Earl Scioneaux in the New York Times!

Not too long ago, Earl Scioneaux III, engineer for many recording projects here at Preservation Hall (including New Orleans Preservation, Vol. 1!) went looking for a new way to fund a great recording project. The project is called Electronola, and it seeks to cross-pollinate the sounds of traditional New Orleans music with modern Electronic music. The method he used was a program called Kickstarter, by which enterprising artists and musicians can solicit funding from the general public at large in exchange for an insider's access to the process.

Today, Earl's project was profiled on the front page of the Business Section of the New York Times.

Not bad, Earl!

Here's what New York has to say about it:
A Few Dollars at a Time, Patrons Support Artists on the Web

By JENNA WORTHAM

Published: August 24, 2009

Earl Scioneaux III is not a famous music producer like Quincy Jones. He is a simple audio engineer in New Orleans who mixes live albums of local jazz musicians by day and creates electronic music by night. He had long wanted to pursue his dream of making his own album that married jazz and electronica, but he had no easy way to raise the $4,000 he needed for production.

Then he heard about Kickstarter, a start-up based in Brooklyn that uses the Web to match aspiring da Vincis and Spielbergs with mini-Medicis who are willing to chip in a few dollars toward their projects. Unlike similar sites that simply solicit donations, patrons on Kickstarter get an insider’s access to the projects they finance, and in most cases, some tangible memento of their contribution. The artists and inventors, meanwhile, are able to gauge in real time the commercial appeal of their ideas before they invest a lot of effort — and cash.

Mr. Scioneaux, who ultimately raised $4,100, offered a range of rewards to his supporters: for a $15 payment, patrons received an advance copy of the album; for $30, they got a personal music lesson as well. A payment of $50 or more got both of those, and a seat at Mr. Scioneaux’s dinner table for a bowl of his homemade gumbo and a chance to listen to some of his studio recordings. “I didn’t expect people to be all over that one,” he said, “but it sold out almost immediately...”

FULL ARTICLE HERE