POLL: See first post - How much would you invest in Wisteria Song?

[FanDeAliFee]

"This is not an offering, which can only be made by prospectus."

But I am curious, and maybe some with pecuniary interests are too. If you had the opportunity to invest in Wisteria Song, Alizée's personal music business firm, would you do so, and how far would you go?

A fan can of course buy Alizée products, like the occasional concert performance ticket, an audio recording or her store gear. All of this certainly is MUCH better than pirating her recordings! But her margin on these things is limited, and in most cases you will be putting much more money into the hands of people other than the Corsican girl and the essential artistic professionals she must pay.

There is no more dramatic example of this than attending a far-away concert - e.g. a Mexican fan going to Tel Aviv will spend vastly more on airfare and living expenses than on the concert ticket itself, even stipulating he could afford such a trip in the first place. The same is true for a French fan who might dream of seeing Alizée in Mexico. (I omit American fans from any example, knowing how very rare they are!)

Direct patronage eliminates the margin problem. For performers who cannot aggregate large enough crowds in one place to fill a venue, even a distributed venue like a set of video-linked chaperoned mini-theaters, I think patronage will prove necessary to fill the financial gap which opens up as recorded media becomes ever more impossible to sell in the face of the ease and sad moral acceptance of its piracy.

I do not know French business law. But I suspect to issue stock, one would have to reorganize Wisteria Song and also endure increases in regular legal and accounting expenses.

The entertainment business is NOT an investment vehicle for proverbial "widows and orphans." It is not even a typical investment. This is venture capitalism, pure and simple, and people who cannot afford to be hurt should not play the VC game.

To give an example, consider making Hollywood films. If I recall right, out of every ten films made, two make money, one roughly breaks even and seven lose money, according to one of the editions of the venerable tome, Entertainment Industry Economics

But I think there are people here who would invest in Wisteria Song whether or not a return was certain, likely or maybe even plausible. Why?

Twice polls conducted here in 2010 revealed dozens of people willing to support Alizée by financial means, without any personal gain or thanks for their contribution, and at a collective level of 1000 Euros or more.

Ben tells us he spends US $2000 annually to underwrite the hosting costs of Alizée America, mainly the recordings, of which (non-illicit!) videos could be hosted at YouTube in high def for free.

And Dave showed us that one guy can even spend US $3000 on (sadly quixotic) radio ads in a militantly anglophone narket in the attempt to generate new Alizée sales.

So why would it be strange to imagine it is possible that among such people one might find investors for Wisteria Song? Surely there are worse ways to use the money, as was shown.

Before you vote, I make a VERY important stipulation. The hypothetical company shares would be NON-VOTING: you would never have any voice in how the firm was run, sold or closed. Naturally, the dividend would first be zero, and might never rise above that level. And don't look for a public exchange on which to sell the shares of a company as tiny as Wisteria Song - if you wanted out, you'd have to find a buyer on your own.

Like the other polls I've posted mentioning money, this one is anonymous. No one need feel embarrassed to answer truthfully. And of course Wisteria needn't be embarrassed to do this tiny bit of market research, because I am here to do it for them. Please also remember that Americans number only a very small part of Alizée's global fanbase. A few thousand Euros invested by a handful of Americans would not change the fate of Wisteria, but 100,000 Euros raised from every corner of the world would do a lot to help fund the production and marketing of a new album. I know, because I have seen the germane financial summaries.

And think of what it would mean to an average person, none of whose life ever proved especially spectacular, to be a meaningful part of the ongoing career of a glamorous, beloved star for whose artistic produce they could truly take partial credit!

OK, go and vote now. This might be the first step on a long road that allows fans to buy shares of Wisteria Song at http://www.alizeestore.com - one, or a great many!

[user472884]

tl;dr

I said 1000+

but that's what I would, not necessarily what I could

[Rev]

I think he intends for this to be real, not fantasy.

[FanDeAliFee]

This post has nothing to do with buying hypothetical shares in Wisteria Song., but pertains to the related topic of auditing the collection of money from a group of people.

Dave faced this challenge when taking orders for signed CDs in the spring and it also was implicitly present in the fundraising adventures with which I was involved.

This spring a new firm named WePay started providing service. The New York Times writes: The WePay platform allows users to set up accounts for groups of people to manage and collect funds. For example, a group account could be used to raise funds for a charity or collect rent amongst roommates.

WePay provides an auditing function, but not a treasurer function. The funds collected for a particular purpose are in the complete spending control of the account administrator, (i.e. treasurer), whom all the cooperating parties must trust. But it seems to provide an easy way to reliably verify that contributors have been paid and how much, et cetera.

WePay might be used to collect money which compensates someone who is sent to a musical star's concert as the representative of a fan club. The donors could be fan club members, one of whom is chosen by the account administrator at random to serve as said representative. In this way, a club of fans, none of whom could individually afford to attend the concert, could at least manage to send one of their number, who could make a report as well as have a good time.

It is always touchy trusting someone with money, especially a party with a short track record! I myself have never used WePay. A simple way to become familiar with it might be for a group of AAm members to use it to collect $1 contributions to buy the teddy bear in Ben's AAm store as a welcome gift for a new AAm member.

I invite people who know of similar services to bring them to our attention.

[Ronald]

I voted for 0 euro, I would buy stocks if possible, but only to gain some money, which is very hard at the moment. I still believe she can do better, I don't know when her record deal ends, but go and find yourself a better one mademoiselle Alizée......

[AlizéeInspired]

Similar to Jalen, I would go in 1000+ but only if I could. Realistically speaking, I am just not capable of putting that much money into something at the moment. I would only be able to go in 20-50 Euros right now . And that wouldn't help much.