THE BLACK PRISM - CDs are in!
about 1 year ago
– Mon, Feb 20, 2023 at 01:43:38 PM
Hello all,
I hope all is well!
Great news! CDs are in!
We're preparing the packages (signing CDs, etc) as we speak. These will all be going out in the next couple of days.
Due to a massive spike in costs, the liner notes on the physical albums is very simple. So, we'll be sending out (through BackerKit) a digital liner notes. Keep an eye out for both the CD and the PDF.
Tales of The Black Piper CAMPAIGN
In one of our recent updates, we put out a call for authors, and we've been getting a good response! The campaign launches in just over a week, and we're currently at 64% funded. So, be excited!
We'll be sending out a few messages this week preparing you for what's to come - highlighting rewards and other good things. So, keep an eye out for that.
And if you're an author and would like a link to the page early to get familiarized and get your pledge in, let me know!
All the best,
Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper.
BLACK PRISM: CDs & TALES OF THE BLACK PIPER: Early Access
about 1 year ago
– Wed, Feb 15, 2023 at 06:45:50 PM
Hi everyone,
I hope you're all well! I have a few bits of exciting news for you!
The Black Prism - Digital Release
Before I jump into the CDs and Tales, I want to mention that The Black Prism | Lightbringer Album 1 has released today! If any of you feel so inclined, we'd love for you to go have a listen on your favorite platform to help the album gain visibility, and leave the album an honest review! That would be extremely appreciated!
The Black Prism - CDs
Great news! I just received word today that the CDs have been completed by the manufacturer and are now being shipped. We should have them next week, and we will get to work signing and shipping them out to you as soon as we get them!
So, keep an eye on your mailbox!
Tales of The Black Piper - Early Access for Writers
And for more exciting news: we have finished the campaign page for Tales of The Black Piper, and we are giving it some finishing touches. While we're planning on launching publicly in March, BackerKit is allowing us to open up early access to the campaign to writers. We want to make sure that you are able to check out the campaign and secure your position, and we also want to give you time to prepare your friends, family, fans, and acquaintances for the big day.
For those who are interested and/or planning to join as a writer - please send me a message, either via email or social media (Facebook messenger via The Black Piper, Discord DM, etc.), and I'll get you access!
Happy Lightbringer Day to you all!
Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper
BLACK PRISM - Physical CD, Refractions Updates
over 1 year ago
– Mon, Jan 23, 2023 at 08:18:49 PM
Hi everyone!
I hope all is well with you. We have a few updates for you.
Refractions
Thank you to everyone who took part in the survey from last time. The response was overwhelmingly in favor of...
20 tracks!
A few people marked 18 and a few marked 16. Then again, a few other people elected to use the freeform response to let us know that 40 was an acceptable number.
So, with 86.84% of you interested in 20+ tracks, it looks like that's what we're doing! (Well, the 20 part. Not sure on the "+", yet.) This means we're likely looking at delivery sometime around June.
Physical Black Prism CDs
Everything with regards to the album and liner notes has all been approved by the Weeks team. This means that physical Black Prism CDs are now being manufactured. The manufacturer (Discmakers) gave us the following info:
Estimated Arrival Date: Feb 10 - 20 (in our warehouse)
We'll keep you updated both of any changes and of when the albums arrive.
Status of All the Things (in one spot)
OK, so just to see everything at a glance (and because I'm visual), here is the list of where we are with everything:
The Black Prism digital copy: ✓ delivered
The Black Prism physical copy: arriving in the warehouse Feb 10 - Feb 20, 2023
The Black Prism wider release: see below
Reflections digital copy: ✓ delivered, mostly*
Refractions digital copy: estimated June 2023
The Black Prism artwork: estimated end of February 2023 (though we may send this out in two parts, with part 1 sooner)
Tales of The Black Piper: campaign prep is in full swing. More info soon!
* Refractions: we do have a bonus track we'll be sending out in the next little bit. One additional backer/patron granted us permission to include it, so keep an eye out for that.
The Black Prism wider release: We just signed a distribution deal with Symphonic as our distributor, which is something that we're excited about for a few reasons:
- The first is that they actively promote their catalogues. This is something we haven't done a whole lot of - leaving this mostly up to word of mouth. (We've focused most of our resources on the work, and haven't been able to promote as much as we'd love to.) This is why it's incredible that we currently have 24k+ monthly listeners on Spotify! Still, what would things look like if we had active promotion? Definitely a question we want to get answered.
- Second, and much more importantly (though you may or may not find it interesting), Symphonic has a revenue sharing model that will allow us to easily "split share" with our composers and other parties. This will make the capturing of funds, royalty distribution, and reporting 100% automatic for our collaborators. With all that we have to tackle, both on this and upcoming projects, the more automation we can take advantage of, the better! And also, if things with Symphonic work well on this release, we'll likely be looking to move our other releases over, so we can take advantage of what they have to offer.
So, anyway, what does all this "wider release" stuff mean for our fans? Well, simply put, it means that The Black Prism will be showing up on Spotify, Apple Music, and everywhere else very soon - both for streaming and purchase. My guess is that we should start seeing it on a few platforms sometime in February. So, be ready to share with everyone you know!
We're also debating a wider Reflections/Refractions release, though we haven't had much feedback on Reflections yet, so we're still noodling on whether to roll out as well.
Well, I wanted to keep that brief, but... that's all for now.
As always, thank you for everything, and let us know of any thoughts or questions or comments you might have!
All the best,
Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper
BLACK PRISM Updates & REFRACTIONS Progress (Need your feedback)
over 1 year ago
– Mon, Jan 09, 2023 at 07:53:41 PM
Hi all!
I hope you are all doing well and that you had great holidays!
I wanted to send you a quick update, now that we're back in the swing of things over here.
The Black Prism - Physical CDs
We are working with Brent's team to finalize the liner notes. We just received some direction from them today on our previous version of the notes, and we should have a new version back to them for review tonight or tomorrow.
Once we get their approval on that, we'll send all the materials to the manufacturer, and from there it should be just a couple of weeks before we are sending them out to you.
Refractions
This album is coming along, and we're really excited about where it's headed. There will be some energetic, fun, moving, and a few epic tracks on this album. Given the nature of the project, it's going to be a rather eclectic collection, with things like heist music, electronic, gypsy, and quirky piano jazz just to name a few.
It's a bit more intensive to prepare than Reflections was, as Reflections had a lot of the legwork already done. As we're digging into the material, we're finding that so many of the Refractions tracks need some serious updating/overhaul.
Here's our current state:
Finalized Tracks: 4 (with 1 more in the final stages)
Tracks to Arrange: 2, possibly 3 (or more, see below)
Tracks to Mix: this depends (see below)
Refractions - Timing
So, the question about total tracks and how many we have left to arrange/mix is an interesting one.
When we put together our potential track list for this, we had a
lot of songs. Some of that was easy to whittle down - some songs are tied up in rights, some were songs whose original files we don't have access to anymore, and some songs would only be redeemable with a lot of rework (far more than the songs that made the list.)
But even after that, we still have enough tracks to put together 2 or 3 volumes of 12 to 20 tracks each. The trick here is that so many of the tracks need so much love. So, the question about total tracks comes down to: would you rather wait longer and receive more tracks, or get a nice 12-track album sooner (possibly as soon as the end of the month)?
If I were to estimate, this is what I think the delivery timing would look like, given where we are and what we are looking at:
8-track album: next week
12-track album: January/February 2023
16-track album: March 2023
18-track album: April/May 2023 (these two additional tracks will take a little bit, as they are full-blown rework/arrangements.)
20-track album: June 2023 (same story for these two, with one of them needing some extra recording.)
Here's where you come in. We could make a decision. (Well, it's tough, because I love a lot of these tracks, and if it were up to me, I'd be happy to spend the rest of the year polishing and getting you a 40-track album....) But your opinion is important to us. Would you rather get fewer tracks sooner, more tracks later, or some kind of in-between?
Please take a moment to let us know through this one-question survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HMPQJ7S -- Thank you!
Reflections
Were you all able to receive your copy of Reflections (those who ordered it)? If not, let us know! Also, we'd love to hear what you think of the album and the stories that went with each song.
Tales of The Black Piper
We have a few active queries out to some potential veteran authors with a few promising options we are really hoping work out. (I'm itching to tell you all about it!) Waiting for final answer (and contracts) will potentially place the campaign in March, but it will be worth it if we can secure their participation. In the meantime, we are making good progress on the preparation, and we are extremely excited to get started!
Well, I think that's everything! Looking forward to any thoughts, questions, and feedback you all have about all the above, and I hope you have a lovely week!
All the best,
Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper
Black Prism Updates & Tales of The Black Piper Campaign
over 1 year ago
– Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 04:15:59 PM
Hi everyone!
I hope you are all well, and Happy Holidays for those who are celebrating this week.
I thought it was time for a few updates / status check-in on The Black Prism, Reflections, Refractions, and Tales of The Black Piper.
The Black Prism
Digital Delivery
As most of you are aware, we sent out the digital album earlier this month. It was a pretty fast turnaround, but our team sure put their hearts into making it happen - and we truly hope that you're happy with the final product.
If you haven't received your copy, please let me know ASAP, and we'll get things taken care of.
If you have, we'd love to hear what you think of the music on this one! Each project is unique, and while the feedback we've received so far has been positive, we'd love to hear where we landed, what you loved, and where there is room for improvement.
Physical CDs
We've wrapped up the design for the booklets on these, and are putting together PDFs to send to Brent's team for review. Once we get the thumbs up from them, we'll send the designs, together with the album, to the manufacturer for CD duplication. If all goes well here, we will be on track to send out the physical CDs in January!
Artwork
The artwork for the wallpapers is nearly prepped. We'll send this out to you soon. We have some artwork for the bookmarks, and are working with our illustrator on the remaining pieces. We don't have a solid ETA on this one yet, but we'll make sure to keep you apprised.
Reflections / Refractions
While the music has been written for these two albums, there is a fair bit of work to go into the preparation side on them, including mix improvements. We're currently looking at releasing them in mid-January-ish, though I'll certainly be giving sneak peaks on our Discord from time to time as we work through the list.
Tales of The Black Piper Anthology
Many of you have reached out to me with much anticipation for Tales, and I'm pleased to let you know that campaign prep is well underway. Our intro video is in post production right now, and the page content is being built out, timelines are being worked through, and we're taking lessons we learned from the first BackerKit and making the process as simple and smooth as possible, while making a product that will be as exciting as possible.
After discussion among the team, and considering the holiday season and schedules, we are looking at a possible January campaign - so make sure you have it marked on your calendars, and keep an eye out for the pre-sign-up!
We are looking forward to some great things in the coming months.
Happy Holidays, again, and as always, thank you for everything! Let us know in the comments if you have any questions or to share your excitement.
All the best,
Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper
