#REALTALK // Ne Obliviscaris and Their Many Bosses

Congratulations to home-grown prog metal band Ne Obliviscaris for cracking $100K (USD) per year in Patreon funding – now you have hundreds of bosses instead of one.

It’s not easy being a touring metal band in Australia. Ne Obliviscaris have two albums to their name and tens of thousands of dollars in debt. This is a precarious situation for anyone to be in, even more for a band that needs to pay band bills and themselves. According to a press release, they lose an average of $20,000 per tour. They crowdfunded their Citadel World Tour with $86,000 (AUD), netting over twice what they asked for. The tour was had and by all accounts was fan money well spent.

To fund the entire band, they turned to creator funding platform Patreon. Patreon funds creators (writers, musicians, filmmakers, etc.) with monthly pledges from fans. These fans, the Ne Obluminati as they’re called, pledge their amount for something in return – be it online hangouts, advance access to content, or rare discs and merch that no one else can buy.

NeO use the analogy that joining the Ne Obluminati is like signing up to a sports club:

“Inspired by similar programs sports clubs have [used] for years, Ne Obliviscaris have asked their fans to buy membership packages in exchange for various levels of reward. Sport is the [dominant] recreation culture in Australia, and its fans support teams in similar ways through club membership programs and various donation methods. NeO have simply applied that methodology to the music scene, an industry that’s largely been left to fend for itself with no corporate sponsorship or mainstream media coverage and little government funding.”

Arguments over whether media should care about and/or whether the government should fund metal bands aside, the sports club analogy is disingenuous. The sports club will be a club for sports until the day we’re all overthrown by our insect overlords.

So what happens when Ne Obliviscaris does something the fans don’t like?

Like most entertainment products we consume, we either: pay for it in arrears (a DVD or CD that’s already made) or pay for access (Netflix, Spotify, etc.) The NeO experiment is paying for entertainment in advance, with no guarantee of what it looks like upon delivery.

As of writing, the Ne Obluminati have five “Grand Masters” paying $250 each. What happens when these Grand Masters demand creative input? Do they have a right to, considering they contribute $1,250 of the $6,503 they’re getting each month?

As of writing, the Ne Obluminati have five “Grand Masters” paying $250 each. What happens when these Grand Masters demand creative input? Do they have a right to, considering they contribute $1,250 of the $6,503 they’re getting each month? Could these Grand Masters hold NeO to ransom until they get exactly what they want? They’ve made the hardest part of being a musician – winning over and keeping fans – that much harder.

This isn’t to say the crusty old “sign to a music label” route is just better, but it asks a terrifying question of creators choosing to rely on this model.

Sticking with Patreon, NeO are forgoing employment with one company to go freelance. The freelancer is bound to the conditions of whoever pays them. Freelancers can’t tell paying clients “I want the final product to look like what I want it to look like.” No, the client gets what the client wants. Instead of one “boss,” NeO now have many – and it’s likely 99% of them trust their judgement. But what if that number drops?

For example, what if Northlane used Patreon after Adrian Fitipaldes left the band? Many fans didn’t react well. If 50% of fans abandoned Northlane’s hypothetical Patreon based on that knee-jerk reaction, ARIA-award winning Node may never have seen the light of day.

With any major investment – whether it’s in shares, property or your very own person – you need to diversify. That one income source could dry up if fans decide to revolt one day.

I do wish the band best of luck and hope things work out well. Here’s hoping their Patr(e)ons are benevolent tyrants.

You can support Ne Obliviscaris on Patreon here.

Additional comments: Jonty Simmons