Hello and Welcome!
You’re at the gateway to Francis Farmer’s Inner Circle. Here you have the opportunity and ability to join our community by signing up for the whichever tier suits you best. It’s very quick and easy!
The 4 minute video below outlines what you need to know about the Inner Circle, and why you may wish to join us. If that’s too much time for you, there’s a TLDR ADD version a little further below.
Beyond that, there’s a bunch more for you as you scroll down to provide further background into the Inner Circle and the significant role that our members play.
Thank you for being here and we look forward to seeing you on the other side :)
Members First
For those who join our Inner Circle community, you will gain access to all sorts of exclusive content and behind the scenes footage. You will have the opportunity to hear new songs and watch new videos before they go live to the general public. You will receive exclusive discounts on merchandise and concerts, and get entered into members only monthly contests and giveaways. AND beyond all that, you may even be invited to help make decisions on works in progress when we are torn and need that deciding vote!
Apart from all of this Francis Farmer specific value, The Inner Circle is a fantastic community of people who love music, art and photography; movies and literature. We thoroughly enjoy the sharing and discussing of new and diverse ideas. We are people with big hearts and sharp minds! We value mutual respect, encouragement and empathy. We are dreamers and doers, and we are aiming to leave this world better off than it was before we got here.
The Inner Circle is a relatively new community, and the earlier you get involved, the more of a role you will play in helping to shape it with us. It is our goal to provide you with as much value as possible. We want to enrich your life, as you enrich ours.
If all of this sounds like an appealing place for you, then consider this your formal invitation to become a member of our Inner Circle community! Please choose your membership tier and involvement from the options above...
Welcome and thank you in advance :)
The Goals The Visions the gaps
the Role you Play
It seems all too common that we underestimate the impact that our actions and words have upon each other. At a micro, day to day level, and as a collective, we all play varying roles with varying effects on present and future outcomes within our collective. Whether that effect is big or small, ultimately,
WE ARE ALL CONNECTED and YOU HAVE AN IMPACT!
Goals, Visions and the Gaps
From a macro perspective Francis Farmer's goals are fundamentally simple:
1. Produce and Release as much Music, Videos and Art as Possible,
While Constantly Raising the bar of Quality.
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At present, there are about 25-30 unfinished, unreleased songs in quality demo form, just waiting for the full and proper treatment they deserve. Not to mention at least 20 others that are partly written but slightly less developed, and the countless others that will come between now and the time those first 25-30 are released.
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On top of all the music, there are a solid 10 full scale videos concepts, that have been drafted or fully scripted, also waiting for the time when they came be brought to full fruition. Some of these are in pre-production right now, or were in the past, and time/budget temporarily slowed them to a halt.
2. Find, Reach, Inspire and Serve the Largest Audience Possible.
Cultivate Community therein.
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There are literally millions of people in the world who would love Francis Farmer's music and art. How do we know? Well, simply because there are numerous bands with a similar enough sound, that consistently fill stadiums around the globe, getting millions of streams and video views on the daily. BUT they're not us, and we're not them; People will always crave new things!
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The fact is, even if there are millions of people who will love our music, we still need to find and reach them. In order to do this in a 100% organic way, there are countless hours that need to be spent networking and creating community. Whether on social media, or within the industry itself, cultivating and maintaining these relationships is vital for growth! It is also vital to be constantly serving them with new content.
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Accelerating this process can certainly be done, it just requires money and knowledge. Most, if not all, of your favourite artists or brands have also had massive marketing budgets to push and keep them in the forefront of cultural awareness. This is not an absolute must for success, but it is definitely an advisable piece of the puzzle.
3. Continue Growing into a Self-Sustaining and Thriving Creative Machine.
Better Serving present and future Audiences
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In this area, the first objective is to have all future creations be self-sustaining from a cash flow perspective. Much like a real estate developer raises capital through private investment in order to build a new mall or apartment building - The Inner Circle is playing a HUGE role in raising capital, in order to keep the songs, videos and creativity flowing out to all of you.
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By raising capital on a consistent monthly basis, You and the Inner Circle contribute in a massive way towards better planning of music recordings and video productions. The funds also free up more time for first hand project execution as well as increased capability for outsourcing. Ultimately both of these elements lead to more efficient delivery of new music and content to better serve all of you!
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Beyond funding the creations in a sustainable fashion, we can then move into expanding the audience through time for organic outreach and capital for strategic targeted marketing. Doing the organic side is quite time intensive, but also very rewarding because it involves connecting with more people like you. Paid marketing can be very costly, but also very very effective if you know what you're doing because you can leverage existing data to find those who are very likely to enjoy what Francis Farmer does.
The Role You Play
It is probably quite clear to you now what our goals are, and how YOU, as a member of The Inner Circle, play a very crucial role. There is circular momentum to it all. Together, we are actively cultivating a positive feedback loop. The more our community grows, the more value we provide, the more income we generate, the more we can raise quality and efficiency!
Success in music is
a Magical Challenge
Being a musician/creator these days is both magical and incredibly challenging...
These next few paragraphs will lend you further insight into some of the pros and cons of the music industry today, and why you're contributions of money, likes, shares, and follows make a much bigger impact than you could possibly imagine.
THE MAGIC
Today's world for musicians and creators is magical in the sense that, through the advent of technology, we now have an abundance of really great tools for creation at relatively low cost. (ie. music, video and photo softwares, etc.) So if you really know what you're doing, and willing to put in the time, you can make very high quality creations on a quite limited budget.
It's magical because, the internet is a near infinite resource. So if you don't know how to do something, you can a tutorial, and with time and effort, you can become an expert. Or you can find someone who can do what you can't and hire them.
It also magical in the sense that we now have a multitude of marketing/exposure tools directly at our finger tips via Social Media and Video/Audio streaming platforms. These tools enable artists to build and maintain a direct connection with their audience, while providing their unique value in far more ways than was previously available.
Long story short, because of all these tools, resources and platforms, artists don't NEED a record label to front us $100K for studio time, OR physically manufacture and distribute our CDs, Tapes, and Vinyls to stores, OR push our music to radio and TV in order to create a viable career as an artist (although some of that certainly still seems pretty awesome!)
All that magical stuff....Sounds great right?!?!?!?!!? Weelllllllllllll, that's only half of the story...
THE Challenge
The challenge of the present landscape, is that as independent artists not only do we have to pay for everything, but we now have to become experts at:
- Recording and producing our music and videos.
- Building and maintaining 3-7 social media platforms, (while keeping up on their best practices, and constantly fighting their algorithms that intentionally block content from reaching you as followers)
- Creating and developing our "brand"
- Building our own websites
- Search Engine Optimization (so we can be found on Google)
- Booking our own shows
- Handling accounting, negotiation and invoicing
- Sourcing merchandise and fronting production costs
"But wait, aren't you supposed to be a musician? Don't you play and perform music?!? "
OOOOHHHH Yeah... Shit! Looks like we've gotta be experts at that too!
More Challenge
To further the challenge, remember that part about fronting the cost for everything?
Well, even though technology has helped to reduce costs significantly, there are still a ton of expenses that artist entrepreneurs take on. Some are on a per creation basis, others are ongoing.
To name some of them...
- Website domain and hosting
- Recording or Mixing at studios (still advisable for certain things)
- Filming or post production at studios (colour grading, FX, editing)
- Mastering (advisable to outsource if you mix yourself)
- Music Equipment (ie. instruments, PA, amplifiers, Strings, Microphones, Cables, etc.)
- Recording and Camera Equipment (Quality = Very Expensive)
- Google and Facebook ads (you want your creations to reach new audiences don't you?)
- Aggregators for digital distribution to streaming platforms
- Travel expenses (for touring musicians)
- Rehearsal space rental
- Too many other things to list...
"Quit bitching bro! There's costs involved in running any business!"
Harsh Truths
Very, very true. And to be fair, no one is forcing us to be in this industry. BUT how many industries do you know of where people no longer pay for the fundamental service?!?
Well, this is the harsh truth in the music industry. How many people do you know that still buy physical albums? Sure, Vinyl has made a come back in recent years, but it's still super niche, and production costs are massive!
Most people these days consume music via streaming platforms. Spotify represents about 80% of global streaming market share. Are you curious what they pay artists per stream?
Answer: Approximately $0.0039 per stream!
Meaning you need to generate about 1 Million streams in order to earn $4,000. So to be amongst the lower middle class earners in North America, an artist would need to yield about a million streams every month!
What's more, a recent change in Spotify policy means they no longer pay artists for any song that has less than 1000 streams.
"Damn! That's a kick in the nuts! How do you pay your bills?!?"
Great question!
The Bottom Line
In summation, the bulk of independent artists are forced to still work normal day jobs in order to make ends meet. In spite of being as talented as Mozart and putting in more hours at their craft than it takes to become a Doctor or Lawyer!
In case it's not obvious enough at this point, the long list of challenges and these harsh truths are why most musicians stop. The financial burden, exhaustion and rejection just become too overbearing.
For those of us die hard artists, like Francis Farmer, that keep going, it is because of you the fan/follower in combination with an unrelenting love and passion for what we do!
Still here and Reading?!?
If you're still here and reading, you clearly care more than most. Thank you for that :)
We hope to see you on the other side of this Inner Circle gateway, as a part of our community!