Announcing the Wizard Rock EP Club 2008!

Hello wizard rockers!

2007 was an incredible year for Harry Potter fans and an incredible year for Wizard Rock. In fact, that's almost an understatment. In February 2007, there were, according to wizrocklopedia.com, 130 Wizard Rock bands. As I write this in mid-January 2008, there are now 420 Wizard Rock bands listed. That's unreal! Anyone who is reading this right now should feel a great deal of pride in this musical movement that you've had a hand in creating. We are all a part of this unique community that eschews nearly all conventional music business nonsense and commercialism in favor of empowering ideals like self-publication, independence, friendship, and love. With a passion for what we are doing, we can, and will, change the world.

As of this writing, I'm happy to report that I've already donated $13,000 to First Book with money raised though sales for the 2007 Wizard Rock EP of the Month Club. I made the donation during the month of December, and during that month, Simon and Schuster had pledged to donate 1 book for every dollar donated, so the donation from the Wizard Rock EP Club should amount to 18,200 new books for kids! I cannot tell you how thrilled I am with the success of this club. It's been a joy for me to run, and I've gotten a terrific response from subscribers, so it seems like everyone is having fun. High-fives all around!

With that in mind, we have decided to continue the Wizard Rock EP of the Month Club into 2008!

It's a new year and a whole new line-up of bands!

The 2008 Club will feature exclusive, limited edition EPs from:

Harry and the Potters
the Whomping Willows
the Hermione Crookshanks Experience
the Mudbloods
Catchlove
Gred and Forge
Justin Finch-Fletchley and the Sugar Quills
the Nifflers
Tom Riddle and Friends
the Giant Squidstravaganza
the Basilisk in Your Pasta
Gryffindor Common Room Rejects

For each month of 2008, we will be releasing an exclusive CD from one of these totally awesome wizard rock bands. Members in the club will receive 3 CDs at a time, at four different points in the year. The cost to join the club will be $60 for the year and includes all 12 CDs, plus some cool bonus stuff, I'm sure. These EPs will be extremely limited and the only way to acquire the full set will be through subscriptions.

The membership fees will be used to cover all costs associated with producing and distributing the CDs to members. After that, all remaining proceeds will be split evenly between two organizations: the the Harry Potter Alliance and First Book. We're very happy to continue to support literacy by raising money for First Book, a non-profit organization that gives children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books, and this year, we're glad to add the Harry Potter Alliance into the mix. The HP Alliance was recently recognized by JK Rowling, who wrote the following on her website:

I am honoured and humbled that Harry's name has been given to such an extraordinary campaign, which really does exemplify the values for which Dumbledore's Army fought in the books. To Andrew and all the others who work on this most inspirational website: the world needs more people like you.

So this year, not only will your subscription dues continue to introduce young children to literature, but they will also help in creating a real-world Dumbledore's Army. Hurrah! We're hopeful that we'll be able to raise at least $20,000 this year.

In addition, each participating band will receive 200 copies of their CD for free and they will be able to sell these separately, outside of the club subscriptions. Through these sales, many of these bands will be able to raise money to support future wizard rock endeavors.

To enhance your 2008 EP Club experience I recruited the outspoken Matt Maggiacomo of the Whomping Willows to lend a hand in overseeing operations this year. Together, Matt and I poured through the entire list of wizard rock bands to choose a dozen that would represent the EP Club well in 2008. This was an incredibly difficult task and in our research we discovered scores of wonderful bands. I would have loved to release about 30 or 40 CDs this year for the EP club, but the reality is that we're just a few people and even releasing just 12 CDs per year is more than many independent record labels will attempt. The depth of the wizard rock community is incredible and I really encourage you to go to wizrocklopedia's band list and spend a couple hours just digging through and checking out some of the amazing bands that you've probably never even heard of.

And after you do that, hopefully you'll consider joining up with us! For the very reasonable price of $60 ($5 per CD! OMG!) you'll get 12 different CDs over the course of 2008. Let me reiterate that the content of those 12 CDs will be completely exclusive to the EP Club! Pretty much the only way you're going to hear these songs is if you're subscribed to the club. And then on top of that, a whole bunch of that money you spend is going to help organizations like First Book and the HP Alliance continue to spread the spirit of Harry Potter all over the world. So you can feel good about helping kids read, helping kids rock, and basically making the world a better place.

Thanks for being a part of this,
Paul T. DeGeorge
Harry and the Potters