Are you a wannabe entrepreneur who's a little light in the wallet, or perhaps the typical, broke musician looking to record that genre-defining album?
In the past, you'd have to beg and plead with rich investors or promise your soul (and integrity) to a record company to fund your latest scheme, invention or musical masterpiece. Most creative geniuses don't usually see much money from their efforts either, as profits typically go to the investors who took a chance, rather than the person behind the idea or music. For better or worse, that's been the paradigm - it's just the way we do business - for as long as anyone can remember. But now, thanks to the Internet, anyone can put his or her idea, product or sound online and ask the digital community to support their project with pledges and it's changing everything.
Many of you may have heard of the Pebble watch, a gizmo that connects via Bluetooth technology to your smartphone (iPhone, etc) to deliver a Dick Tracy experience on your wrist. Of course, everyone from Sony to Apple is now trying to come out with a watch-that-connects-to-your-smartphone it seems, but what makes the Pebble so special is it was completely funded by the online community. Using the crowd-funding platform (read: website) called Kickstarter, the makers of the Pebble asked regular web surfers to pledge the cost of a watch - or two, or a case of them - so they could develop the thing. In less than 28 hours, average Joes and Janes clicked in with $1 million towards the idea.
You'll find everything from proposed films and innovative inventions to video games in development, and a lot more waiting for your support on Kickstarter, and there are more sites popping up every day aiming to do the same.
If you want to help someone put out an album on his or her own, head over to pledgemusic.com, where a plethora of indie and well-known musicians are asking for your support in laying down some tunes on vinyl or CD. I found pledgemusic.com while researching the latest on Mike Doughty, the former lead singer and creative mind behind late 1990's New York-based, alternative/funk/jazz fusion band Soul Coughing. I loved the band's unique sound and have one of Doughty's solo albums from after the band broke up (featuring Dave Matthews on one song), and was looking up other albums when I happened upon his page on pledgemusic. In about a month, Doughty is releasing a new effort consisting of "re-imagined" Soul Coughing songs. For $10 you can download the album when it's done, or $20 gets you a physical CD. A paltry $30 gets you a signed CD or an exclusive T-shirt. For larger pledges, Doughty offers everything from double vinyl editions, to tweets praising you once a month for a year, to a private listening session via Skype, to his personal collection of wacky mugs, guitars used on the album or a "Most Private Show" for you and your friends (oh, if only I lived in Brooklyn and had $2,500!).
I sprang for a signed CD which, as a pledger, gave me access to all his private video updates and awesome performances. Best of all, I get to feel like I'm really supporting an artist whose music and talent I admire, and I know the cash I laid down for that CD is actually going into Mike's hands and not those of some record executive.
So if you have a project, idea or talent take it to the 'Net instead of taking it to some businessman, because as Dylan once sang, "the times, they are a changin'."
