Why I chose PledgeMusic over Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, etc.

Greetings from halfway through my first crowdfunding campaign! The widget above will show you how close I am to my funding goal, and how many days I have left in which to reach that goal. At the beginning of the process I expected to be farther along by the time I reached the halfway point, but I realize that most people wait until the bitter end to make their pledge, so I'm not too concerned.

As I promised in my previous entry, I'll share the reasoning why I chose PledgeMusic.com over other crowdfunding platforms.

After a few years of struggling with the crowdfunding concept itself, I did a lot of reading and YouTube-watching to research which funding platform would be right for me. PledgeMusic appealed to me from the beginning because most of the artists who I helped to fund had used Pledge and I had been a very satisfied customer. The more I learned, the more I knew that PledgeMusic was a platform that synced with my artistic and personal values. For example:

• less of an obsession with the publicized financial goal: incoming PledgeMusic funds are measured by percentage, so the artist and fan experience is less skewed by that looming monetary figure
• less of an obsession with time/date deadlines: PledgeMusic campaigns often stretch beyond the traditional Kickstarter model of 30 days, AND better yet, the pledging may continue long after the financial goal and the fundraising deadline have been passed. All the positive financial and communal momentum generated during the campaign is maximized into the future. 
• PledgeMusic has high expectation for artist-fan interaction. Artists are expected and encouraged to provide lots of exciting and fun exclusive content for their pledgers...video, audio, blog-like content updates, etc. I've enjoyed this from the fan's AND the artist's perspective!
• PledgeMusic campaigns frequently set aside a portion of their profits to various charities. The platform's system made it very convenient for me to generate funds for my album AND support ELCA World Hunger
• Artists/projects must be approved by PledgeMusic. Not just anybody will be approved, and I'm very pleased to be associated the quality of the artists (music-related only, by the way!).
• People may pledge directly using their credit card, and from anywhere in the world. Other platforms have geographic limitations, and some require the pledger to route their money through a middleman (Kickstarter, for example, requires an Amazon account)
• PledgeMusic has provided me with a living human being to serve as my A&R representative (Hi Matt!). I don't know for sure, but I bet if you used one of the much larger and wider platforms, it's very unlikely that you'd have your own human being to assist you with your campaign.

Here are some good posts from around the blogosphere about the virtues of PledgeMusic.com:

Bleu writing for American Songwriter

A post at Mediapocolypse comparing PledgeMusic and Kickstarter

A post at HypeBot highlighting PledgeMusic's community-building benefits

There is even more I could say, but that's a good overview of my preference for PledgeMusic. Now, my task is to reach out in person to the people/fans/friends in my life who have not yet gotten involved in my campaign, and invite them to join me. Earlier today I uploaded a mid-campaign invitation video. Check it out, AND, if you haven't pledged to support my LOOK UP album yet, please consider doing so! Thanks!