Anyone ever use kickstarter/PledgeMusic?

  • Thread starter Thread starter SkyhighRocks
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SkyhighRocks

SkyhighRocks

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I have an idea...an idea that is really important to me that has to do with my daughter's fight against Crohn's disease. I want to record a solo cd and donate all proceeds to her fundraiser/Crohn's charity. In order to accomplish this, I'm looking into using a crowd funding site like kickstarter or PledgeMusic to help me cover the expenses.

Kickstarter is cool but you aren't allowed to mention any charitable causes in your campaign. PledgeMusic encourages charity work and is geared to musicians only whereas kickstarter is for the arts and technology. Kickstarter is a bigger name and seems to take less of a cut of the pledge money but again, no charity work can be mentioned when trying to raise funds. The cool thing is that I can set rewards to those that pledge any amount of money to the project like downloads, copies, merch, etc.

I'm wanting to do this for my daughter because I need to do something that can help in any way. I feel really helpless with her whole situation. I can't fix her. I'm not a doctor. Music is what I do....it may not be the greatest guitar album or break any records or anything like that but I have to at least try. I can't sit and do nothing while she goes through what she is going through. The funding will fund ONLY the creation of the album and anything I may need to accomplish completing the project. That may be studio time, mixing time, mastering, purchasing components to use in the recording, etc. I would really like to try to do it solely on an iPad. That's my goal but we will see if that's doable. I've been waiting for the release of Auria which is a 48 track full fledged recording studio for the iPad.

I'd appreciate any info anyone here could give me and also your blessings. I'm in the initial research phase of this whole thing.

Thanks guys
 
Bueller?

I've actually set up an account at PledgeMusic and am waiting to hear back from them on my project goal. Hopefully it works out. I'll be counting on you guys for your support!
 
Ive not heard of either site but I'll add my 0.02.

I think that you should do everything yourself if you can.
Instead of getting kickstarter or pledge music to fund everything maybe you should look into getting some people who are good at recording to donate some of their time . I'm sure that you know enough people to get it done and given the technology of today, you could even record tracks nearby and then have someone reamp them/produce the cd for you. Then when you have a product, Id call all the local radio stations and TV stations and start promoting the product.

I have a friend who has done this for the ALS charity and he has been pretty succesful at rasing money and awareness.
 
Gainfreak":2911oxew said:
Ive not heard of either site but I'll add my 0.02.

I think that you should do everything yourself if you can.
Instead of getting kickstarter or pledge music to fund everything maybe you should look into getting some people who are good at recording to donate some of their time . I'm sure that you know enough people to get it done and given the technology of today, you could even record tracks nearby and then have someone reamp them/produce the cd for you. Then when you have a product, Id call all the local radio stations and TV stations and start promoting the product.

I have a friend who has done this for the ALS charity and he has been pretty succesful at rasing money and awareness.
Click to expand...

This was my fallback plan Ralph if the pledge music thing doesn't work out. I have spoken to some studios, etc...and no luck right now. I should know more later today or tomorrow at the latest on which way I'm leaning. The reason I want to do it this way is that I can reach a lot more people through the web. I appreciate the feedback though and like I said, that's my next option.
 
Thanks Luke!

I actually signed up at Pledge Music and got approved. Now I'm waiting on final approval to start my campaign. I will be posting everything here and everywhere soon.
 
Im totally gonna sound like Debbie downer here, but I think you need to assess how much it will cost to record, as well as a realistic estimate of how many CDs you think you can sell.

There's no use raising $5K for a CD if you might only sell $1000 of CDs.

It would be more useful to just donate the $5K directly to the cause.

Again, not trying to hate - just my .02
 
RockStarNick":25ofq4br said:
Im totally gonna sound like Debbie downer here, but I think you need to assess how much it will cost to record, as well as a realistic estimate of how many CDs you think you can sell.

There's no use raising $5K for a CD if you might only sell $1000 of CDs.

It would be more useful to just donate the $5K directly to the cause.

Again, not trying to hate - just my .02
Click to expand...

I hear what you're saying and appreciate it!

I have a plan laid out to make this work. The 5k will not all be used for recording, etc...some of that will be donated, as well as everything above that amount I can raise. My family runs a fundraiser every year as well, where the music will also be sold...not to mention the thousands of fans I have access to with my tribute band, original band and friends. If I can stick to my plan, I think I'll be ok. Already lined up a drummer who will record for nothing, and am working on other pieces to be donated.
 
Awesome. Looks like you've run the numbers and really thought it through. Best of luck!!!

SkyhighRocks":1n7jrybv said:
RockStarNick":1n7jrybv said:
Im totally gonna sound like Debbie downer here, but I think you need to assess how much it will cost to record, as well as a realistic estimate of how many CDs you think you can sell.

There's no use raising $5K for a CD if you might only sell $1000 of CDs.

It would be more useful to just donate the $5K directly to the cause.

Again, not trying to hate - just my .02
Click to expand...

I hear what you're saying and appreciate it!

I have a plan laid out to make this work. The 5k will not all be used for recording, etc...some of that will be donated, as well as everything above that amount I can raise. My family runs a fundraiser every year as well, where the music will also be sold...not to mention the thousands of fans I have access to with my tribute band, original band and friends. If I can stick to my plan, I think I'll be ok. Already lined up a drummer who will record for nothing, and am working on other pieces to be donated.
Click to expand...
 
My band just finished up a kickstarter campaign, we raised about $6500 to fund our new album. I've never heard of the PledgeMusic thing but it seems to be more up your alley so you can list the charity.
 
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