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52-488: Since the first issue of Wax Poetics was published in December 2001, the magazine expanded its operations to include apparel sales, a record label, and book publishing imprint. In November 2008, Wax Poetics, Inc. unveiled Wax Poetics Japan . In 2021, Wax Poetics was relaunched through a Kickstarter campaign, becoming a membership platform focused on long-form music journalism. In spring 2001, Editor-In-Chief Andre Torres

104-487: A Wax Poetics reader survey conducted in June 2008. Torres' manifesto was not only to shed light on funk, soul, and jazz, but to illuminate the symbiotic and historical relationship between those genres and contemporary hip-hop. Wax Poetics regularly features seminal artists like David Axelrod or Bob James , unveiling the stories behind the people and music that have provided both a cultural framework for hip-hop to evolve, and

156-545: A March 2008 interview with Current TV. "What I was trying to do was essentially look at hip-hop through that lens." Torres enlisted the help of Brian DiGenti, a close friend with editorial experience as a freelance writer. Both Torres and DiGenti had graduated from the University of Florida in 1995—Torres with a degree in painting and DiGenti with a degree in English. Although they had met at school, they didn't begin to develop

208-547: A company." Additionally, the CEO confirmed that Kickstarter stood by its decision to fire the two employees and would be pursuing legal action to fight their claims. The statement immediately resulted in criticism and calls for boycotts from creators who had previously used the platform, while writer Neil Gaiman tweeted that he would be unlikely to post support for or links to new Kickstarter campaigns "as long as they are anti-union." Kickstarter employees continued to file complaints to

260-462: A data breach of almost 5.2 million users' data, including email addresses, usernames and salted SHA-1 hashes of passwords. On March 19, 2019, Kickstarter's staff announced plans to unionize as part of the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU), which would make Kickstarter the only major tech company to have a union. Shortly after the announcement, three senior staffers released

312-421: A different artist on the front and back covers of the magazine; prior to this design change, both covers typically featured artwork or non-specific vintage photographs. "I wanted to create something that, when you finished reading it, there would be no way that you would ever think about putting it in the trash", Torres told Current TV. In 2007, Wax Poetics, Inc. expanded to include a book publishing division and

364-481: A friendship until they had both moved to New York City in the late 1990s. There, they often made beats and went mining for vinyl together, further cultivating a common fascination with the crate-digging lifestyle. DiGenti had moved to California about a year before Torres called about the start-up, but agreed to co-found the publication across the country. For a year, DiGenti and Creative Director Kevin DeBernardi, then

416-463: A memo dissenting against the decision, claiming that it is too extreme and that it would be a "misappropriation of unions for use by privileged workers." According to Kickstarter employees, they wanted to found a union both for enabling collective bargaining for wages and for "giving employees more clout," allowing them to work for goals that they saw in their interest and the public's interest. In May, Aziz Hasan, then CEO of Kickstarter, announced that

468-403: A number of milestones. A dock made for the iPhone designed by Casey Hopkins became the first Kickstarter project to exceed one million dollars in pledges. A few hours later, a new adventure game project started by computer game developers, Double Fine Productions , reached the same figure, having been launched less than 24 hours earlier, and finished with over $ 3 million pledged. This was also

520-529: A one-page editor's letter to preface the magazine's content. With Issue 15 , published in February 2006, Wax Poetics transitioned from a quarterly to bimonthly magazine. As of September 2011, forty-eight issues of the magazine have been published. In terms of physical size, the magazine is a 7×10-inch publication in the vein of National Geographic . It has grown from 81 pages in its first issue to 130 pages on average. Aside from regular contributions from editors,

572-404: A partner in the fledgling quarterly, collaborated to create a mock-up of Wax Poetics . In December 2001, Torres, DiGenti, and DeBernardi independently published the first issue, which cost $ 6 USD and featured stories on Bobbito, Scotty Hard, Idris Muhammad , Charles Mingus , and Madlib . The magazine continues to be independently published. Starting with Issue 2 , Torres began to incorporate

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624-456: A product. To underscore the notion that Kickstarter is a place in which creators and audiences make things together, creators across all categories are asked to describe the risks and challenges a project faces in producing it. This educates the public about the project goals and encourages contributions to the community. Several creative works have gone on to receive critical acclaim and accolades after being funded on Kickstarter. Others, such as

676-400: A profit from selling subscriptions because of the high price of printing an independent, niche, high-quality magazine; as well as the increasing shipping prices and the cost of customer service. We always set the price at a breakeven level, but we often lost money on subs when all was said and done. Unfortunately, we are unable to refund the cost of your subscription. And we are unable to deliver

728-684: A project's success or failure on Kickstarter. Some key findings from the analysis were that increasing goal size is negatively associated successfully, projects that are featured on the Kickstarter homepage have an 89% chance of being successful, compared to 30% without, and that for an average $ 10,000 project, a 30-day project has a 35% chance of success, while a 60-day project has a 29% chance of success, all other things being constant. The ten largest Kickstarter projects by funds raised are listed below. Among successful projects, most raise between $ 1,000 and $ 9,999. These dollar amounts drop to less than half in

780-449: A project. They also warn project leaders that they could be liable for legal damages from backers for failure to deliver on promises. Projects might also fail even after a successful fundraising campaign when creators underestimate the total costs required or technical difficulties to be overcome. When asked what made Kickstarter different from other crowdfunding platforms, co-founder Perry Chen said: "I wonder if people really know what

832-705: A public company in 2019 via an initial public offering raising $ 1.1 billion. Cards Against Humanity originated with a $ 4,000 Kickstarter campaign in 2010. Both Kickstarter and project creators have cancelled projects that appeared to have been fraudulent. Questions were raised about the projects in internet communities related to the fields of the projects. The concerns raised were: apparent copying of graphics from other sources; unrealistic performance or price claims; and failure of project sponsors to deliver on prior Kickstarter projects. Some notable cancelled projects include: Many individual Kickstarter projects caused controversy: In February 2014, Kickstarter announced

884-448: A record label. Wax Poetics Books has since released three coffee table anthologies, including two collections of notable past articles, published in response to demand for back issues. The manifesto of Wax Poetics Records is to reissue rare LPs, 12-inches, and 7-inches. In summer 2008, the company also launched an online music store— Wax Poetics Digital —where customers can purchase performance-quality mp3s of music featured in

936-535: A separate product for these reasons. We hope our longtime customers will understand and continue to support Wax Poetics. In 2020 Wax Poetics changed ownership and was taken over by two fans to help revive the magazine. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, Wax Poetics relaunched as a global collectors platform in February 2021. Artists signed to the Wax Poetics label include Kendra Morris, Adrian Younge and The Jack Moves . Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC

988-496: A success rate of 37.45% (success rate being how many were successfully funded by reaching their set goal). The total amount pledged was $ 4,690,286,673. The business grew quickly in its early years. In 2010 Kickstarter had 3,910 successful projects and $ 27,638,318 pledged. The corresponding figures for 2011 were 11,836 successfully funded projects and $ 99,344,381 pledged; and there were 18,109 successfully funded projects, $ 610,352 pledged in 2012. On February 9, 2012, Kickstarter hit

1040-529: A year (so that those laid off can return to job openings), and a release from noncompete agreements for those who accept severance pay. In December 2021, Kickstarter announced they would be moving their platform to blockchain , with the aim of making the tools required for creating a crowdfunding site available to anyone. The pivot came on the back of a $ 100 million investment from the crypto fund of Andreessen Horowitz . The decision backfired, alienated many users, damaging Kickstarter's reputation. Kickstarter

1092-980: Is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn , New York , that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of February 2023, Kickstarter has received US$ 7 billion in pledges from 21.7 million backers to fund 233,626 projects, such as films, music, stage shows, comics, journalism, video games, board games, technology, publishing, and food-related projects. People who back Kickstarter projects are offered tangible rewards or experiences in exchange for their pledges. This model traces its roots to subscription model of arts patronage, in which artists would go directly to their audiences to fund their work. Kickstarter launched on April 28, 2009, by Perry Chen , Yancey Strickler , and Charles Adler. The New York Times called Kickstarter "the people's NEA ". Time named it one of

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1144-419: Is one of a number of crowdfunding platforms for gathering money from the public, which circumvents traditional avenues of investment. Project creators choose a deadline and a minimum funding goal. If the goal is not met by the deadline, no funds are collected (a kind of assurance contract ). The Kickstarter platform is open to backers from anywhere in the world and to creators from many countries, including

1196-528: Is with great sadness that we announce we are no longer able to fulfill Wax Poetics Magazine subscriptions. After sixteen years in print, we will cease being a traditional newsstand publication. We want to sincerely thank all of our loyal fans, customers, and subscribers who supported us since December 2001. And we are truly sorry that we are unable to fulfill our obligations to our current subscribers who put their trust in us. While our subscribers have always been very important, please understand that we never made

1248-698: The Ouya console, have resulted in commercial failure. The documentary short "Sun Come Up" and documentary short "Incident in New Baghdad" were each nominated for an Academy Award ; contemporary art projects "EyeWriter" and "Hip-Hop Word Count" were both chosen to exhibit in the Museum of Modern Art in 2011; filmmaker Matt Porterfield was selected to screen his film Putty Hill at the Whitney Biennial In 2012; author Rob Walker's Hypothetical Futures project exhibited at

1300-950: The iPhone . The app was aimed at users who create and back projects and was the first time Kickstarter had an official mobile presence. On October 31, 2012, Kickstarter opened projects based in the United Kingdom, followed by projects based in Canada on September 9, 2013, Australia and New Zealand on November 13, 2013, the Netherlands on April 28, 2014, Denmark , Ireland , Norway , and Sweden on September 15, 2014, Germany on April 28, 2015, France and Spain on May 19, 2015, Austria , Belgium , Italy , Luxembourg and Switzerland on June 16, 2015, Singapore and Hong Kong on August 30, 2016, Mexico on November 15, 2016, and Japan on September 12, 2017. In July 2017, Strickler announced his resignation. On April 20, 2020, Kickstarter announced that it

1352-600: The "Best Inventions of 2010" and "Best Websites of 2011". Kickstarter reportedly raised $ 10 million funding from backers including NYC-based venture firm Union Square Ventures and angel investors such as Jack Dorsey , Zach Klein and Caterina Fake . The company was based at 58 Kent Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn until they transitioned to a fully remote workforce after the COVID-19 pandemic . On February 14, 2013, Kickstarter released an iOS app called Kickstarter for

1404-468: The 13th International Venice Architecture Biennale; musician Amanda Palmer 's album Theatre is Evil debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard 200; designer Scott Wilson won a National Design Award from Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum following the success of his TikTok + LunaTik project; the Kickstarter funded GoldieBlox toy gained nationwide distribution in 2013; and approximately 10% of

1456-414: The 20% mark reach their goal. Creators categorize their projects into one of 13 categories and 36 subcategories. They are: Art, Comics, Dance, Design, Fashion, Film and Video, Food, Games, Music, Photography, Publishing, Technology and Theater. Of these categories, Film & Video and Music are the largest categories and have raised the most money. These categories, along with Games, account for over half

1508-582: The Design, Games, and Technology categories. However, the median amount raised for the latter two categories remains in the four-figure range. There is substantial variation in the success rate of projects falling under different categories. Over two thirds of completed dance projects have been successful. In contrast, fewer than 30% of completed fashion projects have reached their goal. Most failing projects fail to achieve 20% of their goals and this trend applies across all categories. Indeed, over 80% of projects that pass

1560-512: The NLRB, which forced Kickstarter to allow its employees a formal vote on unionization. The vote was held on the morning of February 18, 2020, with 46 voting in favor of joining the OPEIU and 37 voting against. The CEO at the time, Aziz Hasan, said after the vote, "We support and respect this decision, and we are proud of the fair and democratic process that got us here." With this, the OPEIU will now work with

1612-454: The Prince issue. We will be starting a new venture where we can offer a version of Wax Poetics as a print-on-demand journal via Amazon/Ingram. This technology will allow us to continue creating the long-form music journalism that we have always been known for in a printed form, but we will no longer have to front costs for printing and freight. Please understand this is a separate venture, and thus

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1664-449: The US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, The Netherlands , Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Spain, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Mexico. Kickstarter applies a 5% fee on the total amount of the funds raised. Its payments processor applies an additional 3–5% fee. Unlike many forums for fundraising or investment , Kickstarter claims no ownership over

1716-526: The arts. The publication takes its name from founder Eric Utne. Eric Utne's surname is ultimately derived from the Norwegian village of Utne , which loosely translates as "far out". The magazine was founded in 1984 by Eric Utne as the Utne Reader . Its tagline was "the best of the alternative press". For its first 20 years Jay Walljasper was editor; Julie Ristau was its publisher. During these years it

1768-451: The company says it was for "performance issues." After these allegations, some Kickstarter creators have started a campaign against Kickstarter to let its employees unionize. On September 28, Kickstarter confirmed that it would not recognise the unionisation effort. In a statement addressed to project creators, the CEO stated that unionisation would turn workplace relations "inherently adversarial" and that it "doesn't reflect who we are as

1820-491: The company would require an election for the union rather than voluntarily recognizing it, saying that "our view is that we are better set up to be successful without the framework of a union." On September 16, the employees filed a complaint against Kickstarter with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) after two employees were terminated. According to the workers, they were fired for unionizing, although

1872-442: The definition of crowdfunding is. Or, if there's even an agreed upon definition of what it is. We haven't actively supported the use of the term because it can provoke more confusion. In our case, we focus on a middle ground between patronage and commerce. People are offering cool stuff and experiences in exchange for the support of their ideas. People are creating these mini-economies around their project ideas. So, you aren't coming to

1924-575: The films accepted into the Sundance , SXSW and Tribeca Film Festivals are projects funded on Kickstarter. The Glowing Plant project was the first and only synthetic biology campaign on Kickstarter. The Oculus Rift began as a 2012 Kickstarter project and became one of the most funded projects at the time. The company was then acquired by Facebook two years later for $ 2 billion. Peloton Interactive sold its first exercise bike on Kickstarter in 2013 with an early bird price tag of $ 1,500. It became

1976-479: The first time Kickstarter raised over a million dollars in pledges in a single day. On August 30, 2014, the "Coolest Cooler", an icebox created by Ryan Grepper, became the most funded Kickstarter project in history, with US$ 13.28 million in funding, breaking the record previously held by the Pebble smartwatch . From 2012 to 2013, Wharton professor Ethan Mollick and Jeanne Pi conducted research into what contributes to

2028-593: The magazine features a "re:Discovery", or a brief article that revisits a noteworthy vintage record. Recent issues include upwards of five re:Discovery blurbs, each accompanied by a full-color photograph of the record itself or its original cover. Aesthetically, the magazine has been hailed by the New York Times Style Magazine as, "The best and most exquisitely laid-out music bimonthly in America" Starting with Issue 19 , Wax Poetics regularly began to feature

2080-580: The magazine has no staff writers and relies exclusively on freelance work. According to a 2009 press manual released by Wax Poetics, Inc. readership has also grown exponentially. Today, there are approximately three readers to each issue, making for a total audience of 232,200. About 92% of Wax Poetics readership lies within the United States, mostly in Mid-Atlantic and Pacific states. Ninety-seven percent of readers claim to collect their issues, according to

2132-409: The magazine in 2020 but was rebuffed by the publisher. ""It's sad to see it go", Utne admits. "These times need something like this more than ever. Our editorial credo was to no particular point of view. No one has the sole proprietorship on good ideas. It takes multiple perspectives to come closer to the truth." According to The New York Times , Utne Reader was a leader of the salon movement of

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2184-432: The magazine was purchased by Ogden Publications , publishers of Grit , Mother Earth News , Natural Home , and other magazines. The earlier title Utne Reader was brought back, and the magazine returned to and refocused on its original mission to reprint "the best of the alternative press". Utne Reader ceased physical publication in 2019 and is now a digital digest at utne.com. Eric Utne looked into re-acquiring

2236-442: The magazine. In 2011, Wax Poetics, Inc. received an Utne Reader Independent Press Award for Arts Coverage. In 2013, early trailers for the film Dead Man Down featured a cover of Pink Floyd 's " Shine On You Crazy Diamond " performed by Wax Poetics Records artist Kendra Morris . In 2016, Founder Andre Torres stepped down from the magazine. On January 16, 2018, Wax Poetics sent an email to subscribers, advising them: It

2288-690: The money raised. Video games and tabletop games alone account for more than $ 2 out of every $ 10 spent on Kickstarter. To maintain its focus as a funding platform for creative projects, Kickstarter has outlined three guidelines for all project creators to follow: creators can fund projects only; projects must fit within one of the site's 13 creative categories; and creators must abide by the site's prohibited uses, which include charity and awareness campaigns. Kickstarter has additional requirements for hardware and product design projects. These include The guidelines are designed to reinforce Kickstarter's position that people are backing projects, not placing orders for

2340-793: The move went forward. On December 15, a week later, Kickstarter responded to the controversy in a blog post that clarified the company's position but did not indicate a change of plans. Utne Reader Utne Reader (also known as Utne ; / ˈ ʌ t n i / , UT-nee ) is a digital digest that collects and reprints articles on politics, culture, and the environment, generally from alternative media sources including journals, newsletters, weeklies, zines , music, and DVDs . The magazine's writers and editors contribute book, film, and music reviews and original articles that tend to focus on emerging cultural trends . The magazine's website produces ten blogs covering politics, environment, media, spirituality, science and technology, great writing, and

2392-513: The projects and the work they produce. The web pages of projects launched on the site are permanently archived and accessible to the public. After funding is completed, projects and uploaded media cannot be edited or removed from the site. There is no guarantee that people who post projects on Kickstarter will deliver on their projects, use the money to implement their projects, or that the completed projects will meet backers' expectations. Kickstarter advises backers to use their judgment on supporting

2444-473: The site to get something for nothing; you are trying to create value for the people who support you. We focus on creative projects—music, film, technology, art, design, food and publishing—and within the category of crowdfunding of the arts, we are probably ten times the size of all the others combined." On June 21, 2012, Kickstarter began publishing statistics on its projects. As of December 4, 2019, there were 469,286 launched projects (3,524 in progress), with

2496-465: The sonic backbone for crucial elements like breakbeat. "We dibble-dabble in the new and the old", Torres told Current TV. "Young people come to this older music; it's through hip-hop. It's hearing someone sample something and saying, "Oh, yo, I gotta find that record that Primo or Dr. Dre or whoever used on that track. It's like a time-machine. You use hip-hop to travel back and pick up on everything that's happened before." Since Issue 4 , every issue of

2548-519: The union effort, Kickstarter United, to bargain with Kickstarter management for a contract. As of May 2, 2020, 60% of the workforce was part of the union. On December 8, 2021, Kickstarter announced a plan to develop a decentralized protocol on blockchain platform Celo to build an open source and blockchain-based crowdfunding infrastructure and then move its own website to that system. The announcement prompted backlash from creators and backers on Twitter , many of whom pledged to abandon Kickstarter if

2600-551: Was likely going to lay off workers due to the coronavirus pandemic causing the number of active projects to be "about 35% below what it was at this time last year with no clear sign of rebound." The layoff was reported by the union to affect up to 45% of the employees, although Kickstarter has yet to report the scale of the layoff as of May 2, 2020. The union negotiated a settlement for laid off employees including four months of severance pay and up to six months of continued health benefits for anyone who gets laid off, recall rights for

2652-511: Was living in New York City and conducting preliminary research for a documentary on die-hard record collectors when he realized there were no publications to consult devoted to the culture of beat-digging. He scrapped the documentary and, instead, decided to start his own quarterly to fill what he perceived to be gaps in the landscape of contemporary music magazines. "No one was even touching jazz, soul, funk, or anything like that", Torres said in

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2704-454: Was transformed "from a tiny New Age newsletter to a thick, ad-rich magazine with more than 300,000 subscribers." Utne chaired the magazine until the late 1990s, when his then-wife Nina Rothschild Utne took over. The magazine was headquartered in Minneapolis . The cover logo was changed to simply Utne in 2003, continuing until 2006, with the subtitle, A Different Read on Life . In 2006

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