People of the world. We are publishing our first soundtrack!
You can find it here on itch.io
The Static Abyss album landed at 13 tracks and around 50 minutes! All for just $5!
For those of you who backed the kickstarter/preordered after the campaign, we’re going to send you one email with all the download links next friday (4/28). (That’s when MIRU I & II will be available digitally)
For those of you who interested in getting the album on minidisc, there are 5 left available as of the writing of this email.
This companion album features a wide range of sounds to create the perfect atmosphere while you play MIRU and hunt down a god. We tried to create an audio experience that paired well with both MIRU games and we hope you think so too.
That’s it for the announcement! Thanks for your support!
(Business talk below the line for those of you curious about our little publishing experiment)
At Mimic, we believe in something we call, ‘radical’ transparency. Sometimes it can feel like oversharing. But that’s ok. We enjoy being open with information because it helps us all learn and grow together.
The Static Abyss soundtrack is our first collaboration. Hinokodo reached out to his childhood friend to see if he had any ideas for a game soundtrack. Marshall & Hinokodo were in a little rock band in their middle school days and so the chemistry between them really blossomed well during the creation process. Marshall makes music through his media company Love and Wine Media. He has a full time job and can’t spend all his time on music, so it took a few months to get the album where it is today and we think the hard work really shows. If you enjoy the album, you should follow Love and Wine Media so you don’t miss what they do next. (Hopefully another game soundtrack. wink wink hint hint)
We’re experimenting with figuring out our payment structure over here at Mimic as we grow and expand the team. We’ve talked about this in a previous newsletter, but rather than bogging any individual down with debts, we pay a % of profits for the lifetime of a project. (This is called ‘royalties’ or sometimes ‘residuals’ in other industries) Unlike the classic publisher model, we’re a collective, and to boil that concept down quickly, there isn’t a company and an author relationship. We’re just a collection of authors. When we help out the other creatives under the Mimic Publishing umbrella, WE act as a publisher. It’s a little different.
We’re working on standardizing this process to cover a wide range of potential projects. Here’s how it worked out for us making an album.
(All numbers used are estimates, as checks clear we’ll get a better idea about the final numbers)
When a project is finished, the folks who worked on it divide up and label their roles and credits. These labels determine what % of profits you’ll receive if a project makes any profits. We break them down like so:
Major Contributors: 70-40% (Usually the ‘director’ or main team on a project)
Minor Contributors: 10-30% (Usually folks who help polish a project, editors, layout, and minor artists)
Mimic : 20% (This helps fund admin costs and jumpstart future projects that may require more expenses upfront)
Members: 10% (This encourages members to help other members, the better everyone does, the better the bonus pay is)
The Static Abyss album broke down into 2 ways;
A digital product and a Physical product.
The digital breakdown:
Major Contributors: Marshall 60%
Minor Contributors: Hinokodo 10%
Mimic: 20%
Members: 10%
The digital edition broke down this way because, while the project was initiated by Hinokodo and he directed the creative juices to where it got to today, most of the tracks & ‘work’ was done by Marshall. Without Marshall the album wouldn’t be what it turned into! The 2 creatives on the project get to determine how they want to break these credits down and that’s where they ended up.
The physical breakdown:
Major Contributors: Marshall 35% & Hinokodo 35% (70% total)
Minor Contributors: none (0%)
Mimic: 20%
Members: 10%
The physical edition breaks down a little differently because of the work involved in getting the minidisc into the real world. The concept, marketing, cover design, and general managing of the minidisc production process was Hinokodo’s ‘job’.
The ‘profit’ margins on the minidisc are pretty sad. Although they have a retail price of $25, during the kickstarter they were $20 (and that’s where 100% of them have been sold so far). They have an estimated profit margin of $1.50 (very expensive to make) So both artists will take home around $50 for the physical album.
The digital album has a long life ahead of it and puts a higher % of cash in the creator’s hands so they can keep creating. From the kickstarter sales, Marshall is looking at around $300 and Hinokodo around $50. During the kickstarter campaign, the soundtrack brought in about $2400. But it’s cost about $1750 to make so far. So we’re splitting up about $650 among both projects and everyone involved.
(So far) In this case, of the $650 or so the project has made, the artists are keeping about $450 of it. $200 is going to Mimic for future project funding, and 33.33% of whatever is left of that at the end of the year will be split up among members if they choose to. (This is how the Mimic 20% & Member 10% breaks down)
The album still has a long life ahead of it. The beauty of a digital soundtrack & an album on minidisc is that we can update it or add to it over time. (So those of you looking for music for the MIRU 3 campaign…. keep an eye out!)
That’s it for the radical transparency section. If you’re a creator (especially a musician) we hope this information is useful to you in some way. We would love to hear from you and your thoughts on profit sharing and the income differences from other platforms like spotify or bandcamp. (leave a comment if you’re reading this on substack or message us) The same invite goes out to creators who have collaborated with others, if you’ve had a project produce a similar result (income & expenses), did the payout feel fair to you? Would you have preferred royalties over an upfront payment?
Thanks for you time and support everyone.
*psst* some of you may be wondering when we’re going to open up memberships and applications to be published under the Mimic umbrella. Soon! Hinokodo needs to finish up MIRU first, meet some deadlines (expect more details closer to May). In the meantime, if you’re working on a project that you’d like to sell/make under the mimic publishing brand, send us a message. Consider this a soft opening for applications. Message us if you’re interested in being a member.
Cheers y’all.