Hey guys - I just wanted to update this page to let you know there is a new Five Times August Kickstarter project to help fund the release of the next album.

For all the info visit http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bskistimas/pre-order-five-times-augusts-snapshots-album

I hope you take part in helping fund a new album with all new material! We're shooting for $20,000 in 40 days this time! With your support I'm positive we can do it again!

Thanks everyone,
Brad

Hello again to all!

By now I trust that many of you have got your copy of "Life As A Song" in the mail. For those of you who pre-ordered the $100 tier or above, you should be getting the rest of your stuff very soon, most likely next week! In the meantime, I hope you are enjoying the CD!

"Life As A Song" was released on iTunes this week. Now that it's available to the public in digital format we need those looking to buy it know how great it is! Since you've had some time to get familiar with the album I would love for you to leave your own review of the album in the iTunes store! These reviews and ratings encourage others to buy it, so please take a few minutes out of your day to write a few kind words about the album. You can also rate it up to 5 stars!

Here is the link to the iTunes store "Life As A Song" page:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum...

Also, check out this great feature & interview on AOL's PopEater site:
http://www.popeater.com/2009/10/15/about-to-pop-five-times-august/

At the bottom of the page you can vote on how much you like FTA, please vote that you "love it!"

Thank you once again for your support!
- Brad

Greetings all,

Earlier last week we picked up the CD's and began shipping them out. Most of you who pledged $15 and $25 should be receiving your packages soon (if you haven't already). Next we will be working on $50 pledges and above. Unfortunately most of you who get a shirt with your pledge did not specify which shirt you wanted, so we are currently sorting out those details. For those of you who requested the white "Love The Way" we are waiting on a restock of them as we've already ran out!!

We'll be doing our best to make sure you all get your packages and items as soon as we possibly can, please stand by!! ALSO: Please note that those of you who donated in the larger tiers will be getting several different packages over the next month. Your items will not be shipped all at once, so don't worry if you just get the CD at first, the rest is on it's way soon!

Thank you all again for your support! YAY!
- Brad

"Life As A Song" will be released on iTunes October 13th. You will also be able to find the CD in select Best Buy stores across the country beginning October 20th! Yay!

We are picking up the CD's early next week and will begin mailing out and fulfilling your Kickstarter pledges. Thank you for your patience over the last month and over the NEXT month, it will be a lot of work making sure everyone gets their packages, especially while finishing up our fall tour! Earlier this month I e-mailed everyone requesting information (i.e. mailing address, shirt size and style, etc...) I ABSOLUTELY NEED that info if you have not yet submitted it! This is how you will get your package so please make sure you have responded!

That's all for now! Talk to you soon,
Brad w/ Five Times August

Hey Everyone,

I know a lot of you have been having problems with downloading the album. I am working on fixing the problem as quickly as possible, no worries! Before the end of the day you should all be receiving new codes that will work better for you. Sorry for the problems, I am getting LOADS of e-mails about this, haha!

Thanks for your patience!
- Brad

** UPDATE: New codes were sent out to everyone, so you should be able to download the album without a problem now. Enjoy everyone!

Dear Backers,

First and foremost, thank you all so much for supporting this project. WE DID IT!! Can you believe it?!? Because of your contributions Five Times August will be able to release the next album "Life As A Song" to a wider audience and hopefully continue to break new boundaries as an independent artist. I believe it's time for fans to get behind their favorite music and support their favorite artists again. With the internet and technology today, I think artist's can accomplish more on their own than with a record label, all it takes is loyal fan dedication. This project is certainly a true testament to my theory. Thank you for proving me right.

As Kelly and I prepare to release the album we will make our first priority getting the album to you first! Over the next week we will be e-mailing you a code to download the album online. As the weeks follow we will be preparing packages for each of you based on your contribution. We ask in advance for your patience on this. We will be on the road with the new band this fall for six weeks and our time will be limited. We will do our best to be in contact with you throughout the process and make sure you get everything that comes with your pledge. First order of business is moving ahead with CD manufacturing. For those that pledged $25 or more, I will make sure before the final artwork is submitted that I have everyone's names listed correctly in the booklet as they desire. Once we get the CD's back from the manufacturing plant we will start mailing out the packages along with all the other goodies!

As for my own pledge, at the beginning of this project I said that if we achieved our $20,000 goal I would donate half of my album sales for the remainder of the year to various charitable causes. I absolutely plan to stay true to this. There aren't very many artists out there doing much to help others these days, and Kelly and I believe in giving back to our community. We are fortunate to get to do this for living, and again, that's because of you. Over the next two months we will be researching different organizations to be a part of and help them out as we've been helped.

Also, this next week KickStarter and Amazon will be collecting and processing your pledges. If any of you have declined, pending, or errored transactions the nice people from KickStarter will be in touch with you. Please do your best to follow through with your pledge if any problems occur while processing.

With that, I'd like to say, once again, thank you all for being a part of this. As far as I know nothing like this has ever been achieved by an independent artist before. Over $20,000 in 31 Days!? Simply amazing.

Hope to see you on tour this fall,
Brad & Kelly

So to clear up some confusion I just wanted to say that we are NOW in the last 24 hours of the project. I spent a lot of yesterday (the 15th) promoting it as the last day thinking it was already the 16th. To my surprise I found out we had a whole other day to go, which is fantastic since we are so close to achieving our goal!! Also, some of you have written noticing the main page says it is ending on the 17th, but just to confirm with everyone... WE END TONIGHT, AUGUST 16TH AT 11:59 P.M. (Let's go by Eastern time!)

I know we can do it, at this point I can only say thank you to all who have pledged (there will be many more "thanks" to come. This has been amazing to watch, and Kelly & I appreciate your support so much, you have no idea how much this means to us.

Here's to crossing the finish line, talk to you soon!
- Brad

As we enter the final 48 hours of our campaign I'd like to first say thank you to every single person who has pre-ordered the album with a pledge. Thank you for contributing, reposting the link to your friends and family, upping your pledges throughout the project, and for simply believing in Five Times August. It is because of you we are so close to reaching our goal of $20,000, so THANK YOU (again and again and again!).

It is now time to kick it into overdrive and hopefully finish this thing right. Please make an extra effort over the final two days to continuously repost the KickStarter project link, up your pledges if you can, and spread the word to anyone and everyone. Make it your away message on twitter, facebook, myspace, etc... tell people more about it. Blog about it. Let them know they aren't just contributing to the album, but they are actually getting the album in exchange for their contribution. Repetition is the key!

Also, don't forget there is a special paypal page set up for those that live outside the U.S., or for those that only want to use Paypal. That link is: http://fivetimesaugust.com/kickstarter_paypal.html
I also wanted to address two frequent questions I've been asked over the last month, so here they are...

"What happens if we DON'T reach the $20,000 goal?"
Nothing happens. I do not get ANY of the money, you will not be charged and will not pay anything, and you will not get your pre-order items. It will almost be like it never happened. It'd be a real shame for all of us to walk away with nothing after all of this, that's for sure.

"What happens if we DO reach the $20,000 goal?"
What happens is a chance to really change the music industry. The whole point of this project is to help an artist who is completely without a record label release an album that has major potential to be a mainstream success. I've made a choice to not sign with a record label because I believe we are at a point where the fans are the record label. Thanks to the internet and viral marketing, artists now have the means to really become successful national acts without the financial backing of a big time record label, BUT it all depends on fan support. I believe it's time for fans to get behind their favorite music again. Two things have happened over the last ten years, a lot more music has been released, and a lot less people are buying it. This is an opportunity to start a new music community that truly stands behind the music they hold dear to their heart by backing the artist who makes it.

So, for the next 2 days please put the link http://www.tinyurl.com/ftakick everywhere you can! We can do this : )

Thank you so much,
Brad w/ Five Times August

Greetings from Nashville, TN! We just got in yesterday for a week of rehearsals with the band before we head out on the road for the fall tour. If you're not following Five Times August on Twitter yet I'll be doing a lot of tweets from the road (pics & videos galore!), so find me at twitter.com/fivetimesaugust and click "follow" to watch our adventures over the next six weeks!

I just approved the new t-shirts that we'll be selling on the tour, the company we work with sent me pics for approval this morning and I wanted to share them with you. Those that have backed our KickStarter project with a $50.00 or more pre-order pledge will get to choose any of these shirts to have for their own along with their signed copy of the album, and you'll get FIRST PICK before the tour starts! But remember, that's only if we get to our $20,000 goal, and we're less than 4 days away from the end with a LONG way to go. So please please PLEASE keep spreading the word online and really encourage others to pre-order the album as well! We can still do it!

See you soon,
Brad

For the last 7 days of Five Times August's KickStarter Project we are offering those who have not yet pre-ordered and pledged to the project an opportunity to contribute via Paypal. This page was made especially for those who live outside the U.S., along with others who could only contribute using Paypal. There are a few differences for those contributing through Paypal instead of the standard (and prefered) avenue of KickStarter.com's Amazon accounts.
The differences: 1. You will not have access to the exclusive KickStarter backer updates on the official project page.
2. Your name will not appear on the official project page list of backers, but do not worry, you are in the system!
3. You will automatically be making a payment via paypal instead of "pledging" the money as on the official project page. If we do not reach our goal of $20,000 by August 16th we will simply refund your order.
4. We will be making a final community pledge on August 16th using the total amount we receive in pre-order contributions via Paypal. So, you will not see your contribution appear to make a difference on the KickStarter funding amount until August 16th when we add together all of the Paypal pledges and submit them as one.
5. Paypal charges 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction, so in order for us to not take a loss between Paypal and KickStarter, those who pledge via the page will have to pledge an additional 2.9% + 30 cents.

Link to contribute via paypal: http://fivetimesaugust.com/kickstarter_paypal.html

This is going to be the final podcast of the series and we are making it available to EVERYONE, whether you have backed or not! We are 10 Days away from our goal deadline and it's time to really switch into high gear. If you have not pre-ordered the album yet it's definitely time to do so. $5.00 will get you a special advanced download of the album TWO MONTHS before it comes out, that's HALF what it will cost on iTunes and other digital stores. Check out the other pledge levels as well, there are a lot of really cool rewards and offers for being a part of this album release. If you've been reposting the link to your friends and family, thank you. Please keep doing so and encourage others to back this project.

In this podcast we debut the song "Break," which is personally my favorite song on the album. One of the goals of "Life As A Song" was to sort of take the listener on a journey of my song writing. I want you to see who I was, know who I am, and find out where I am going. This song represents where I am going and with your support on this album I can continue to develop as an artist and make more music for you to connect with and make your own. With that said, please make your best effort in the next 10 days to back this project. Your support truly makes the big difference.

Enjoy,
Brad

KickStarter.com featured Five Times August in a Creator Q&A, Check it out: http://blog.kickstarter.com/post/157263743/creator-q-a-five-times-august
Thanks KickStarter!
-Brad

"Life As A Song" will be released to the general public October 13th, 2009. However, digital download codes will be e-mailed exclusively to every backer of this project following the August 16th deadline. So, assuming we reach our project goal, you all will get to download the album two whole months before it's official street date!

Also, I just posted the complete list of fall tour dates, check them out at http://fivetimesaugust.com/tourdates.html and mark your calendar.

Thanks everyone, here's to wishing the album much success and achieving our $20,000 goal!
13 MORE DAYS!
- Brad