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That Kickstarter article is very interesting but did you read the blog posts below it? She quote "already had a massive following" before this project and is married to Neil Gaiman a successful author. She talks on her own blog about years of free gigs, sleeping on the floor at friends houses, online networking, "cloud crowds" to build up the fan base prior to using Kickstarter.



I did read some of them, and yes, to get THAT kind of support, is going to take some connections. But here's the difference, there are no record companies involved making the decision of success A PRIORI. Look at the graph of the support amounts and the distribution across pledge amounts. Over 9000 people pledged 25$. That was a couple hundred thousand of the support and some major change.

That's not rich friends, that's fans - concert attending, CD buying fans. Over 6,000 pledged 5$. That was 35,000$ of the support.

There were about 1600 backers that contributed $125 or more, for another cool $200,000+. Peel those off, they are the rich folks and the connected 'fans'. She still raised $353,884 from people pledging $50 or less.

That doesn't even count what she/band will make on self-publishing all of the media that they will have available from the project.

Crowd sourcing and having a real fan base is here with us now, and learning how to do it will likely be as or more important than knowing how to grease the skids with record companies in the past.

This guy, Tyler Ward, is a personal acquaintance. I won't call him a friend, because we've probably talked with each other less than an hour total, but I was one of the sound engineers at our church where we had Tyler as one of the band members and worship leaders. I am the one who converted Tyler to in-ear monitor use for his band. https://www.youtube.com/user/tylerwardmusic

He has almost 1,000,000 (that's a million) subscribers to his YouTube channel, with almost 300,000,000 (that's 300 million) views of his videos.

Two years ago, zilch. He did almost all of his social media on his own (with assistance from some local folks - but Tyler's a great stage presence, arranger, recordist, mix engineer, etc. - all on his own) Fan support fanned the flame over the past couple years. I think the last time I mentioned him here he had something like 300,000 subscribers. That was probably 6 months ago.

He is making MAJOR revenue now from YouTube advertisements. Major labels have courted him and he has to date turned them all away. Total control of his tour, who is in his band (all fine guys and girls - they all have been part of the worship team at same church), where he tours, what songs he records, what they will sound like, etc. etc. etc.

All done without one finger lifted of help from a record company. Oh boy they want in on the action, but he is trailblazing without them.

Yes, his story is unique, but no more unique than who record companies single out themselves to be popular, as an a priori decision. Then when they aren't, they drop them like a hot potato.

Many of Tyler's cover songs are more popular than the originals - and for the most part, they ARE better. Done in his home studio in suburban Denver.

Along the way he's brought all kinds of YouTube startups from Colorado and elsewhere along with him. None of them are as big as he is, but many are now getting the revenue from YouTube as they themselves are getting their own on-line fan base in the tens and hundreds of thousands.

Check out his videos, you'll see the links to these other artists that he's helped along.

One thing I can say, is that Tyler has real stage mojo. And if it's fake, he's really good at faking it. Watching him on stage just brings a smile. Sometimes it makes the sound engineer's job hard! I don't know of anyone that I know personally who seems to enjoy his/her job of bringing music to a crowd than Tyler. I think it's part of the success equation for him.

-Scott

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