Kickstarter and crowd funding in general had their biggest year ever during 2014 and no subject matter was more popular on crowdfunding's most popular platform than music. More than 4,000 project were successfully backed on the site, more than any other category, including film & video, art and publishing. More than 18 percent of all Kickstarter campaigns finder during 2014 were tied to music, according to Digital Music News.
Among the most popular and well-funded campaigns on Kickstarter during 2014 was Neil Young's push for PonoMusic, which obviously paid off (considering it recently launched). Pono was the third-most funded project in the site's history, bringing in nearly $6.23 million during its run. Despite its high monetary value, Pono was unusual in that its backers were especially generous. The campaign did have a high number of donations however, the tenth-most for 2014 among all campaigns.
Despite the huge financial success of Pono and the glut of projects funded, music was actually far from the highest-earning category of project. Technology, design, games, and film & video all brought in far more than music in terms of dollar amounts. Technology was easily the highest earner, bringing in $125 million for its 1,124 funded projects during the year. Music on the other hand brought in a total of $34.1 million for its 4,000 projects, and as stated above, more than $6 million of that went to Pono alone. Admittedly recording an album (the most popular use for Kickstarter dollars among musicians) doesn't cost nearly as much as launching a new music format.
Another popular Kickstarter campaign that got plenty of press from music media was that to fund Meow The Jewels, a hypothetical album proposed by rapper El-P to reproduce Run The Jewels 2 using nothing but cat noises. A band of hip-hop fans and cat-lovers alike pushed hard for the project to come to fruition.
