Podcast. My name is
Adam Spencer
and I am your host. This is the podcast where we interview successful musicians on
things that they are
doing really well in their business, whether it be social media, whether it be performing,
whether it be
some little tool that they’re using in their business and with their music to make their lives
easier. We
talk to them about how they’re doing it, what they’re doing so you can implement that into
your little
music business to make things work better for you and make your life a little bit easier.
1
In today’s episode I talk with Mandi Jarry, a singer-songwriter from Sydney. She, at the
time of
recording, recently released her album mostly through crowd funding through
pozible.com, which is
a crowd-funding website. There’s also kickstarter.com. I’ll throw up a couple of links to
those for you
guys in the shownotes, and I’ll tell you where the shownotes are at the end of this episode.
But without any further adieu, let’s get into the interview with Mandi Jarry on the crowd
funding.
Adam: Alright. Mandi Jarry, thank you so much for joining me today. It’s a pleasure to
have you on the
show.
Mandi: Thanks Adam. It’s a pleasure to be on the show.
Adam: I stumbled across you on actually a website called pozible.com.
Mandi: Yes.
Adam: And we’re gonna talk a little bit about that in a moment. But before we kinda get
into that and
the benefit that, you know, it could have for other musicians, just for the audience and
people who may
not know who you are, just give us kind of a brief, you know, rundown of who is Mandi
Jarry.
Mandi: Okay. So I am a Sydney-based singer-songwriter. I grew up in the Northern
Beaches and I’ve
been performing for… how long have I been performing… about 10, 11 years now.
Adam: A while. Yup.
Mandi: So music is my professional job. I do it full time. I do about five gigs a week and I
2
have released
an album called Untied and I’m currently working on my new EP. But music has always
been a really
strong part of my world. I started playing piano when I was 5, and then I picked up a guitar
when I was
about 15. And I was…
Adam: Yeah.
Mandi: …always writing melodies, plays instruments. Both my parents were actually
entertainers. So
my dad was a professional singer and my mom was a dancer. They met on a cruise ship
and performed
for 30 years together, and then they had myself and my sister. And yeah, so I got the
musical gene there
which was very fortunate. (laughter)
Adam: Yeah. So, entertaining is in your blood, sort of saying.
Mandi: I guess so. (laughter)
Adam: Awesome.
Mandi: Yeah.
Adam: And so, the new album that you’re working on…
Mandi: Yeah?
Adam: …that doesn’t have a name yet?
Mandi: It does. I named it last night. (laughter)
Adam: Okay. This is like an exclusive, eh?
3
Mandi: It is. It’s called “Gelato Kiss.”
Adam: Gelato Kiss.
Mandi: Yes. (laughter)
Adam: Wow. Okay. Sorry that, you know ______ but how did you come up with that?
Mandi: Well, it’s actually one of the names of one of the tracks that’s on there. It’s an EP.
It’s a seven-
track EP. I know that’s a really weird number of songs to have in an EP. So it’s like a
mini-album.
Adam: Yeah.
Mandi: I was gonna have six tracks on there and then the producer I was working with
said, “Why don’t
we just throw on this extra live recording?” So it turned into a seven-track EP.
Adam: Okay.
Mandi: Yeah. One of the songs is called Gelato Kiss and it’s about all the beautiful things
in life and
happy memories and things of the future and things of the past. Gelato kiss is one of the
lyrics in there.
There’s something about that, that I just love the thought of it – gelato and kisses.
(laughter) So I
thought it’d be just a lovely way to name the EP that as well.
Adam: It’s a good name. I like it.
Mandi: Thank you.
Adam: So just before we get into the topic here, what I want to talk about, if people want to
hear any of
4
your songs that you’ve done, can they find those on your website?
Mandi: Yes, they can. My website is mandijarry.com. That’s Mandi with an “i”,
mandijarry.com.
Adam: Yup.
Mandi: And there’s links to my album and singles up on iTunes.
Adam: Right.
Mandi: And, you know, the Youtube links and Facebook and ReverbNation.
Adam: Yeah. I was going to ask about that. Was it recently that you just put a new video
clip up on
Youtube or did I get that wrong?
Mandi: Not so recent. That was from my last album.
Adam: Yeah.
Mandi: And I think it was done 18 months ago now.
Adam: Okay.
Mandi: So, yeah, it’s time for a new one I think. (laughter)
Adam: Yeah. I’ll have in the shownotes for the listeners just a link to your website and a
link to the
most recent video clip that you’ve got up there as well.
Mandi: Okay, great. Excellent.
Adam: Alright. So, I guess, the first thing I want to just talk to you about is: What do you
as a singer-
5
songwriter consider the most important aspect to your business?
Mandi: I think the most important aspect of the business is being able to perform your
songs live and
constantly gigging and practicing, gaining confidence and doing as much as you can in
that area.
Adam: Yeah.
Mandi: Another area would be social media. That’s a really…
Adam: Go on.
Mandi: …important aspect of the business in terms of like developing and just keeping
up to date with
all the social media, ‘cos there’s so many of them.
Adam: Yeah. And do you do all that yourself?
Mandi: Yes, I do.
Adam: Okay. Yeah. It is kind of a big topic and I’ve spoken to – actually in a previous
interview – with
Stephanie Jansen, a country singer-songwriter about that.
Mandi: Yup.
Adam: So, for anyone who’s listening, if you want to find out, you know, some tips on how
to do
social media, well just go back and listen to that one. But yeah, those two you consider
would be the
biggest kind of things you need to focus on in order to, you know, keep developing your
music and your
business.
6
Mandi: Yeah, definitely. I think even before that, just performing, just doing as much as
you can and
becoming the best that you can so your confidence grows. I would suggest even trying to
play with
musicians that you think are much better than yourself.
Adam: Yeah.
Mandi: That’s a good way of becoming better and learning from people that you know,
know more than
you do.
Adam: Yeah. So the people that are a little bit further on in their career who’s, you know,
got a lot
more experience and…
Mandi: Yeah.
Adam: …yeah, so just play with those and, you know, pick up something along the way.
Mandi: Yeah.
Adam: I want to just ask, in relation to performing live and doing constant gigging, in that
aspect…
Mandi: Yeah.
Adam: You know, what’s the most painful thing to do with that? What’s the biggest kind of
challenge or
obstacle that you need to get past, you know, to keep perfecting that?
Mandi: Well, I mean, if you’re learning guitar or singing there’s always the physical
challenges like the
pain in your fingers you get from practicing and strengthening your voice and
overcoming exhaustion if
7
you’re doing a lot of gigs. They are the more physical sides of things. But with me,
honestly I’ve never
really found it a pain to become better at what I’m doing with the performing side of
things.
Adam: Yeah.
Mandi: Because I’ve enjoyed it so much.
Adam: Yeah.
Mandi: I think if you’re enjoying what you’re doing, you don’t really notice that you’re
getting better at
it.
Adam: Yeah. Enjoyment is a big thing.
Mandi: Oh, definitely, yeah. I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing if I didn’t like it ‘cos it’s a
pretty hard
road to take if you don’t really like it.
Adam: Yeah. Yeah.
Mandi: But no, just enjoy it and keep things fun and yeah, just constantly trying to better
yourself.
Adam: Can I ask, ‘cos I think this is a big point, and you mentioned exhaustion.
Mandi: Yeah.
Adam: What do you do to, you know, I guess revitalize yourself, you know, keep on top of
that kind of
thing?
Mandi: Oh, I take a lot of time out. I’m a bit of a hermit crab. (laughter)
8
Adam: Okay.
Mandi: So, doing things by yourself in the daytime. ‘Cos I do a lot of night gigs so hours
can be very
opposite to everybody else. So I guess I’m a bit fortunate in the fact that I can spend the
daytimes just
relaxing and not talking to people and not putting out too much energy.
Adam: Yeah. So just kind of, yeah, having your own little space to retreat into.
Mandi: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Yup.
Adam: Okay. Excellent.
So, I want to really get into why I wanted to talk to you today, and that’s because where I
found you, on
pozible.com and crowd sourcing or crowd funding, whatever you want to call it.
Mandi: Yeah?
Adam: I mean, I think this could be very useful to a lot of musicians, you know, especially
the musos
with fanbases, you know, 500 to 800 people that like their music…
Mandi: Yeah.
Adam: …this is a great way to get (inaudible) in creating…
Mandi: Sorry Adam. You’re just breaking up. Can you hear me?
Adam: Yeah. Yup. Are you there?
Mandi: Yeah. I can hear you now.
9
Adam: Yeah. I heard a little bit of ruffling in the background.
Mandi: Yeah. Crowd funding is amazing. I came across it a couple of months ago. One
of my friends
kept sending me links to this.
Adam: Why?
Mandi: I didn’t really understand what it was first, but once I viewed a lot of the projects
that are on
there and understood it a bit more, I felt it was fantastic. And I think it’s really gonna take
off. I think
it’s a great way for people to invest into creative projects and ideas, and allow people to
become, you
know, part of something that could be a massive project, and helping, you know, get
people off the
ground and doing something that they would love to have happen.
Adam: Yeah. And this is how you actually funded Gelato Kiss, is that right?
Mandi: Yes, that’s right. Yeah.
Adam: Yeah.
Mandi: I had funded most of it so I had a target of $5,000. That was the minimum I
needed to go
ahead. The EP is gonna cost me probably about 3 grand or more than that, but just to
have that and
actually reach the goal. It reached the 5,000 mark. And what happens with these projects
is, if you can
raise the amount that you’ve set the target to be then the project does go ahead.
Adam: Yup.
Mandi: But if you don’t reach that amount then it doesn’t go ahead and people don’t get
10
charged for it.
Adam: Yeah.
Mandi: So it sort of creates a bit of excitement and urgency, and gets people involved
and excited.
Adam: I think you answered some of my questions just there with what the benefits of
crowd funding
are, and I think you mentioned, you know, just getting the community involved in creating
something
that they want to see created.
Mandi: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. But also off of the outside people, that’s a big thing that, you
know, they
get to be part of something that could be potentially huge. In my case they got the record
that I was
creating. They’d get it first. So it makes people feel a little bit special. But I think people
like to be
behind stuff like that, especially if they believe in the project.
Adam: Yeah. And…
Yup?
Mandi: Sorry. But I guess for myself, what I got mostly out of it was the promotion and the
marketing
sort of side.
Adam: Yeah.
Mandi: Not so much the financial thing but just because people are constantly talking
about it and
you’ve got, you know, all these different people that are constantly asking, “How’s the EP
going?” and
11
this creates a bit of a buzz.
Adam: Yeah.
Mandi: And it made me post updates a lot more and become a little active on my social
media sites.
Adam: Okay.
Mandi: Yeah and you end up having half the sales before you’ve even finished.
(laughter)
Adam: That’s great. That’s great.
Mandi: Yeah.
Adam: You mentioned as well how you heard of it: It was just a case of, you know, word of
mouth. A
friend of yours stumbled across it I guess and loved it so much that they wanted to tell
you about it. Is
that pretty much fair to say that’s how you heard about it?
Mandi: Yeah. That’s exactly how it happened. One of his friends did a film and they were
successful
with that independent film. So yeah, he forwarded it on to me, thought it would be really
great.
Adam: So for anyone who is, you know, looking to pursue this kind of funding, how did
you get people
involved? Was it a case of the actual Pozible community finding you or was it mostly you
doing all the
promoting to your current fanbase and telling people at gigs and that kind of stuff?
Mandi: Yeah. For me, majority was my Facebook music fans and, you know, people that
had heard of
12
me and then had joined my sites. So that was the majority of them, but there was also
like probably
10% of people on the crowd-funding site that actually just were roaming around and, you
know,
something might have interested them in the picture or the video and they wanted to be
part of it. But
it’s like anyone can view the videos online…
Adam: Okay.
Mandi: …at the Pozible site.
Adam: I wanna kind of give the listeners, let’s say they want to do this. Say, you know,
they’re thinking
about launching an EP or they’re even thinking about launching a second or third album.
So they go to
pozible.com, they fill out their details, they’ve got their campaign now running, it’s up
there and live.
Mandi: Yup.
Adam: What are maybe, you know, two or three tips that you can give people having the
experience
that you went through this yourself…
Mandi: Yeah.
Adam: …two or three tips on what kind of things you would do to get it out there and heard
about?
Mandi: I would say constantly doing updates about what’s happening…
Adam: Yeah.
Mandi: …every once a week or even every, you know, three or four days, just giving
13
people updates of
where the project is at and what you’re hoping to do, and just sort of try to generate as
much interest as
possible.
Adam: Yup.
Mandi: Yeah, that would be the biggest thing. But also, if you are about to do one of
these projects just
read everything first, make sure you know what it’s all about. And also even investing into
one of the
other projects on one of these crowd-funding sites just so you know how it goes and what
the receiver is
going to feel and just so you can see both sides of the picture and…
Adam: Yeah, a better idea.
Mandi: Yeah. Figure out what you could do better or how they became successful and
yeah, I think it’s
good to see both sides.
Adam: Okay. And I think we touched on this at the start, but how is using crowd funding
really kind
of helps you with your business? Has it kind of just sped up the process of getting an
album out, ‘cos,
you know, I dare say you would have been able to, you know, create this project had you
not went with
crowd funding, but has it really helped kind of get things moving along quickly?
Mandi: Yeah. Well, knowing that there’s a lot of people that are anticipating what’s
happening next
and know that something’s coming, it makes sure you stick to the deadlines and, you
know, meet the
goals that you’re setting for yourself. So yeah, it’s created a bit of an urgency and just
making you do
14
more. I guess, you feel like you sort of have a bit of a team behind, or I feel like I’ve got a
team behind
me now that’s…
Adam: Yeah.
Mandi: …supporting.
Adam: Okay.
Mandi: Yeah, that’s how it’s helped me.
Adam: Alright. This is the part of the show that I come to and thanks so much for sharing
your
experience with pozible.com and crowd funding. There is also one that people can use
called
kickstarter.com.
Mandi: Yeah, that’s true. That’s actually the one that I originally was sent the link to, but I
just found
that with Kickstarter it’s a US-based site.
Adam: Yeah.
Mandi: And so, like if I wanted to invest in something over there I needed an American
bank account.
Adam: Yeah.
Mandi: So it’s not as well set up, I don’t think.
Adam: So, Pozible is Australian based, is it?
Mandi: I think it’s Australian based. I’m pretty sure it’s Australian based but it allows all
currencies to
15
invest.
Adam: Right.
Mandi: Yeah.
Adam: Okay.
Mandi: So it’s definitely a better option in that regard.
Adam: Alright. So thanks for that.
I’ll move on now just to the last part of the show, which is: I like to try and ask people,
musos, what kind
of their biggest challenge was.
Mandi: Yeah.
Adam: And this kind of helps us, you know, relate to the audience a little bit more ‘cos
these are the
people who I want to help, the guys at the start, kinda struggling to find their way a little bit.
Mandi: Yeah.
Adam: You know, they could have released an album or maybe they haven’t yet, but I
really want to try
and help these guys. So what would be the biggest challenge that you remember facing
when you first
started out, and even if it’s still a current challenge that you’re still trying to overcome
now?
Mandi: Yeah. I think earlier on, confidence and believing in myself was the biggest
challenge that I had.
But the more I gigged and the more I performed, that sort of dies away, the more you feel
that you’re
16
doing well.
Adam: Yeah.
Mandi: But always, even to this day, networking is what I sort of struggled with most. I’m
actually quite
a shy person so I just don’t really like to, after I’ve gigged like, you know, mingle too
much. I’m a bit of
a turtle. I like to hide away. So that’s always something that I struggle with and very much
so earlier
in the day, you know, just networking. ‘Cos that’s such a big important part of it.
Sometimes you can
meet, you know, a lot of different people through networking and yeah, it’s half of your
successfulness.
Adam: Yeah. Well, it’s probably actually more than half. It’s…
Mandi: Yeah.
Adam: …probably, you know, the old 80-20 rule.
Mandi: Yeah.
Adam: You know, 80% of your success is probably attributed to who you know.
Mandi: Yeah, that’s right.
Adam: And it’s sad to say that, but yeah, that is the old saying. It’s who you know.
Mandi: Yeah.
Adam: And so, is that networking just at gigs or is it, you know, trying to meet, you know,
people in the
industry like agents or things like that and other musicians?
17
Mandi: For me personally, it’s at gigs, you know, like networking people afterwards and
just talking
to people really. But I guess it goes for all areas of it, yeah, with regards to, you know,
agents and
managers and all that sort of stuff. But, I don’t know, maybe surrounding yourself with
people that
are a little bit better at networking and are a little bit more outgoing and sort of introduce
you to other
people sort of breaks that ice. That could benefit a lot of people.
Adam: Right.
Mandi: Yeah.
Adam: Are there any particular things that you do to, you know, get better at networking or
is it just a
case of trying to do it more and more at gigs and just kind of developing yourself that
way?
Mandi: Yeah, it’s just a case of forcing my self to sort of do it, yeah, as much as I can.
That’s really all
it comes down to anyway, you can overcome fear of things is by actually doing the thing
that you fear
most…
Adam: Yeah.
Mandi: Unfortunately. (laughter)
Adam: Well, thanks Mandi. This has been a great conversation and I wish you the best of
luck with the
upcoming EP and…
Mandi: Thank you.
18
Adam: I wish you the best of luck with the networking as well.
Mandi: Thanks.
Adam: If people want to find you out, we mentioned this at the start of the show, but where
is the best
place? Where would you like to send them?
Mandi: Well, I’ve got my own website which is mandijarry.com.
Adam: Yup.
Mandi: And on that website there’s links to my Facebook page which is Mandi Jarry
Music, and also,
you know, ReverbNation and MySpace and everything. But yeah, mandijarry.com is the
best place to
find me.
Adam: Excellent. And I will have for you beautiful listeners some links to pozible.com
and
kickstarter.com if you do want to check those out.
Mandi: Fantastic.
Adam: Thanks again Mandi.
Mandi: It was a pleasure.
Adam: Speak to you soon.
Mandi: Thank you. B-bye.
Adam: Bye.
Alright guys. That’s that interview done with Mandi Jarry on crowd funding. I really hope
19
you got
something out of this episode. I know I did, and I’m going to be looking at playing around
with this kind
of stuff for the The Gemini Project and a couple of small projects I’ve got coming up,
which is a little bit,
you know, top secret at the moment but it’s something that I’m working on for The Gemini
Project and
the music industry in Newcastle.
A couple of things before I go. Actually before I mention those, I really want to say that I
hope you got
something of value out of this episode here and I really hope that you get up and have a
go with crowd
funding. You know, it’s so possible for you to fund your next album with this. Mandi did it
with about
40 followers – 40 supporters. She raised just over 5 grand in four weeks. You cannot tell
me you don’t
have 40 people that want to hear your music. If you don’t have that many, you know, and
you’ve been
in the industry for a while, maybe you should think of a career change. You know, just
throwing that out
there. But, you know, if music is what you love and it’s what you want to do, get up and
have a go. Take
the initiative to actually try something new here and have a play around with it.
So, if you want to find out more, I’m going to have some links to the two websites that you
should check
out. Also, if there are questions that you are struggling with and you do want to ask,
please shoot us
an email in here at [email protected]. Or alternatively, if you want to
ask a question
from one of the musicians that I’ll have on the show or industry experts, you can actually
go to the
Facebook page, and on the Facebook page there is a little tab that says “Gemini voice”
where you can
20
record a message and I will play that on the show for you and, you know, we’ll try and get
it answered
on the show if that’s the kind of thing that floats your boat.
So, the two things that I wanted to mention was: #1 – Next week on the show I’m
interviewing the
director of Big Apachee which is the Newcastle booking agency, so if you have any
questions that you
want answered there, please shoot them in or leave a comment on the Facebook page.
And the other
thing I wanted to mention is: If you found anything useful in this episode, please, I
encourage you to
head on over to iTunes and if you haven’t subscribed already, subscribe to the podcast
and you’ll get
them automatically download to your device. But leave us an honest review and maybe a
rating if you
like. What that does is it helps me stay motivated to keep producing this content for you.
But more
importantly, it helps others find the podcast in iTunes and that’s the whole aim of this
project is to help
as many musicians as we possibly can. So please go ahead and do that.
That’s all for me this week. I really hope you enjoyed that interview. If you want to make a
suggestion
of who you want interviewed or what you want to find out more about, again, you know, just
send
me an email. You can do that at [email protected]. All the links and
everything
I mentioned in this show will be in the shownotes for you, and you can find the shownotes
at
thegeminiproject.com.au/005. That’s Session 5.
That’s it for me, guys. Until next time, it’s all for the love of music. See you later. Bye.
(music)
21
Join the others in The Gemini Community by joining us on Facebook and start taking
your music to the next level.
Join us on Facebook
Follow me on Twitter
Subscribe to our updates
If you loved the info shared here I encourage you to help others discover The Gemini
Project on Facebook and/or Twitter and if you want to delve a little deeper you can do
that by leaving a comment below. What would you like to ask?
Subscribe
● Click Here to Subscribe via iTunes and/or leave a review for the podcast
● Click Here to Subscribe via RSS
22