Crowdfunding is a clever way to get financing without crawling to bankers or venture capitalists. Kickstarter is the best known, along with IndieGoGo and many others. Entrepreneurs come up with an idea, present it on a crowdfunding site, it's vetted, and money rolls in as members of the public pledge from as little as $1. Increase a pledge - which isn't paid until the target is reached - and the rewards are greater. My funding includes Pledge Music, for financing the latest Caravan album; pledges earned anything from a signed CD to having one's name in the credits to attending gigs. I've also contributed to a photo book about the 'last record shops', a video about the 'Wrecking Crew' studio musicians; I signed up for a Pono player [see PM's 'Opinion' in HFN Aug '14] and also participated in the subject of this review, the Geek Out being one of crowdfunding's most surprising coups. Hugely successful though the Kickstarter campaign was, LH has a long way to go to reach the $41m raised by... a computer game.
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