Kickstarter / Bandcamp / etc - C or D?

its embarrassing that bjork tried to kickstart an android port in the first place imho

(not cuz i have any strong feelings about android, but its such a mundane project)

It was cancelled way before the end of the kickstarter tho, right? Hard to imagine Bjork doesn't have extremely wealthy fans all around the world.

I mean, "Cheetahmen 2" is getting funded through kickstarter.

why would bjork use kickstarter to raise money for this app thing of hers, rather than use her own many many millions? genuinely interested.

You're making an assumption here

didn't the initial album release have a bunch of multimedia stuff going on? that was presumably funded by her and/or her label? it just seems goofy to do all that stuff, and then over a year later go "hey we want to do more of the same that wasn't in the album budget, you wanna foot the bill for this one?"

and not only that, but the same stuff, just for... WINDOWS PHONES!

sorta takes a bit of the mystique out of the whole bjork aura imo

You're making an assumption here

Which assumption? I'm guessing this isn't accurate: http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/singers/bjork-net-worth/ but I'm certain someone of Bjork's standing can easily come up with 375k (she charged a fortune for her recent gig at MIF). If there's another, less graspy, reason she went to Kickstarter then I'd like to know, hence my question.

maybe google or microsoft offered to sponsor it so they cancelled the kickstarter

xp I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying it's an assumption. I can't think of any activity of hers in the last ten years that would've equalled a big payday, if anything, the opposite. That said, I wouldn't be surprised either if she is actually worth $40m (and good on her if she is)

I'd be v surprised if Bjork can't come up with the money to fund this herself, or her record label. Whole thing smacks of greed, syphoning money off her gullible plebs. Could well be wrong though, looking forward to finding out from upcoming interviews.

yeah i mean the Biophilia box set was $800

I always forget that aspect of the Bjork economy, that everything is so expensive, nm

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1064179477/indie-bikes-and-beer

I've been into music since I was a kid and I have been always been captivated by finding new artists with new sounds. For the most part, I've listened to "obscure" indie bands whose under the radar status meant true talent. After friends and family repeatedly asked me for musical suggestions, I chose not to send them a playlist and instead decided that I would start a blog.

far more infuriating than the bjork thing imo

more like max nagl etc

The name was almost too obvious...

Indeed.

I wanted to find a way to incorporate beer and bikes into this indie music blog that I had scheming in my helmeted noggin.

Might well have put some money in this if he'd called it "My Helmeted Noggin," tbh

can someone explain to me under what circumstances two separate people might have pledged $325 or more to make this happen?

1. mom
2. dad

3. Gonna need to see those "acoustic sessions" happen

I can't figure out whether kickstarter is about "niche fandoms have incredibly useful new way to fund projects" or "people who come from money have new more socially acceptable way to nudge similarly situated friends/relatives to fund their enthusiasms" -- must be some proportion of each but what are the proportions?

The first post was a review of the lovely Cambridge duo, You Won't, and their debut album, Skeptic Goodbye. To be honest, I was kind of starstruck upon receiving positive feedback from the band after the post- I was honored to be given such high praise for my work. I imagine this is how a musician feels when someone thoughtfully reviews their work. It was at this point that I knew the site could be something more than just my musings on indie music, bike news, and good beer.

lol

I'm sure there are people that use kickstarter to ask their parents for money.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45_iqB4RO34

Dear everybody,

On Wednesday morning Kickstarter was sent a blog post quoting disturbing material found on Reddit. The offensive material was part of a draft for a “seduction guide” that someone was using Kickstarter to publish. The posts offended a lot of people — us included — and many asked us to cancel the creator’s project. We didn’t.

We were wrong.

Why didn’t we cancel the project when this material was brought to our attention? Two things influenced our decision:

* The decision had to be made immediately. We had only two hours from when we found out about the material to when the project was ending. We’ve never acted to remove a project that quickly.
* Our processes, and everyday thinking, bias heavily toward creators. This is deeply ingrained. We feel a duty to our community — and our creators especially — to approach these investigations methodically as there is no margin for error in canceling a project. This thinking made us miss the forest for the trees.

These factors don’t excuse our decision but we hope they add clarity to how we arrived at it.

Let us be 100% clear: Content promoting or glorifying violence against women or anyone else has always been prohibited from Kickstarter. If a project page contains hateful or abusive material we don’t approve it in the first place. If we had seen this material when the project was submitted to Kickstarter (we didn’t), it never would have been approved. Kickstarter is committed to a culture of respect.

Where does this leave us?

First, there is no taking back money from the project or canceling funding after the fact. When the project was funded the backers’ money went directly from them to the creator. We missed the window.

Second, the project page has been removed from Kickstarter. The project has no place on our site. For transparency’s sake, a record of the page is cached here.

Third, we are prohibiting “seduction guides,” or anything similar, effective immediately. This material encourages misogynistic behavior and is inconsistent with our mission of funding creative works. These things do not belong on Kickstarter.

Fourth, today Kickstarter will donate $25,000 to an anti-sexual violence organization called RAINN. It’s an excellent organization that combats exactly the sort of problems our inaction may have encouraged.

We take our role as Kickstarter’s stewards very seriously. Kickstarter is one of the friendliest, most supportive places on the web and we’re committed to keeping it that way. We’re sorry for getting this so wrong.

Thank you,

Kickstarter

right on

Kind of odd that Kickstarter does not see the projects hosted on Kickstarter, since I thought you had to submit a proposal and stuff and for it to go through a selection process before it was approved.

the objectionable material was in a thread on reddit that was going to make up the primary source for the book and not within the proposal itself

not that the material wasnt douchey but if the new way to get funding is thru kickstarter and now its not going to not allow controversial speech/art/ideas then we're fucked tbh

yeah the reason it took so long for any kind of protest seems to be that the proposal made it appear much more benign (xp)

http://pitchfork.com/news/51526-universal-launches-crowdfunding-project-to-reissue-albums-on-vinyl/

that doesn't really strike me as "crowdfunding" so much as just gauging interest in advance to determine what to reissue? I mean Universal has the actual funds to do all of these, they just want to sell in advance so they don't overpress anything. Seems pretty smart, but if they sell it as a kickstarter-like venture I think it will just put people off.

well you have to pre-order so it's basically the same as far as the consumer goes right?

Cannot walk around a record store without tripping over a bjork boiphilia record

valleywag.gawker.com/kickstarter-project-canceled-after-dude-spends-all-the-912176282

The founders of Kickstarter told me, 'Spike, Kickstarter is for everybody.'

"...but it's especially for people who will give us a cut of the $1.25 million they're trying to raise."

http://gothamist.com/2013/07/25/spike_lee_defends_his_kickstarter_f.php

afaik spike lee has had a pretty hard time raising money in recent years, AND has been pretty generous with young/emerging filmmakers, and frankly, if he wants to do a kickstarter, he can damn well do so if he pleases

Not using your own money is kinda film fundraising 101. I can see why it's weird to fans but it's just how things are for most movie people, isn't it?

yeah...plus i doubt Spike is wealthy to the degree people might assume based on his level of fame. and it'd be stupid to just expect guys like him who don't make blockbusters but are famous to just self-fund movies til they go broke.

there is no way he's wealthy enough to self-fund.

i mean, there are very few people, particularly directors, who can just put a couple million dollars into a movie.

The number on the internet is Spike Lee is worth $40 million. Let's say he's worth half that, so only $20 million. Let's say he's worth half that, so only $10 million. In other words, sure, he could afford to chip in the $1.5 million he's asking for himself, even though he shouldn't. It's more irksome that he claims Hollywood won't fund his films because they feature black characters, forgetting that even everyone from Soderbergh to Spielberg have loudly decried how hard it is to get a movie greenlit given the current creatively bankrupt funding model. My guess is that Lee is having trouble raising funds partly because his track record is pretty erratic, not just in terms of box office but in terms of his often shitty movies. His docs have been pretty great, though, and his mainstream (or, fine, more white) movies have done OK (25th Hour, Inside Man); no idea how "Oldboy" will do. Point being, Lee has released a movie or two a year pretty much forever. HIs complaints sound a little bit like Prince complaining about record labels even as he manages to clog the world with mediocre product while selling out concert after concert.

where does that number come from? "one quarter of something i read on the internet" isn't really reliable math.

but even if all you say there is true: isn't that exactly WHY he should be kickstarting? what is the argument against it?

Lee has released a movie or two a year pretty much forever.

Great math bro

I meant that literally. Lee precedes us all.

http://whatculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/1-ENGINEER.jpg

Anyway, the $40 mil I got was from a google search of "what is Spike Lee worth" or something. I figure a fraction of a fraction of that, which was still generous.

There's no argument against Spike Lee Kickstater except that very few people seem to want to see Spike Lee movies.