Many donors make light fundraising

Napa Valley band Maere are financing their first music video using Kickstarter

You can watch the teaser here:

http://vimeo.com/filament/maereteaser

One of the oldest adages in finance is that it takes money to make money.  It’s a simple fact: money is required to create whatever product you plan to sell in order to make more money.  In the music industry, that adage can be altered to read that it takes money to make records.  Or videos.

Maere is a very talented and creative atmospheric rock quintet based in Napa Valley, California.  They formed in 2009 and recently completed their first album and needed to film a video to accompany their first single.  But, like musicians from time immemorial, they were broke and needed outside financing.

Enter Kickstarter.com.  Their website FAQ describes the company as “a new way to fund creative projects.”  If your project meets their guidelines, they list it on their website and invite people to start investing in making it a reality.  There are several sites like this on the internet; Kickstarter is unique in having an all or nothing funding model.  If your project does not meet its funding goal by the deadline, none of the money pledged is collected.  The practice creates a benchmark of interest and support, reassuring potential investors that they are not the only ones involved.

Maere had already garnered quite a lot of support from the local artistic community.  A video team (Filament Features), makeup artists and actors had all volunteered their time and skills.  They raised money from friends to get the video started.  With slightly more than half of the video complete and no more money, they listed the project on Kickstarter with a deadline of March 16 and a goal of $800.  They exceeded their goal: 17 backers pledged a total of $1320 (full disclosure: I pledged $100).  Filming is scheduled to recommence on April 8.

As a backer of the video, I am due certain rewards.  But that is not why I contributed.  Besides the fact that these are my friends and I want them to succeed, I believe in their talent and their ability.  I also wanted to be part of their creative endeavor.

My idea for a music competition springs from this emerging crossover of between talent  and audience.  At a Band Off, the bands compete head to head on three stages.  The audience votes for their favorite act by adding money to each band’s kitty jar.  The winner will be decided by the amount of money collected during their performance, both a sign of the goodwill they have already harvested (they bring people to the show) and their chances of success (the number of new people they bring on board).  With nine bands, the contest runs through four rounds.  The event will take place as part of a day-long festival with the intention of generating a sustainable community of music lovers.  Our tag line?  We make the audience part of the band.