The Balcony Tapes: final figures

The twelfth and last Balcony Tape went up on Monday, so here are the numbers. Round 1 is also out today.

The idea was Mark Neilson's and the spreadsheet is mine. From April the label put out one home-recorded mix at a time, more or less monthly, at pay what you like. None of the money stayed with the label. It went to people who had earned a living in clubs and suddenly could not: sound engineers, door staff, cloakroom, bar, lighting and cleaners. The artists on the mixes were not paid.

The numbers

Total received: £18,212.40 after payment fees. Number of people it went to: 61, in seven countries, split evenly, in three payments. Average payment per download: £4.37. Highest single payment: £500, from someone who asked not to be named. Lowest: one penny, from a person in Stockport who added the comment "sorry, furloughed".

The recordings

Anselm Reuter's mix gave the series its name. He recorded it on his balcony in Kreuzberg in April, with a neighbour's dog audible in the second hour, and it was left in. Frieda Lux recorded hers on vinyl in a kitchen in Leipzig, and when someone downstairs started drilling she began again from the first record instead of editing it. Sacha Vidal's arrived on a USB stick. Nachtfähre recorded theirs in the storage unit by the docks at very low volume, with not much below about 200 Hz.

Technically these are rough recordings. All twelve stay online, and the same pay-what-you-like terms apply.

Round 1

Round 1 is the first in a planned yearly compilation, six tracks on double 12 inch, with "Balcony Dub", "Nothing Open" and "Sans Public" among them. The titles reflect when they were written.