[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mattlunsford/help-us-save-our-office/widget/card.html]

You can’t turn around these days without hearing about Kickstarter. From movies, music, books or technology products, it seems everyone is using Kickstarter to raise funds to start a project. Over the course of the next week, I’ll be blogging about some of the projects I’ve backed, reviews, and thoughts about how Kickstarter may be used in the future.

What is Kickstarter? From their frequently asked questions:

_Kickstarter is a funding platform for creative projects. Everything from films, games, and music to art, design, and technology. Kickstarter is full of ambitious, innovative, and imaginative projects that are brought to life through the direct support of others.

Since our launch on April 28, 2009, over $500 million has been pledged by more than 3 million people, funding more than 35,000 creative projects.

I first heard about Kickstarter in 2009 when Polyvinyl, a small music label out of Champaign, Illinois, started a Kickstarter to save some records:

Polyvinyl needs your help! Some of our distributor’s warehouses around the world are being downsized or consolidated and we either need to destroy over 10,000 records or face some high storage costs.

Destroying the records is not an option (it’s too wasteful and besides, these are great records, they’re just overstocked)! Storing the records at our warehouse is not an option (we cannot afford the storage costs). So to keep them from destruction, we’re hoping to have all the records shipped back to our office.

I had heard of a few Polyvinyl artists from listening to The Current, most notably of Montreal, and supporting their Kickstarter seemed like a great way to support them and to be introduced to some new artists.

The Kickstarter worked great. I received my CDs after the Kickstarter closed, but more importantly, I became a loyal Polyvinyl customer.

I would go on to buy vinyl from Polyvinyl fairly frequently, buying artists I had heard on the radio (of Montreal, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin) to taking chances on new artists or artists I hadn’t heard of (Deerhoof, Stagnant Pools, Japandroids) because I knew Polyvinyl was a quality label and did a good job of curating artists. The best part? Polyvinyl always throws something extra in to each order. They’re famous for including a piece of Airheads candy with each order and always throw in an extra CD to introduce you to another artist on their label. Their vinyl records are high quality 180g releases, the album art and posters are printed on high quality stock, and they also usually have extras you can order, from buttons to t-shirts and more.

This is just one way using Kickstarter can introduce you to a new brand or company and hopefully I’m not the only person who became a loyal customer because of their Kickstarter.