Out of the box thinking leads to big paydays with zero debt

Here's a great example of out of the box thinking.

A cool piece of marketing for you to realize, witness, and apply to your own business.

Here's the back story.

About two years ago a friend of mine turned me on to a band called the Ryan Montbleau Band.

I can't pigeon hole them into a certain type of music if I tried.

Anyway, I quickly became a fan and last year I drove 6 hours one way to catch them live in Dallas.

Then I blew off rescheduled a client meeting for the following day and headed to Austin to catch a second concert by these guys.

Yeah, I'm a fan.

Here's where the marketing comes into play.

Ryan is releasing a new solo album and has setup a cool way to pay for it.

You can see what I'm talking about here: Ryan Montbleau: "For Higher" | PledgeMusic

* There are a couple sample songs on there for you to listen to if you're interested *

What he is doing is offering various things (from a digital download, to one of his hats, to going and partying with him and the band at his house) for sale to pay for the production and promotion of his latest album.

It's totally genius (with a capital J).

Not only for Ryan, because he produces and promotes an album with zero debt on his part BUT also for the service he's using.

You see Pledge Music get's 15% of all donations.

Think about that for a second - 15% of everything.

Considering he's at 23% towards his goal I bet he is trying to raise at least $20,000 to make this album - maybe even more.

That means for doing nothing more than hosting the pledge drive the company stands to make at least $3,000.

And Ryan is only one of hundreds of people who are using this service.

$3,000 x 100 plus artist = big money.

Now the company (and the band) only make money once the total amount of money is raised.

And I'm sure they have to do a little work but still - would you be willing to put in a few hours to make a few thousand dollars?

Here's how it applies to you ... how can you use this model to make money?

What if you registered a local domain and tried to help local bands raise money to make music?

So for me I'd register LocalLubbockMusicPledge.com or SupportLubbockMusic.com and offer the same services.

Get a couple of bands to promote this through their email list, website, Facebook, etc and the money start's rolling in.


Get some press releases done at Fiverr.com for each band and promote them through a few press release services for SEO and backlinking.


Ideas starting to come into your mind?

Promote it through Craigslist, other local focused websites and before you know it people get to know about you and spend money with you.

I mean who wouldn't support great music being made and you making a little money in the process???

Terrorist - that's who ;-)

Anyway, I wanted to share this idea with you as it came to me in real time.

Did this work on me?

Totally.

I bought a private one hour concert from Ryan via skype (he couldn't do the solo show here in Lubbock) along with some lyrics autographed and sent to me.

$350 later I did my part to help get his album out.

What are your thoughts?

Did you enjoy this post?

Am I missing anything here?

I'd love to know what you think.