Dayton Alum Looks to Crowd-Funding to Finance Latest CD

Springfield residents have an opportunity to get on board the crowd-funding train while supporting an arts project involving a Jonathan Dayton High School alum. 

Ross Fish, who graduated from Dayton High in 2010, is a working musician who writes, performs and produces music for no reason beyond love.


"I work really hard for what I do," he said on his website, which features his unique brand of electronic ambient indie pop-rock. "[I] pay for it out of my own wallet without ever expecting a dime in return."

Fish produces his songs—tracking, mixing and mastering—using an old-fashioned analog medium: tape. He boasts on his website that the music he records is performed old-school too, live, in his garage, from start to finish with no edits.  

When it comes to publicizing his newest music, the forthcoming disc "Young and Naive," however, Fish is using a new-millennium digital boost, sharing his music videos on YouTube rather than MTV (which shows precious few videos anymore, anyway, although the channel does have the vid for the album's title track). And to raise money to recoup what he paid to create that song, he's taken to the Internet, and more specifically, the site Kickstarter.

Since 2009, the company Kickstarter has provided online tools to raise money to finance creative projects via crowd funding through its website. Using the site and becoming a "producer" is quite simple. Individuals visit the site and donate whatever amounts they like to projects they wish to support. The company has funded a number of artistic efforts, including stage plays and revues, films, music, books, journalism projects, video games and more.

On Kickstarter, obtaining funding is not a given: Each artist sets a goal for how much money her or his project requires, and the money is collected and sent to the artist only if enough individuals pledge in sufficient amounts to reach the financial goal. If that target is not met, the pledges vanish—the prospective donors' credit cards are not charged.

If the funding goal is met, the backers receive no money, only the satisfaction that the project will move forward and a tangible gift such as a note from the artist, posters, CDs or DVDs or T-shirts.

"This money will reimburse me for the production cost (tape, mix/master, 4 track repairs) [and] fund the duplication, packaging and shipping of the first batch of [300] physical CDs," Fish noted on his Kickstarter page. "If you fund this album you will get a copy of it and I will just barely break even."

The "Young and Naive" fundraiser offers a number of donation levels—for instance, those who donate $10 get a copy of the finished CD and free shipping. Fish said this will in no way make him rich.

"I only make $5 per CD," he explained. "I won't be making any profit off of these CDs until after this Kickstarter is finished and I'm selling the CD at shows."

Fish said he will perform a number of shows in Savannah, Ga.,  with drummer Tanner Dugan later this year to promote the recording.

If you'd like to hear "Day After Day" from the LP, just click the widget on the page and tell us what you think in the comments.

Should the project attract enough funding to exceed the goal, the overage will go toward making more CD copies, investing in merchandise to be sold to fans on the road and future expenses related to music.

"Every extra dollar helps immensely," Fish said.