I have participated in over 100 crowd-source projects between Kickstarter, Pledge Music, and Indiegogo - on everything from music to technology - probably an average of $60 - some as high as $250, some as low as $10...

I spend at least 15 minutes a day browsing on the sites to see the latest campaigns and those in the final countdown time-wise

Everybody gets inspired by hearing and reading about Amanda Palmer generating $1.1M and thinks it easy... it's not. I'm not a fan of hers but the level of interaction and the updates she provides are astounding - and it's the secret to her success.

Ginger did a great campaign on Pledge Music - at last count I think he's provided 74 updates over the course of the project - I gladly pledged early on for the triple CD - autographed of course - Because it was NOT going to be commercially available.

The campaigns that are successful almost universally (although there are of course exceptions) are premised on NOT begging for money to make the project but rather, "I have a project, and here's all kinds of incredible, unique, fan-centric, interactive experiences and items that you can participate in that are based around the new album/music/whatever -

... as opposed to being 'send me money so I can record'

People that put up their campaign and then wait... and essentially do nothing... fail - and fail miserably and deservedly so...

The AXE campaign is a joke- it's done as a laugh right?

Let's see the ways it's doomed to fail:

Impossible money goal
No introductory video with a personal touch - just a band logo image
Only 4 pledge money levels
Uninspired pledge 'gifts'
ZERO updates in 10 days

I could go on and on...

PS - The first crowd source campaign I ever participated in was Michael Schenker's "Thank You" acoustic album perhaps 20 years ago - You mailed him $20 and the first 1,000 pledgers got their name on the artwork! That concept blew my mind!