Seven or so years ago, Christene LeDoux held a crowdfunding campaign for album Dust ‘n' Branches … Songs From A Wanderer. This was long before Kickstarter or IndieGoGo. I was one of the first to pre-order the cd.
I fell in love with Christene's music on mp3.com. Her song “The Entertainer” is still one of my favorites. (Rating of 4 stars)
I waited impatiently for the album to arrive. It never did. I was disappointed.
It was probably a year later before I had a reason to email her. I told her I never got the cd. She was nice and told me she would send a new copy. Awesome! … It never arrived.
A few years later, after she took a hiatus from music to raise a family, I bought the mp3s on CD Baby. I never listened to the album though. I lost the passion for her music…
I've now run several crowdfunding campaigns. My latest album Scottish Songs of Drinking & Rebellion raised over $7000. With each campaign I complete, the more afraid I get that I will fall into the Christene-trap.
Fulfilling orders is not my strong suit. I'm finally starting to create protocol for each order thru my online store. It's tough to stay on top of orders tho. It's even more difficult when you get 300 crowdfunding orders. Orders get missed. Or delayed. It causes problems.
When I did strictly pre-orders, addresses changed. I still have a $100 pre-order from Firefly Drinking Songs that was returned to me. The purchaser won't respond to email.
It took me a year to finish recording What Color Is Your Podcast orders for Don't Go Drinking With Hobbits.
My biggest fear is that I will lose a passionate fan in the same way Christene did. All because I can't keep my orders organized properly or worse because someone changed addresses between the time I got the order and the time I sent it. Or perhaps there's another problem. It's a big worry though.
That said, releasing an album is expensive. I still need fan help to keep me releasing new CDs. So I haven't given up on crowdfunding. Instead, I look for better tools. I try to refine my fulfillment skills. And I hope that if I forget to fulfill my end of the bargain that the fan will let me know. Then I can exceed their expectations and not lose a passionate fan.
If there's any hope, it's that Christene is crowdfunding her new album. I know this because I am still subscribed to her mailing list. I don't plan to fund it, but at least I am talking about it because I think she deserves success.
Hopefully, she will learn from this mistake (which I should note may not be hers) and hopefully any fans who did not receive their orders in my crowdfunding campaigns will let me know so I can remedy the error and I might gain another supporter for the next one.
