One of the most poorly used features on Patreon are milestones. It’s probably the name—milestone. What exactly is that?

To most creators, it’s a big goal that they reach. “When I hit $2200, I’ll make a living as a musician.”

That’s a good goal. But it’s a missed opportunity too.

My Patreon for the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast helped me figure out Patreon Milestones. It’s not just about me. It’s about you and me working together to reach a goal.

For the podcast, I setup simple milestones. “When we hit $550, I will create a two-hour episode of Celtic Flute and Whistle Music”.

If this is something you want to happen, you might make a pledge. You might get excited enough to support something you already love.

Easy-peasy. Right?

As an artist, I find it a lot more difficult. How do I create a goal that will get YOU and other Gunn Runners excited but that is also something that I'm not already giving away.

You might cheer when I become a “full-time musician”, but there’s nothing in it for you to support my music. That’s what Patreon Milestones are all about, or should be. What’s in it for you?

And so we stumble. We make bad Patreon goals. Our pages don’t grow.

A couple years ago, I set a pretty exciting Patreon goal. I said I would make an EP of Firefly music if I hit a certain goal. Of course, that EP turned into a full-length album that's freely available to everyone in my Gunn Runners Club.

That goal was one that you and I both could get behind.

I think that's what I need to do then. I need to create milestones for you. I pick a song that I want to record and that you might want as well. When I reach those milestones, I record a new single and share it with the Gunn Runners Club.

I like this idea because it gets you more involved. Your generosity is the impetus to make new music happen.

You see, one of my other big internal challenges is that it's difficult to sit down and record. The recording process itself isn't difficult. But there are a LOT of steps.

Lets take for instance the two songs I've been planning: “Mingulay Cat Song” and “Why Do You Torture Me?”.

I first started recording “Mingulay Cat Song” in 2015. I don't think I snagged a recording I liked until February, a couple months ago.

Meanwhile, I've been talking about releasing “Why Do You Torture Me?” since at least November last year. That's six months ago!

Obviously, it's not a fast process. Recording music takes time. And if I want to do collaborations… it's gonna take even more.

I'm okay with that. But it does mean these milestones can be a lot more productive. So that's my goal.

The two new singles I mentioned earlier are scheduled to be released this month and next. The next milestone is for a traditional Irish song, “Molly Malone”. I have a video coming out for it in a couple weeks. It has an innovative marketing idea behind it. So I hope it'll get some traction. I'll tell you more about that later.

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Thank you so much for listening. Now I want to ask you to head on over to Spotify and Follow My Music.

You'll find a link in the shownotes at Celtfather.com where you can also subscribe to this podcast and download 21 songs for free.

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