Who We Are
We are Miqedem, and we're a band based in Tel Aviv, Israel. We formed in 2015 and what's unique about us is that we play original music with lyrics taken from the Tanach - the Hebrew Bible. We feel that the Hebrew Bible is filled with some of the richest, most heartfelt, and most beautiful worship lyrics ever written, and it's our mission to make these words accessible to people today, whether they be native Hebrew-speakers or not.
Our first album was recorded in early 2016 in a small basement studio that one of us rented here in Tel Aviv, and we funded it ourselves, not knowing how far this project would take us. Two years later, we're now doing this full time, and loving it!
The Challenge
Since we now spend so much time playing live on the road, we have been unable to maintaining our own studio, so we can no longer record in-house. It's time to branch out and to record in a proper studio.
The budget we've come up with is $23,200 (USD) to cover the most basic expenses of recording.
Budget Breakdown
The money we raise will be spent as follows:
Studio Fees + Engineer - $9,750 ($650 X 15 days)
Pre-production budget - $2,000
Editing/post production budget - $2,000
Mix/Master - $2,500
Horn section - $1,650
Pianist - $800
Album artwork - $1,400
Indiegogo launch video - $1,250
Total recording cost - $21,350
Indiegogo (5%) and credit card (3%) fees - $1,856
Total budget - $23,200
Stretch Goals
As we mentioned above, the basic budget of $23,200 will cover the basic necessities for the production. In other words, if we raise these funds, we will be able to make the album.
There are, however, other expenses that, while not necessary to finish the recording, would be a huge blessing to be able to cover. Here are some of those "non-essentials", yet "would-be-amazings":
1. House and Feed the Band Members and Their Families - We make most of our living by touring and playing live concerts and working various odd jobs (non-permanent jobs) when we're not on the road. However, recording an album means putting aside several months dedicated to arranging, rehearsing and recording the album, meaning that during this time the band cannot be on the road making a living, nor spend significant time working other jobs. Israel is an expensive country to live in, so band salaries will help us put aside this time with clear minds knowing that we can still pay our bills while we're making the album. Paying the band a stipend would cost between 10 and 15,000 USD.
STRETCH GOAL #1 (Make the album, support the band members) - $38,200
2. First Printing - Printing our first batch of 3,000 CD's will cost between 3 and 4,000 USD. While this is not technically a "music production expense", it is an expense that will appear when we are finished, and it would be nice to not have to worry about that when the time comes.
STRETCH GOAL #2 (Make/print the album, support the band members) - $42,200
3. Extra Musicians and Recording Specialists - We are not at the stage yet where we know exactly what additional musicians we will need for the album (we do know for sure that some songs will need a horn section so we've included that in the basic budget). Sometimes during the production process we find that a certain element is missing - perhaps an accordion, a Middle-Eastern flute, or even live strings. It would be great to have the ability to have these possibilities.
Recording specialists are people who are experts at getting world-class sounds out of particular instruments, especially drums and electric guitars.
These elements could end up costing an additional $6,000.
STRETCH GOAL #3 (Make/print DREAM album, support the band members) - $48,200
4. Online Promotion, Radio Promotion, and Video Content
Once the recordings are finished, having the budget to record video promos will maximize the reach of our music, both in Israel and the world. We also hope to submit our new songs to Israeli Radio and Television - a process that requires the use of paid services, and often the work of a publicist. Promotional costs can be between 1 and 3,000 USD, while video production can be anywhere between 2,000 and, well, who knows... depending on how many videos we want to make and how high a production value we're going for. Let's just say that the more we can raise, the more (and better) videos we will make :)
STRETCH GOAL #4(Make/Print/Promote dream album, support band members, make awesome video content) - $53,200 - AND BEYOND!!!!
*Important Note
All the funds we raise will go through the Israeli Non-Profit "Kamti" (Kamti.org), but this is not a US 501c3 so donations are not tax deductible.
