Feedbands Vinyl Subscription Service – and so much more….

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Oh my where to begin with Feedbands?  I’m listening to Electric Octopus via Sound Cloud and I would have never (probably) discovered this band if it wasn’t for Feedbands.  Thank you Feedbands!

 

Feedbands is a monthly vinyl subscription service like others I’ve reviewed.  And like others, Feedbands seeks to fine great new undiscovered artists and press them heard on limited edition vinyl.  I’ll note here that Feedbands also has a monthly digital subscription service – whatever is released on vinyl, digital only subscribers will receive in digital format.

 

That’s pretty much where the similarities end.  Feedbands does not have a team scouring the Internet listening for new talent.  Musicians up load their own music.  Once the music is uploaded, it goes to the Submissions List.  This is a massive list.  When I checked there were 1980 submissions and most of these submissions contained more than a single track.  By anyone’s standard, that’s a lot of listening.  Once on the Submissions List, anyone can listen to the tracks.  Those who are paid subscribers can then vote and comment on what they’ve listened to.

 

While Feedbands staff do not go searching for music, they do listen to all of the music that is submitted and submit votes and comments.  This helps move tracks to The Daily Dose and The Charts – more about these below.

 

It’s the voting part where Feedbands starts to get really interesting and very engaging.  You don’t have to make a huge commitment to become a subscriber and have a vote on Feedbands.  I started with the digital only version for $4/month to checkout the voting and commenting process.  Side note here – if you do the same, you have to log out and then log back in again before the site recognizes you as a subscriber and eligible to vote, and you also have to upload an avatar for your votes and comments to be displayed on the site.  I’m not sure why this is a requirement, but no big deal.

 

As explained on the Feedbands web site, the number of votes an artist receives will determine their chances of making it to The Daily Dose and The Charts and ultimately for being released on vinyl.  A vinyl release also means a monthly digital release for the “I can’t make a substantial commitment” people like myself.

 

Feedbands
Feedbands screen capture

The Daily Does is a track that receives enough votes to be deemed worthy of notice to subscribers and those who are part of the Feedbands mailing list (i.e., they are not paying subscribers).  In some cases, Feedbands staff and Super Users are so impressed with a track that they move it to The Daily Dose even before it has received significant votes.  The The Daily Dose track is also displayed on the home page for Feedbands by default.  I say , by default, because the Feedbands site has a neat player built in (see the bottom left of the screen capture of the Feedbands home page for December 14, 2017).  With this player you can choose the music feed you want to listen to.  The shuffle option will expose you to a fantastic range of wonderful new artists drawn from the entire Submissions List.

 

When you’re a subscriber you can download the Daily Dose as part of your membership.  The downloads are in MP3 format.  You can access them from whatever audio player you use on your PC/Mac, or use the playlist feature that is part of the Feedbands platform.

 

Access to the Daily Dose for download purposes appears to be only available for 24 hours – hence the Daily part of the name.  From Feedbands perspective, this is a great way to keep people visiting every day.  I know I will.

What about the vinyl?

Feedbands prides itself in working with some of the industries most experienced technicians from the laquer mastering, electroplating to the final pressing processes including those who have worked with some of the most notable artists including “Black Sabbath, Metallica, Nirvana, Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Flaming Lips, R.E.M., Black Keys, Wilco, Tom Petty, Phish, Neil Young, Beastie Boys, Muse, Fleetwood Mac, Bjork, Crosby Stills & Nash, Built to Spill, and many others…”.

Every Feedbands album is an exclusive, limited edition and hand numbered release.  Once they are sold out, they are not released again.  There is definitely an allure to possibly getting a very limited edition pressing of the next huge band.  Or just loving some new great music – maybe that’s enough.

 

Now if you don’t like a record, don’t take it and choose from another record in the archives.

 

What else happens on the Feedbands site?

 

Another OH MY!!!!  Lots is happening on the Feedbands site, which I should really be calling a “platform” since it is so much more than just a flat music web site.

 

Each artist has their own page.   That page gives a brief overview of the artist, allows you to follow/unfollow them, displays the tracks they have submitted to Feedbands, links to their web site and social media, list of Feedbands fans of the artist, the artist’s recent activity which includes comments and music uploads and finally, the artist’s “wall” which is the place for Feedbands subscribers to interact with the artist.  This really allows subscribers and artists to really interact with one and other.  If I were an artist, I would be dedicating significant time to interacting with subscribers through this page.  I suspect that people subscribing to Feedbands are those who wear t-shirts of bands that don’t even exist yet.

 

Feedbands as an organization also has an organic farm.  Here’s what the web site says about it…

 

“COME PLAY A SHOW, CRASH FOR A NIGHT, & GET FED.

 

Independent touring bands have it tough. Aside from booking shows and gassing up the van and maintaining their energy for shows, they need to find a place to sleep and food to eat, and it all cuts into the tour budget which, for most bands, is slim. Feedbands hopes to play its own small role helping touring artists passing through Asheville with todays announcement: the launch of a farm where bands can sleep and eat free of charge and even play a show if they want.”

 

How cool is that?

 

And to support really young artists, Feedbands has a fund to get musical instruments into the hands of promising artists.

 

“THE FEEDBANDS FUND – INSTRUMENTS FOR THE NEXT GENERATION

 

The Feedbands Fund is an ongoing project to get musical instruments into the hands of kids and teens who might not otherwise have the opportunity to play and learn an instrument.”

 

Clearly the people behind Feedbands really care about music and musicians.

 

This is a site to visit and visit regularly.

 

I love it.
What do you get and what does it cost?

 

Each month you get the digital download of the record, download of the Daily Dose, a single limited edition record (or choose from the archives), plus a 12 x 12 lyric sheet with original art work, a band write up and as Feedbands tells us “A good feeling about supporting independent music”.

 

For US subscribers the cost is $20 USD per month plus $2.99 shipping.

 

For International subscribers the cost is also $20 USD per month but shipping is $20 USD.  Feedbands is aware that international shipping is a bit high, so there is an option to bundle 3, 6 or 12 months of albums and ship for only $20 USD for the bundle.  If you’re willing to wait, that’s a significant savings.