Numerous crowdfunding systems and websites are emerging, but by far the largest is Kickstarter, one of the neatest ideas to evolve out of the Internet Age. It is a platform that enables artists who would otherwise lack the funds to pursue their ambitions gain funding through your generous donations. The kick is that it's up to the artists to convince you that it's worth funding their project. Pitches come in both text and video form, and there are often incentives for donating to a certain level. Donated money is collected through Amazon Payments. Kickstarter and Amazon each take a 5% cut of donations; the rest goes to the artist.
All kinds of projects have launched through Kickstarter: Films, books, stage plays, albums, clothing, iPhone and iPad accessories, and much more. A surprising number of these projects have been successfully funded, too. According to Kickstarter's statistics, a total of 71,459 Kickstarter projects have been launched, with a success rate of 43.86%. Amongst the 29,773 successfully funded projects, just over two-thirds have raised between $1,000-$10,000. 19% have raised over $10,000, including 11 projects that have raised over $1,000,000! Music and film have boasted the most successful Kickstarter campaigns, but art, publishing, and theater-related Kickstarter projects aren't too far behind. Special note must be made of gaming-related Kickstarter projects: Although they account for just 3% of successfully funded projects, they boast the second-most total dollars pledged ($62.54M) and the most projects topping $1M in pledges (six).