Kickstarter Promo Advice

[Geraint]

Hi - so I have a Kickstarter currently active, to raise funds for mixing/mastering my album of epic-cinematic songs: http://kck.st/1UiqZpe

 

There are 8 days left now, and I'm looking to drum up some support for the final push.  Any advice on more ways to spread the word?

 

Geraint

[john]

Grat Geraint! Sorry I was snowed under at the time you made this topic.

[LisaWhite]

Congratulations for your album!

Edited March 2, 2016 by tunesmithth
Promotional link & reference removed from post - SPAM not allowed! Please be carefulbecause next time, you'll be flagged as a spammer & deactivated as a member

[Simon Darveau]

Can't blame the guy for trying !!   

[MonoStone]

On 9/22/2015 at 11:21 AM, Geraint said:

Hi - so I have a Kickstarter currently active, to raise funds for mixing/mastering my album of epic-cinematic songs: http://kck.st/1UiqZpe

 

There are 8 days left now, and I'm looking to drum up some support for the final push.  Any advice on more ways to spread the word?

 

Geraint

 

This is an old post I didn't see at the time, but if the OP is still here  I'd love to hear how it all went? All done? How did it go with Kickstarter? Everyone happy? It'd be great to hear about in some detail.

 

 

[Geraint]

On 11/17/2016 at 1:15 PM, MonoStone said:

 

This is an old post I didn't see at the time, but if the OP is still here  I'd love to hear how it all went? All done? How did it go with Kickstarter? Everyone happy? It'd be great to hear about in some detail.

 

 

 

Hi!  Sorry for taking a while to reply.

 

Yeah, it was OK in the end.  I should have promoted it a bit more, but didn't really know how.  There were a few contributors I didn't know, but for the final stretch it was basically friends, family and coworkers who came together to put me over the line.  It felt more like when you do a sponsored run and hit up all your Facebook friends for money, rather than "hey, this internet stranger is great at music, let's fund them" - and that's kinda OK, and being supported by friends and family is good, but it's not what I'd expected when I decided to do it.

 

I'd set my goal based on approximately 75% of what I thought it would actually cost (for everything including printing CDs), but afterwards some friends more familiar with Kickstarter said that they would have chosen a lower goal.  Even so, in the end the Kickstarter covered less than half of the expenses.  (It might have been fully half but I went for a couple of extras, including hiring a cellist to play the instrumental versions which now make up Disc 2).  A handful of people kept checking in because I'd said 6 months and it took a year and a half instead (my fault, I got stuck in a loop), but most people either forgot about it completely or told me that year-long delays are common.

 

I am pleased with how the album came out, though!  Getting someone else to mix it was really good, they gave it a fresh and clear sound, but they also made very different creative decisions which were sometimes at odds to what I wanted, and that took a lot of back-and-forth to sort out.  I paid a little extra at the end to have individual stems for every track, so that I can dissect the mixes and learn from them.  Mastering also made a big difference, but I don't understand mastering myself at all.  I think my ideal future setup might be to get better at mixing so I can do my own to release quality (I once had an amazing 3 days of work experience with Mike Senior, but don't have any training/experience aside from that), and then have someone else master it.

 

A couple of weeks ago I finally mailed out CDs to all my backers, and it should be on Spotify/iTunes/CD-Baby in a few days' time (Saturday).  It's good to have it finished, but now I'm trying to spread the word around on Facebook and Twitter, and while it's not quite as awkward as promoting a Kickstarter, I'm a bit lost there as well.

 

So overall, I definitely would have done it very differently, but as well as a pretty decent-sounding album, there were also side-effects (from experience to mixing stems) that should be useful in future.

 

Geraint

Edited June 29, 2017 by Geraint

[Geraint]

Thanks!

 

I've posted the finished album in the "Showcase" section, if you're curious how it came out.

[HIGHFLIER]

Been reading this thread. All I can say, Geraint, is terrific job and absolutely incredible focus and drive! Congratulations, my man, on a well deserved outcome. I'm just getting my feet wet here and you are an inspiration among others that let me know that it CAN be done. Yes, you still have work to do on the push side but you wouldn't BE able to push today without a product. Nice work indeed