The band named Fruition has been around since 2008 playing “country and folk” (according to Kickstarter); I am guessing it is folk with a lean towards jam band.

I don’t want to be all pigeon-holing here but bands with this style ~ style of music, style of dress, even style of tour van ~ tend to have very supportive and ardent fan bases.

Starting out with such a fan base is a preferable spot to be in when launching a Kickstarter, but you’ve still got to bring it to achieve success.

Here’s what Fruition did well.

CREATE EXCITEMENT WITH YOUR PLANS

Bands are almost ALWAYS excited about their new recording plans.

They communicate this excitement to varying degrees of success.

Fruition does this nicely in their project description.  Specifically, take a look at the 3 paragraphs just below the embedded youtube video (the 3rd, 4th, and 5th paragraphs).

There is some really nice language in here.

A producer with a Grammy from a double-platinum album…  A studio on the cliffs of the Pacific Ocean…

2-inch tape with analog equipment + state of the art bells and whistles = “as good as it gets”

So very worth it…

Sounds like a project any musician would want to be a part off.  Feel free to hop on board if you’re a fan!

ADD EXTRA VALUE BY INCLUDING EXTRA MUSIC

At first I was mildly surprised by the idea of a “joint Kickstarter project” for both Fruition’s new album and their guitar player’s, Jay Cobb Anderson, solo effort.  It seems like bringing two projects together presents a risk to each individual project.

But, when considering that Anderson’s album is already finished and just needs to be duplicated, all of a sudden Fruition is holding a valuable commodity (check out his YouTube video ~ it is good quality and seems to be consistent with the overall band) to offer as additional incentive for a relatively small price.

MID-LEVEL KICKSTARTER REWARDS COME THROUGH YET AGAIN

The more successful campaigns I see like this, the more I am convinced that mid-level rewards play such a critical role.

These guys got a lot of action at $75 and up with 29 backers at $100 ($2900), 9 backers at $250 ($2250), 8 in the $300-$500 range ($3000), and 2 at $1500 a pop ($3000).  This is a grand total of $11,150!

That is some serious dough, folks.

And note that they didn’t even get a hit on the private concert which they priced at $2000.  I staunchly contend that this is a band’s best asset which they should be careful to price effectively (unless they really have a high opportunity cost or some other good reason to not want to do it).

THE TAKEAWAY

Capitalize on a supportive fan base by effectively communicating your excitement for the project to them so that they share in it and take some ownership.

Provide great value in the rewards with any extras you can muster (new is better than back catalogue) and design mid-level rewards packages that gain good traction to push your project to success!