Chris Kubik always dreamed of designing album covers. But as a senior graphic designer for Schumacher Electric Corp., he was more likely to spend his time with battery chargers and jump starters than superstars and electric guitars.
So when his girlfriend told him about a contest for Rascal Flatts fans to create the country trio's new album cover, he jumped at the chance. “I made up a couple of designs and entered them," says Kubik, 26, of Arlington Heights, Ill.
Kubik's design, which features the musicians sitting in high-back chairs with picture frames representing the group's six albums behind them, beat out 2,000 other submissions to grace the just-released Unstoppable, which likely will be the best-selling CD in the country this week. And Kubik, who already owned all the group's albums, now has an emotional investment that goes far beyond traditional notions of fandom. “This is an unbelievable opportunity," he says.
As CD sales decline, advances from record labels dwindle and audience demographics break up into smaller niches, more and more artists from all levels of popularity are seeking to retain fans by including them in the creative process.
The notion is hardly new. For years, record companies have used focus groups to help determine songs to be included on albums. In 2004, David Bowie asked fans to blend recordings of his older songs with those from a new album, Reality, to create “mash-ups" and submit them to his website. And Barenaked Ladies made available separate instrumental tracks for several songs from its 2006 album Barenaked Ladies Are Me so that fans could create their own mixes.
The methods of bringing the audience into the creative process have become more personal and may involve all stages of an act's career. Artists such as John Mayer and the Jonas Brothers' Joe Jonas are known for communicating directly with fans through social-networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Other acts engage fans through their websites.
“Many times when we're putting together a new tour, I'll get online and ask about what the fans want to hear, what songs they wish we would do live that we haven't done in a while," says Rascal Flatts bassist Jay DeMarcus. “Their input and their advice is invaluable to us. It's the main source of research for us whenever we start out to do a piece of business."
Fan interaction with musicians is blossoming on other fronts as well:
Kiss is using fan input at eventful.com/kiss to choose sites for its fall tour of North America.
Nine Inch Nails has a new DVD project called Another Version of the Truth: This One's on Us that includes a version of the band's 2008 Las Vegas concert edited together from dozens of fan-created video and audio recordings.
Queen Latifah used January's People's Choice Awards show to announce a contest in which fans could submit videos of original songs for possible inclusion on her forthcoming album, Persona (no release date yet). Fans eventually chose the song Fairweather Friend by Ingrid Woode, a 26-year-old chemist from Cincinnati.
“I was a fan before she (Latifah) made that announcement on the People's Choice Awards, and I always will be," says Woode, who is awaiting a date to record.
Rascal Flatts also used the People's Choice website to host its album-design contest, which ran in two stages. First, the band provided optional photos and design elements to aspiring designers, who then submitted potential covers. Then, the group chose a handful of favorites and let fans decide a winner.
“It was fun to involve them on the front end of the process, something we had never done before," DeMarcus says, adding that he's pleased with Kubik's winning design. “I like the simplicity of it. I like the way he enhanced an already fantastic photograph."
DeMarcus also liked outsourcing that particular part of the album-making process because it meant the group didn't spend nearly as much time choosing photos and debating potential covers.
“I'd much rather be writing or in the studio producing than be sitting around looking at a bunch of photos of myself," he says.
Going to fans for backing
Instead of outsourcing work to fans, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Jill Sobule went to them for backing. When she saw her usual sources of funding record-company advances dry up, she knew she'd have to get creative if she wanted to record again.
“The idea of trying to get a record deal and go have meetings seemed completely horrible," says Sobule, who had a top 20 modern-rock hit in 1995 with I Kissed a Girl (not the Katy Perry song) but hadn't released an album in five years. “The second thing was, no one's giving advances, so why would I do it, anyway? I've never made a penny off of records."
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