Wintersun To Launch Crowd Funding Campaign For New Studio

The Wintersun studio saga continues...

After posting a lengthy message online back in July about how no lesser studio could possibly do justice to the follow-up to the "Time" album (reviewed here) and trying to leverage the online rage of fans to force Nuclear Blast into building the band its own studio (followed by an even lengthier message defending the first one that had people pulling out the popcorn), Wintersun will now be launching a crowd funding campaign so the fans can foot the bill for said studio.

The following message gauging interest in such a campaign was posted on the Wintersun Facebook page:

"Wintersun Studio & Time II crowd funding survey (Please read first before liking!): Good news guys! We have reached an agreement with Nuclear Blast. We gotta give them big props for coming through for us! But first, we need to do a little survey to estimate if we could actually reach our crowd funding goal (which is pretty damn high) before we rush into it.

"We need to estimate carefully our goal, what is possible and what is not before we can move forward with our plans. This is sort of a test run, but this will hopefully determine approximately how much support we would have. We also want to be clear that the crowd funding is not a charity, we are not asking for donations or anything for free. You would totally get your monies worth!

"So we would like to know... If we did this crowd funding project, how many of you guys would be willing to pre-order a TIME II High Quality download package? Stem mixes and many other killer goodies would be included in the perk. All details will be revealed later, but this package would be huge, something never done before! Here´s a little taster what the package would include:

TIME II
- High quality full album download (wav 24bit, 44.1kHz), exactly the way the album was recorded, mixed and mastered
- Includes all tracks (Fields of Snow, The Way of the Fire, One with the Shadows, Ominous Clouds, Storm, Silver Leaves)
- Beautiful PDF extended digital booklet with all crowd funding backer names included (optional)

TIME II Stems
- Separated mix tracks for all Drums, Bass, Rhythm Guitars, Melody Guitars & Solos, Vocals, Orchestrations of all songs
- Make your own mix, adjust the levels for your own liking, listen all the main instruments separately, discover and learn all the secrets inside the mix layers

"But that´s just for starters, this package would include many other items and surprises. We feel very confident about this and trust that you all would go crazy about it! And this package is just the first perk on the list. But this would be our main focus for the campaign.

"The price would be very affordable and with the guarantee that 100% of the raised money would go for the funding of our studio and Wintersun´s album productions. This would be your chance of a lifetime to support us directly and get an insane TIME II package for your money at the same time (pun intended!). So win-win! All we want you to do for now is...

"Please LIKE this post if you would buy and support us.

"Please DO NOT click the LIKE if you would not buy.

"AND PLEASE SHARE THIS POST TO EVERYONE!!! Because it's important that all our potential supporters see this post and we get some idea whether there's a chance to reach our goal. Thanks!"

So, what do you guys think - is this legitimate use of crowd funding in a win/win for fan and musician, or should the group suck it up and do what ever other metal band on the planet with a major label record contract manages to do and release albums on a regular schedule?