Ok, I'll come clean straight away. This post is essentially me begging you for money. Let me explain. In the summer of 2019 after over a decade of what some might describe as reckless spending I decided to take out a bank loan and get Philophobia's finances under control. There has always been a deficit since the beginning of Philophobia but at the back end of 2018 I had come very close to losing any control of it and having avoided the worst I was determined to get things under control. So I took out a loan. This was a personal loan in my own name. I would then be more careful with spending - less romantic, more pragmatic (this proved to be quite a useful change with what 2020 was to deal out to everyone).
I had planned some fundraising events for 2020 and 2021 to try to pay off the loan earlier than it's five year term. Obviously that couldn't happen last year and things lookedmore than a bit worrying in March last year. Then with the creation of 'Bandcamp Fridays' we found that many of your lovely people bought some of our older releases which I had placed on a 'pay what you want' basis. This has allowed me to not miss a single payment on the loan so far.
That was great, thank you to every single one of you that has bought something from the Philophobia bandcamp page. Unfortunately since the end of the Bandcamp Fridays traffic to the page has dropped off a bit. Added to that I am facing redundancy in my other job (the one that pays the bills) so I can pay any 'shortfallings' each month out of my own pocket.
So I am asking for your help. It still feels like it's far from the right time to do any big fundraising events so I am highlightling the vinyl, CDs, books and downloads on the bandcamp page to aim to raise enough to cover the repayments over the next few months at least. There is currently just over £3,000 remaining on the loan to be paid back over the next 3 years. I'm not expecting to raise the full amount here but £500 would give 6 months breathing space (£1,000 a year etc). Here are some diagrams to iilustrate (and break up the block of writing):
Above is the situation now. To the left is the dream scenario.
The majority of items we released prior to 2017 are available on a 'pay what you want' basis or are significantly reduced from their original price. There are some titles bundled together too. Any purchase however small is very much appreciated and will help pay off the loan. All items can be found on the merch page of our bandcamp.
Thanks x
