Songwriter’s Monthly - June ’11, #137 http://www.scribd.com/SongwritersMonthly

ot long ago, I found myself gettingin my car after work and driving fromLos Angeles to San Diego (and thenback, later that night), just so that Icould attend a show. I figure whenmost people read this, they will eithernot realize the geography of Californiaand the distance that trip entailed, orthey will think I’m ridiculous for driving just about five hours round trip so Icould see a show in a coffee shop.Some people do crazy things for music,and I’m no exception.The artist I took this excursion for wasa singer-songwriter from New Jerseynamed Val Emmich. You may not haveheard his name before, but I can

Val & I, February 2011 in San Diego, CA

almost guarantee you’ve seen his face— as an actor, he has had small roles in

30 Rock

and

Ugly Betty

, as well asbeing in commercials for Heineken andMacy’s within the last year.I first discovered Val in 2004 when hewas on tour opening for DashboardConfessional. At this time, he wassigned to major label Epic Records.While his time on Epic didn’t last long(which is another storyfor another day, trustme), it didn’t discouragehim from continuing tomake music. Since then,he has come out withfour full-length albums,mostly independently, which to this dayhold some of my favorite songs of alltime.Which brings us up to now: Val isplanning a new release and using thewebsite Kickstarter to make it happen.For those of you who don’t know whatKickstarter is, in the simplest terms it’sa website where supporters are giventhe opportunity to pledge money inorder to help finance something. In thiscase, it’s Val’s new release. He set hisown pledge goals alongside a rewardtier, and set the time frame forgathering the pledges to be one monthlong, hoping that it would be longenough to gather the money heneeded.His first goal was $7,000, and thatamount would allow him to record thealbum and release it digitally. The goalwas made by his fans on the first day.His second goal, $10,000, would allowhim to print physical copies of his CD.This goal was achieved only a few dayslater. In under a week, Val succeeded insurpassing his top two goals – and hedid it in under 130 pledges. That’sright, in doing the math that meanseach person pledged an average of $80to make this new album a reality.So what does this mean?In this day and age, where it isincessantly being reported that themusic industry is “crumbling” and no oneis willing to pay formusic anymore, here wehave a chunk of peoplewho are paying over 5xthe amount of theaverage cost of a CD in order to getnew music from an artist they like. Arewe (I say “we” because I made mypledge on day one) crazy? Or have we just found something worth believingin? I’ll leave that for you to decide.While I find it hard to personallyexpress how much his music means tome, the love that Val has received fromKickstarter has made me want to jump

Songwriter’s Monthly - June ’11, #137 http://www.scribd.com/SongwritersMonthly