Bluegrass Artists Discover Kickstarter!

"And if you loosen up looser, even you sir can become a producer" -Quote from DooDoo Wah's "Make A Pledge"

Now two years old, (as of April 28, 2011) Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com/) is the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world. Every month, tens of thousands of amazing people pledge millions of dollars to projects from the worlds of music, film, art, technology, design,food, publishing and other creative fields.

A search today using just the word "Bluegrass" revealed that 42 different bluegrass artists/bands either are currently using a Kickstarter campaign or have just recently reached their goal including a few we've posted stories about here on this blog (Sav Sankaran, Bass player with the Dixie Bee Liners funded a solo project and reached his goal - his history-making CD is available to the public as of today. And Della Mae, the all-girl bluegrass band making waves out of Boston is currently underway with their campaign.

Sankaran offered
Executive Producer
Credits as a top
incentive

Account holders or "Project Creators" set their financial goal and then create various incentive levels so that donations can be made in just about any amount.   Rewards to the donor is all part of the the standard but the project creators make all the decisions regarding what and how much. Everything from band bumper stickers to free house concerts are dangling in front of prospective contributors.  The Dixie Bee Liners' Sav Sankaran from Ashville, NC went all the way, taking the DooDoo Wah "Make a Pledge" approach, and for those who could loosen up looser than all the rest, he offered the top reward as a credit on the album liner notes as "Executive Producer" among several others enticements in a package deal.

Kickstarter doesn't actually handle any of the money. All transactions are handled though Amazon's Flexible Payments Service, which enables the all-or-nothing funding method.

The basic service is free to sign up and use but they do offer some services for a fee and the project creator is able to choose what services they wish to utilize or not.  

Using a video to help launch and sell your concept is encouraged.  It seems in lots of cases, videos on the project page make or break a project getting funded. People want to see who you are, and very specifically they want to know in a short amount of time why they should be excited about your project. Kickstarter offers guidelines and tips on getting a good video but your creativity here is only limited by you.

Frank Cassel, of Kensington, Maryland, is currently conducting a Kickstarter Campaign and has picked up 27 backers who have given him 33% of his goal with only 4 days left at the time of this posting.

"In my experience the Kickstarter site makes the fundraising job much easier than it has otherwise been.  I think a good video is essential to the success of a Kickstarter project. It is worth it to strive for quality while keeping it simple and not too expensive." - Frank Cassel

Austin Based Lost Pines Used This Video to Help Sell Their Concept and Successfully Funded Their Latest CD "Sweet Honey" (available for download now through iTunes or hardcopy from the band's facebook or webpage)

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Kickstarter offers guidelines for the first time user on their blog and even recommends third party sites where good advice has been posted.

If a project is successfully funded, Kickstarter will apply a 5% fee to the funds raised. If funding isn't successful, there are no charges.  An important fact to remember when setting goals.  If you know you need $5000 to complete your album, it will cost you $250 out of your final total. Also there are fees due to Amazon for credit card processing which will range between 3-5%.  So setting a slightly higher goal allows for those fees and other over-budget scenarios that always seem to worm their way into a project.

Kickstarter has an All-Or-Nothing policy - powered by a unique funding method where projects must be fully-funded or no money changes hands.  This creates a no-risk scenario for the donor and helps the artists to maintain good relations with fans.  It's problematic to raise only $2,000 of a $5000 goal and have those several donors expecting a finished product.  This method of funding a project allows people to test concepts (or conditionally sell stuff) without risk. If you don't receive the support you want, you're not compelled to follow through. This is huge! And it motivates. If people want to see a project come to life, they're going to spread the word.

"It's important to set reasonable goals. You can always restart your site if you do not meet your goal, but I think it is best to achieve it the first time." - Frank Cassel

Promotion of the campaign is encouraged as well and specially designed widgets or gadgets are made available for a project creator to place on a band website, Myspace, Facebook or Twitter pages.   Frank Cassel says he uses business cards with the www.Kickstarter.com address printed on the back and asks people he meets to go to the Kickstarter site and search for "Frank Cassel".  He says if they're interested, they'll go there and have all the information they need so that he doesn't have to go through his full pitch on the spot.

From starting a project to managing a project to pledging, the FAQ section is extremely helpful and should not be overlooked prior to launching a new campaign