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XYZ RECORDS

Help Young, Under Privileged Musicians To Help Themselves With Their Own Music Label

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XYZ RECORDS

XYZ RECORDS

XYZ RECORDS

XYZ RECORDS

XYZ RECORDS

Help Young, Under Privileged Musicians To Help Themselves With Their Own Music Label

Help Young, Under Privileged Musicians To Help Themselves With Their Own Music Label

Help Young, Under Privileged Musicians To Help Themselves With Their Own Music Label

Help Young, Under Privileged Musicians To Help Themselves With Their Own Music Label

Richard Adams
Richard Adams
Richard Adams
Richard Adams
1 Campaign |
Katoomba, Australia
$450 USD 9 backers
22% of $2,000 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal

Imagine if you'd had more support when you were younger.

What might you have achieved?

If you are a young person who has no support, no family, if you are abused or neglected, homeless or poor, imagine how much more that support might help.

That is what we offer.

18 months ago, we started a music program called XYZ in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales to support and encourage 12 to 21 year old's through the writing, rehearsing and recording of their own music. 

In an area with high youth unemployment, high drug use and very few resources dedicated to young people, we were astounded by the amount of talent and enthusiasm that we found here. 

The program expanded to arranging local, all ages gigs for young bands to play at and gain experience. It also gave people who lived in the area, no matter what their age the chance to hear what was going on around them.

The project has continued to grow, and now, we feel the best way to serve the young musicians we work with is to take the project to the next step and form our very own label, XYZ RECORDS.


This will enable us to take young aspiring musicians through the entire creative process, from writing the song, to recording the song to distributing the song. The whole time, the young people involved will be completely involved in the process, learning along the way, whilst keeping complete control over their own creations and helping to run the label itself.

BUT we need your help to make this happen.

XYZ is a volunteer run organization with a staff of, uh, one (that would be me) and up until this point, I have been very willingly putting my hand in my own pocket.

Now though, with the initial costs needed to set up an independent label, we don’t have the funds to cover the initial outlay.

And how much is that initial outlay? How much will it cost to set up this social enterprise, completely unique independent label?

$2000 dollars.

That’s it. $2000 dollars.

This will cover our initial recording costs (we work lo-fi and we work efficiently) and physical printing of CD’s, posters, badges as well as the administrative fees for online sales.

It’s not much in the great scheme of things, but it would enable us to empower, encourage and possibly change the lives of a great many young people.

We believe that what we are attempting is pretty unique in the world; a social enterprise, independent label, entirely co-run by young, under privileged people FOR young, under privileged people! A label where all profits go to the performers who control every aspect of their own music.

We don’t know if this has ever been done before and we would like, with your help to make it a reality.

We have the business plan. We have the talent. We have the enthusiasm.

We’re ready to go, all we need are the resources to start.

If you can, please dig deep and help these young people take control of their own music, their own passions and their own lives.

PERKS!PERKS!PERKS!PERKS!PERKS!PERKS!PERKS!PERKS!PERKS!PERKS!

Of course, we here at XYZ KNOW that kindness and generosity of spirit are their own reward… but we’d be FOOLS to live by that on a crowd funding campaign, wouldn’t we?!?

So we’ve got LOADS of fantastic PERKS for digging deep and helping us build this mini empire.

Of course, being a music label, we want to reward you with free music, free albums and, if you donate over a MILLION dollars we will personally play at every birth, birthday, wedding, funeral, graduation and/or bar mitzvah you or your loved ones should EVER have in your lifetime!

Short of the million we would very sincerely like to thank you by offering free digital singles, free digital albums and even the chance to have a lifetime membership of free CD’s from XYZ.

We also have a range of T-Shirts we’re putting together for you lucky, lucky people (so you can wear them around town and show all the cool kids that you were into XYZ waaay before they were) as well as a collection of posters (so you can stick them up on your bedroom wall and show all the cool kids that you were into XYZ waaay before they were) and an awesome collection of band badges (so you can stick them on your face and show all the cool kids in town that you had lost your mind waaay before they did).

Most of all, we just want to offer you the chance to be a part of something important that will make a MASSIVE difference to the lives of many kids for a long time to come. 

The names of ALL those who donated will be included within our Charter and will be framed and hung on the wall in eternal honour of your kindness. We will daily salute it, sing our pledge allegiance (it sounds a bit like the Ghostbusters Theme but with much more swearing)  and, when appropriate we shall dance in a rather uncoordinated fashion to hits of the eighties whilst chanting your names alphabetically.

The footage of these sessions will be available on youtube and can be viewed at a very reasonable price.


THE FUTURE! THE FUTURE! THE FUTURE! THE FUTURE! THE FUTURE! 

We’re not sure what the future holds, but we think it looks a little bit like this;

Scary, no?

For XYZ, the future means always moving forward and with the forming of XYZ RECORDS, we know we’re moving in the right direction. We want to be able to provide whatever the young people we work with need; to help them grow, find new ways out of bad situations, do for themselves and gain a sense of worth and meaning in what they do.

We also want to help them melt people’s faces with the sheer awesomeness of their music (sorry, didn’t want to get too maudlin there).

I know how hard these young people work at what they do and I know how good the results of those efforts are. XYZ RECORDS will enable us to show the rest of the world this too. So check the pitch, check the perks, take a couple more minutes looking at the dancing GIF (hypnotic, isn’t it?), then, please dig deep and be a part of something that really matters.

Questions? You have questions? Go for it...

What happens if you don't reach your campaign goal?

Well, firstly we will openly weep. 
But then once we've pulled ourselves together, we will carry on regardless. We very much preach a 'do it yourself' philosophy through this program and part of that, is facing adversity and carrying on regardless (while we're on the subject, how much does a kidney sell for these days?
In all seriousness though, we will just have to work on a much smaller scale, using whatever funds we do receive and using this whole experience as a learning tool for the young people involved and finding ways to make it work in future. We don't really have the option here to just stop and say, oh well. This label is too important.

What is the money actually for?

We want to be able to better maintain the studio space we have, providing young people at risk a secure and safe place to regularly go. 
We are looking to release the recordings we already have as a physical and digital product. This requires costs for printing and online administration (subscription fees and such). 
Your money will procure us ongoing resources to put on our ALL AGES GIGS regularly, where young musicians can gain experience and self worth, whilst those not playing have somewhere meaningful to go and something meaningful to participate in. 
This is grass roots stuff. We're not looking for the most polished product here or to compete with Iggy azalea (although i look FABulous in hot pants). We are looking for raw, unpolished talent, energy and enthusiasm and we've got that by the bucketload.

Is 2000 dollars going to be enough?

Absolutely. This budget has been measured out to the dollar to accommodate for the first three releases of the label (as well as the accompanying All Ages shows), allowing us then the latitude to promote, record, recoup our costs and proceed with the next portion of our releases.
Of course, more will always help. The more funds we raise, the more we can help our young people. So if you see that amount hit $2000, please don't stop as the more you give, the more we can do.

Who the hell are you?

My name is Richard. Nice to meet'cha :)
I'm a 40 year old dad of two boys who works as a co-ordinator in the healthcare industry by day and tries to crowd fund social enterprising, independent record labels by night. I spend every minute outside of my day job helping the young people of my area and listening to their stories, their problems and their amazing music. 
I have played music all my life and know first hand the difference music can make to a young persons life. I started the XYZ project to help the huge amount of young people i've seen here in the Blue Mountains feel supported, encouraged and accepted through music, allowing me the privilege of listening to their music first hand, being able to help them realise it and being allowed the gift of seeing who they really are.

Why 'Flexible Funding?'

Because, no matter what, we're going to make and release these young musicians tunes!
However much we make, it is ALL going to go towards this label, EVERY cent and come hell or high water (whatever that means) we're going to see these young bands through the entire process.
So, when will this label actually start?
Unofficially? We're already running all the behind the scenes shenanigans and administrative duties and will continue to do so up until the cut off date.
Officially? The second the campaign finishes and we tally up what we've made. Then we'll know exactly where we stand and we'll be hitting the ground running.


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Choose your Perk

Every Dollar Helps Perk!

$1 USD
Grab yourself a FREE digital single for helping us out.
Estimated Shipping
June 2015
0 claimed

You Da BIZ Perk!

$5 USD
Score yourself THREE free digital singles for your sheer awesomeness!
Estimated Shipping
June 2015
1 claimed

How Awesome Are You Perk!?

$10 USD
Due to overwhelming opinion regarding how great you are we want to give you THREE free digital singles, an amazing PROMOTIONAL POSTER and an awesome XYZ BADGE!
Estimated Shipping
August 2015
0 claimed

We Do Dances About YOU Perk!

$20 USD
We'll give you the FULL first digital release, a PROMO poster and THREE BADGES!
Estimated Shipping
August 2015
4 claimed

Wind Beneath Our Wings Perk!

$50 USD
For your amazing generosity, we'll send a CD copy of our first release, an XYZ t-shirt of your very own, a promo poster and THREE amazing bands featuring our artists artwork!
Estimated Shipping
September 2015
0 claimed

Happy Dance! Happy Dance Perk!

$100 USD
You'll get a free CD copy of the first release, a DIGITAL copy, a gnarly T-SHIRT, a promo POSTER and THREE, count 'em THREE awesome badges!
Estimated Shipping
September 2015
0 claimed

Even Kanye Likes You Perk!

$300 USD
Your very own LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP to XYZ Records! We will send you a FREE CD Copy of EVERY XYZ Records release for AS LONG AS YOU LIVE (or want them)! PLUS free t-shirt, Poster and 3 badges for first release!
Estimated Shipping
September 2015
1 claimed

We Hope You Exist Perk!

$500 USD
Uh, we don’t know. If you can afford to donate that much, then perhaps you can tell us what you would like and we'll do what we can to oblige! In advance, thank you so much and if you ever need your helicopter polished, then we are always available :)
Estimated Shipping
September 2015
0 claimed
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