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Fokofpolisiekar. Picture: Supplied
Fokofpolisiekar. Picture: Supplied

Fokofpolisiekar breaks records

By IOL adapted from press release Time of article published Mar 28, 2017

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Fokofpolisiekar launched a 60-day crowdfunding campaign via Thundafund to raise money for a new album which they plan to release in October 2017.

Fokofpolisiekar wants to release this album independently and needs the support of their fans to make it happen.

The fans showed up in full force and then records started to break…

Once the campaign kicked off, Fokofpolisiekar’s fans responded in full force and the band received pledges to the value of R180 000 within 48 hours. Hunter Kennedy’s acoustic guitar (valued at R25 000) was picked up within the first hour of the campaign by a fan from New Zealand.

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Thundafund (the leading South African crowdfunding platform) has hosted around 200 campaigns and successfully helped to raise almost R11 million to date. Out of all these campaigns, Fokofpolisiekar has raised the most money in the first 48 hours.

According to Thundafund, Fokofpolisiekar also managed to raise the most funds for a music album in South Africa to date.

It is 5 days since Fokofpolisiekar started running this campaign and they are just over halfway to reaching their dream target.

‘’The response has been insane. Our plan was to go live a few days before the March payday and we were not expecting much funds to come in until mid-April. Now we are already over halfway. The Spirit of Fokof is alive and well, but the trick is to keep the momentum. We still need to get just under R250K to make this project work,’’ says Francois van Coke.

‘’We really urge fans to help us reach the dream goal. To raise R500K for an album is insane, but it is what is needed to create what we have in mind. If we do not reach the goal everyone is getting their money back and then there is no album. It is ‘’everything or fokol’. It has been going well, but we are still far away from the dream goal. Every pledge is going to count and for just R80 you are guaranteed of getting a digital copy of the album 30 days before the commercial release and you are helping this campaign succeed. What a bargain!’’ Jaco Snakehead Venter

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Why R500 000? If they can reach their target of R500 000 before 20 May, the album will be recorded in June and mixed in July. Pre-orders will go live in September and the album will be out in October.

The R500 000 will not only cover the album production costs, but also printing costs, the cost of a music video, marketing expenses and various crowdfunding expenses.

‘’All-in-all to record an album is expensive, even the crowdfunding campaign has a lot of expenses. Sad thing is that the music in its recorded format does not have much value. People pirate and stream music. The days of making much of a profit on an album or even breaking even is over, but that does not change the fact that we feel we have something to offer. Something that we want to create and share with our fans. By getting our fans involved with helping us fund the project, we have complete freedom to create the album that we want to. We don’t have to worry about ‘breaking even’, etc. We can just focus on writing and recording music.’’ says Wynand Myburgh.

Die Bende compiled an exciting list of rewards for fans to pledge for. Items and experiences include a private performance in a hotel room, watching a Super Rugby match in a private suite with the band, Wynand Myburgh’s bass guitar, framed vintage posters and many more.

There are also a few items available that are exclusive to this crowdfunding campaign: Fokofpolisiekar watches, unreleased 10’’ vinyl, branded Levi’s jackets, branded Converse sneakers and more.

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