2011 was incredible for all of us! We saw our fan base literally double since last year as our musician roster grew, we got to rock some huge shows nationwide, our amazing fans supported us in getting things we needed to succeed, and our influence on independent artistry spread even farther worldwide. it seems at this point that there’s not much we can’t do… We can only imagine what 2012 has in store for us all together!
Last year, we started a new tradition of letting the public know some of our year-end numbers to put it better into perspective just how much our fans, friends, and family make a difference in our mission. Without seeing these numbers, you might never know just how your contributions of time, presence, and funds have truly effected us. It’s time for you to see how you helped us shine in 2011, and also to see the future more clearly!
Here is the current Scrub Club Records at a glance: 30 individual artists. 66 albums (860 total tracks). 4,164 photos. As far as social media subscribers, we currently have 2,838 on Facebook, 1,190 on Twitter, 496 on YouTube (with 156,376 video views), and 19,001 on that decrepit MySpace tombstone. Our Donate Your Account campaign has 58 repeaters. On Last.fm, we tore up the game with 491,912 plays from 67,224 badass, unique listeners.
First of all, let’s talk about the music – After all, it’s what we put to the forefront:
Since 2006 (when we switched servers and started over the data), we have reached a grand total of over 144,740 album downloads, nearly doubling last year's total of 81,620+. That's 77% growth in a single year! Every month passes by where several thousands of downloads take place, which is amazing. We are picking up speed as our album links are freely spread across affiliate music sites, pirate music sites, inside fan-made torrents, and through several branches of social media. We will bypass 150k albums downloaded here in the first quarter of 2012, which takes my breath away… Never did I think back in 2001 when I started Scrub Club that we would achieve numbers like this, fans like this, opportunities to be heard like this. All of us here at the label are eternally grateful for all the Scrub Club Soldiers getting our word out!
Secondly, the results of your monetary contributions:
Since we decided to go completely not-for-profit in 2006, we have had several tough challenges due to having zero budget, but we somehow scraped by. In 2010, we decided to start accepting official donations after so many fans and business partners recommended it as a way to sustain. With some reluctance (most of us hate the thought of even mentioning the word “money” to our fans), we decided to give it a shot and see how the year went. It did indeed help us with merchandise and a good amount of travel.
After lots of great feedback and a staggering amount of gifts in 2011, I’m humbled to report that our Soldiers out there made general donations in the sum of $1,046.20! And that’s not even counting a few fundraisers and projects/personal loans by fans that scored some of our artists airfare and gas totaling over $1000. At the end of last year, we had several artists in serious need of upgraded equipment, and your donations pulled through once again - In 2011, you bought $732 worth of brand new recording equipment for our members! We also sold almost 5 times the amount of merchandise than we did in 2010. To put it bluntly… ah… HOLY SHIT.
So, to all of you out there that think your single buck or $5 won’t amount to much, now you know… With the amount of incredible fans and friends out there, every bit adds together to fulfill our needs as a completely independent record label and help some of your musical dreams come true. We got to perform at shows we wouldn’t have been able to even attend because of you all… We got the equipment we needed to record cleaner and easier… We got to purchase awesome merch like posters and stickers for you to rep Scrub Club to the fullest… All of it was made possible by you in just less than a year of time. Much respect to everyone who tossed a few dollars our way, and expect something nifty in the mail soon!
One thing I must do is give major props to our biggest financial supporter in 2011, who was Walter H. - He gave an unbelievable total of $245 to Scrub Club, roughly a fourth of the entire general donations. We want to thank you extra, mister.
Another important figure comes from a new direction we started last year – fundraising for charities. Like last year, we were involved with the Salvation Army “Angel Tree,” which pulls together warm winter clothes and toys for children in need during the holidays. With just six days to work with, our Scrub Soldiers raised $601.43 for this fantastic charity. The first time we tested this water, we raised $205.60, meaning you guys practically tripled the amount of warm clothes we donated this year! We plan on fighting more good fights in 2012, and hope to raise more for people that need it… After all, most of our artists and fans have been through equally tough, if not worse times in their lives. We completely understand. If we can all pool together to help, we will! Thanks again to everyone who participated in the second run of this event. If you would like the full recap, please click here.
The website was stress-tested pretty good this year:
To give you an idea on our website traffic in2011, we had over 100,000 unique visitors to help make for 10,790,517 total hits, and guzzled down a fiery 6,139.42 gigs of bandwidth (yes, that’s over 6 terabytes of transfer). We want to thank our homies over there at HostGator in Texas for providing us with an adequate server to handle all of that with no problems. The top ten countries that visit our site (in order) are the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Russian Federation, Canada, China, Netherlands, France, Ukraine, and the Chech Republic. The site was compressed over 75.8% when I constructed Version 10, and has a Google Page Speed score of 90 (out of 100).
There you have it! Every single one of you is a gear in this Scrub Club machine, and without you, we would be nothing but rusted and broken down. We promise to continue to bring the best entertainment in 2012, and with your help, we hope to continue the push globally until we show everyone how to put the power of music back into the people’s hands, not corporations. I’ve got a few surprises already in the works on how we’re going to achieve that, but… all in good time. If you want in on the action and you’re ready to fight in the front lines, make sure to sign up for our official street team via this link right here. New promo missions will be arriving in your inbox soon!
As always, much love… Thank you for an incredible year of growth and new friendship… 2012? Let’s start this party with a bang!
