Former L7 front woman Donita Sparks is back as a solo artist, and she's not planning on gracing the traditions of the record industry with her business.
Sparks, paired with former Throwing Muses front woman Kristin Hersh has formed Cashmusic, a company that sells music for what the fan wants to pay for it... kind of like the Radiohead idea, but with more options for what you can buy."We're just going to go for it along with the public," Sparks said in a statement. "You see one of the things that a traditional record label does is invest in the artist by putting up money on the front end for recording, promotion etc. in the hopes of making it all back (and then some) on the back end. Well there is nothing traditional about me or CASH Music, but we do know that music licensing is one of the remaining lucrative aspects of the music business for artists (and stakeholders). I'm curious to see how this thing will pan out and I'll definitely keep you posted on my mad experiment."
Examples of how you can support the artists (which at the moment are Kristin Hersh, Donita Sparks and Xiu Xiu) include larger donations, for example:
$5000 will get you an "executive producer" credit on Hersh's album - testament to the amount of work executive producers do on records.
$500 will allow you to visit the studio during Hersh's recording
$75 will get you a Donita Sparks "We Are The Road Crew" t-shirt, which will feature your name (and help Sparks with tour support).
More artists will be joining the fray soon.
