kickstarter? Experience anyone?

[Nikolas]

So,

I have this very solid idea: To make a full CD and DVD with my piano music. All is ok and I know I can do it. I also know that my music is fine and can be commercial (after winning a 1st award in an International Composition Competition and getting some radio time)...

So...

I was  thinking that I could do some fundraising. I've thought of the various prizes for those who offer in (actually I've though of ten of them), I have the various material to use (the planned CD and DVD, the scores, signed scores, signed CDs and DVDs, etc)... The money I'm requesting is not huge for such a production and I've got idea on what to do with the extra money.

I'm thinking of asking for 5,000$. This would go to:

• The pianist
• The recording studio
• The graphic designer
• The mixing and mastering services
• The making of the video services
• The manufacturing of the CDs and DVDs
• The manufacturing of the scores
• other

So the money is perfectly justified.

The pledges offered are cheaper than the corresponding items you get. For example if you are to give 70$ you get the physical CD, the physical DVD and all the scores used for the recording (each score is roughly 15-20$, and the CD and DVD would be around 35$). Higher pledgers get signatures and individual items which can't be priced, so it doesn't make much sense in that...

It's almost impossible to not deliver, considering that I've published almost 50 scores right now (thus publishing is what I do) and I've recorded so much music that it's ok.

Worried and problems

I'm worried with a couple of things:

1. The not reaching the goal. While I don't think it's too high a goal, there's always that worry. In any case it's an experiment that can fail.

2. But it can very well backfire. Considering that the publishing house is doing quite well, it would seem weird to be crowd funding. Or not? I can't take this as an individual, nor it needs to look like I'm in need of money, and for me kickstarter is not about that. But it's not about just a pre-sale either, is it?

3. Most importantly. I don't think I've ever hit a too high number of views on a youtube video. I mean the competition work, that got shared a few times around and was emailed to many people, got around 1200 views so far (in three weeks or so). If I get around 1000 views on a youtube video, can I expect 500 people to pay money?

I don't know if the above make sense, but perhaps there's a serious discussion that can happen here...

[Cerno]

Some things to consider:

- Kickstarter takes 3% of the final amount you achieve, Amazon will take another 3-5% from the remains for payment processing. That is only if the project succeeds. Keep that in mind when calculating your requested amount
- Keep in mind that such a campaign can be very time consuming and fulfilling the physical rewards will be a lot of work, especially if you are unexpectedly more successful than you thought.
- It is always important to have a good pitch and a fresh, creative idea that stands out among the other projects. Search Kickstarter for other musical projects and check whether you can stand out among that crowd. You will get a better feeling what kind of projects get funded and what amount of money they ask for. Since you have international acclaim, you should use that in your pitch. Just watch a few other videos and compare whether you can pull it off.
- You should definitely think about adding higher rewards where you compose a piece of a certain length for a each of a limited number of backers. They get the signed score of the piece along with a digital recording played by you. They can even pick a theme that they like. These kind of personalized rewards are important from my experience.

I am not sure I understand your current status. It seems to me that you have all the material already finished and a publisher in place to sell it, now you want to use Kickstarter as a preorder platform. If that is correct, you might run into trouble since that is not exactly in the KS spirit and might put people off. Maybe you can describe your situation in more detail?

1. About not reaching your goal: No harm done (except hurt feelings). You won't have to pay or deliver anything. You could even restart your campaign with a different pitch if you like. I've seen projects that failed on the first run but succeeded after doing some adaptations to the pitch in tune with community suggestions.

2. I don't quite understand. What exactly can backfire? Are you worried about your reputation? Please explain more.

3. Again, the only thing at stake here are your personal feelings. It might be hard to have a project fail, but apart from that, there's no harm done. Usually a good way to get a successful project is to get people interested beforehand. So if you have contacts through the competition you participated or fans of your stuff you might generate interest before even publishing your project. They may be able to judge your pitch video before going live and help spread the word once the project goes online.

I have never initiated a kickstarter project myself, although I certainly would if I had a good idea and enough time for it.
However, I have backed quite a number of projects and followed some more, so if you supply more information I might be able to give a few pointers.

Edit: Dude! I didn't realize that you run that publishing house! Also, you wrote the Resonance OST?

Thinking about this, there is a lot of potential for a kickstarter project given your credentials.
Actually, I'd say that you have little to worry about if you can come up with a strong concept and present it accordingly.
Have you thought about the theme for the CD/prject? I would assume kickstarting something new that you will specifically create for the backers will have higher chances than selling a compilation of existing stuff.
I would also assume that the Resonance community (among others) should be able to help you with spreading the word.

[Nikolas]

Reply to your edit: Yes I am! In all accounts. This means that the physical items to deliver are not a problem (at least the music scores. Cause I would have to try for the physical CDs and DVDs much harder, since I've not done them.)

Yes, the theme for the CD is very set. One of the pieces will be this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvrqRpZ63w4 (16 minutes). So I need the extra 40 minutes for the CD, to rework on the video slightly and create everything else for the CD and the DVD. If the backing is successful I plan on working on more tracks and publishing them. The other works will be in similar vain. One of them composed already (called 'Sketch Music') and another one being composed now. So it's classical piano music.

The concept is not too unique, given it's a classical music CD. And I'm not too sure that the computer games stuff would help, given it's classical music...

I am not sure I understand your current status. It seems to me that you have all the material already finished and a publisher in place to sell it, now you want to use Kickstarter as a preorder platform. If that is correct, you might run into trouble since that is not exactly in the KS spirit and might put people off. Maybe you can describe your situation in more detail?

This is half correct. I'm looking for funding for the CD. Right now Greece is in deep *ahem*, plus the publishing house has a budget for only the music scores and not a CD, DVD which can be vastly different. That's why I need KS.

But my worries remain:

1. Ok, that's fine. It's just hurt feelings, I get that.

2. Here's the little problem. Given my credentials and the fact that I run a publishing house, I may have an issue with trying to fund this way a project. People might think that the publishing house is NOT successful if I'm trying such a venue.

3. Check the video. Free stuff, awarded, shared amongst tens of people. Result 1200 views roughly in 3 weeks. If I can't spread such a video more, how can I expect to "claim money" from so many people?

[Cerno]

Hi Nikolas.

I have to admit, I am probably not the target group and the KS project would pass me right by.
But I like the music a lot, for me it falls in a similar category as an OST (in places the Final Fantasy Piano Collections come to mind), and I might be tempted to back a project like this, but there seem to be a few things missing.
Bear in mind that I have little knowledge of the piano music scene so your potential target group might expect different things.

So, again for clarity: The album will be Piano Stories and the video will consist of you and the lady playing the music just like in the youtube video?
I think that concept is a bit too weak for a Kickstarter.
Ask yourself:
- Who would buy the CD? People who like piano music of course, but is that enough to reach your target? What exactly is your target group?
- Who would want to get the DVD? Do you think people will sit down in their living room watching two unknown people play the piano?

A humble suggestion:
Get together with a bunch of talented animators and create a set of short films based on your music, each in a significantly different style.
It is called Piano Stories after all and both the titles and the music are quite expressive.
If you can use the music as inspiration for these animated shorts you will cater to a wider audience.
This of course will require you to rethink the whole monetary issue since making animation is quite expensive.
I know that this means that the music will take a back seat to the visuals so that might not be what you want.

Another idea:
Would it be possible to release the audio recordings royalty free via Jamendo or something?
That might be a good pitch: Renowned Resonance composer Nikolas Sideris releases an album of piano music for your gaming project free to use under the Creative Commons license.
The backer rewards would have to be slightly modified though: Since the mp3s will be available for everyone, the basic digital reward tier would have to be slightly different.
Of course that would mean that people will be able to download the digital music without making you any money, but still you would be selling CDs, sheet music and the DVD.

Addressing your worries:
2. Still I don't understand exactly what you worry about. Do you think a failed Kickstarter will hurt your publishing house's reputation? That is a concern I can relate to.
Personally I think there is nothing wrong with being a publisher and running a Kickstarter to create something new.
I think it would be different if you were EA and asked for funding.
Also honesty and transparency goes a long way on Kickstarter: If everyone knows all the parameters of the deal, they will decide for themselves whether they want to back or not it's that simple.
Have a look at this example of very popular people using Kickstarter differently than intended and causing a great deal of irritation: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pennyarcade/penny-arcade-sells-out
But I think they play in a different league than you so this is more like my EA example

3. This is what I meant above: I think your target group is too small.
The people interested in this would have to be piano music fans who can appreciate complex compositions like that.
It's not really dinner table music, so I would not expect a load of people to jump on it outside the piano world.
Again, the pitch is everything: Just selling piano music with a video of the people playing it does not stand out enough among all the fast players, game music players and musical curiosities youtube has to offer.
Also, you might not have pulled all the stops (har!) when it came to advertising the music.

I think I understand your concerns now (except part 2), and I still think you have a very strong case.
If this was a pianofied version of some game music you wrote, people would be all over it (possibly me included).
So try thinking about modifying your concept to appeal to a wider audience might do the trick here.
I outlined two ideas (that might not be viable, but I just pulled them out of the hat without deeper thought), there are certainly others.

If all else fails you could scrap the idea altogether and do a crowd pleaser, like making a piano version of the Resonance OST (if you are not bound by licencing trouble). I bet that will sell like hot cakes.

Mind you, this is just my personal opinion on the matter. I might be wrong and your idea might be very successful. Better wait for other comments

[Cerno]

Some projects that might interest you:

Using one's video game renown as leverage to make classical music:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/499808045/from-the-composer-of-skyrim-soule-symphony-no-1

Also a target of $5000 might be a bit too high for your original pitch:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1378524806/rob-stroh-eternal-home-new-instrumental-worship-al?ref=card
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/576908451/mysteries-of-light-part-one-five-for-joy?ref=card

On the other hand, there are other examples:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kenchristianson/recording-new-chamber-works?ref=card
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jerrygotcello/suite-7-days-for-violoncello-solo-album-score-rele?ref=card

Here are more successfully funded projects from the classical music section:
http://www.kickstarter.com/discover/categories/classical%20music/successful?ref=more#p1

[Eric]

I'm launching a Kickstarter as soon as we get a video shot and Kickstarter approves our campaign for the webcomic I do with Greg Rucka and Rick Burchett, Lady Sabre.

Here's a list of best practices I put together a year ago. These may have changed a little since then, but the ideas should be the same.

A fair amount of information here too, from a successful KS'er.

[Nikolas]

Cerno: Huge thanks for your post...

Here's some thoughts on what you're saying...

First of all the crowd that would backup such a project can be substantially large! Perhaps as large as an indie computer game...

Here's a very simple example (low on money, but still): http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1498481190/typeset-my-transcriptions?ref=live Koji is a friend of mine and I backed him up, but in all honesty he just wants the money to copy the score and not even offer too much in terms of printing, but just digital files. In comparison my project, which is close in money, gets out CD, DVD, physical scores, etc... so there's so much more involved for the same money.

Yet, koji, in his youtube channel has some 300,000 views in total, while I have about 10,000 right now! Which is nice for an unknown guy (but so it Koji more or less)... The point remains that if 300,000 are individuals and he reached them through youtube, then he could very well find 1000 people to back him up (0.3% I think?). If the same goes for me I'd be getting 30 people to back me up which is not enough... That's my first problem.

The no.2 that you still don't get is what you explain with the EA, but not as big. My problem lies that such a crowdfunding move might give a message of "Nikolas has no money to run his business", which is a legit business. A legit business doesn't go to kickstarter mid ways... And I'm certainly mid ways with around 50 different scores already published. They get the money from what they've published, otherwise they suck in the business part. no? My excuse is that a CD and DVD is NOT my line of business and as such my budget still remains to score printing and publishing and NOT CDs...

[Cerno]

I think I understand your point 2 and I can relate somewhat but for different reasons.

Initially I thought your problem was "What if my Kickstarter fails? Will that failure carry over to my publishing business and people will think I have no idea what I am doing?" I think that is a valid concern and I honestly don't know if that might become a problem.

On the other hand, I don't think you should worry much about people thinking you need the money since your business doesn't run well. This is all a matter of how you present your campaign. One important point from Eric's list is that you need to tell a story. If you can do the video right and show your motivation in an honest and positive way, I doubt people will think bad about you. On the contrary, usually people on Kickstarter are very supportive and positive. So, think about why you actually want to go on Kickstarter and why you need that platform to reach a goal that you couldn't without it. After all, if you're just using KS as an additional distribution channel, you will have a harder time convincing people to get on board than if you want to fulfill a dream that would be difficult to achieve without KS. People love dreamers over there.

Running your own small publishing house is actually an advantage in that it shows people that you can actually deliver what you promise. If you ask me, the opposite of what you assume is true. A pure musical project of a professional musician with experience in publishing is much more trustworthy than an experienced musician who tries his hand at something completely different. But that's just my personal opinion.

By the way, I just visited your friend's project and have to say that I am a bit baffled as to its success: The pitch video is terrible. No explanation, no motivation, no plans, just a guy playing a piano piece (awesomely if may add). He also has no updates, which usually is a really bad idea. Furthermore of his 50 backers there is only one comment. Note how there are 5 people who went for the $250 tier, may I assume they are out for the transcription request?  The rest of the tier seems pretty underwhelming to me. Anyway, that is $1250 in the bag right there. Personalized stuff works in the higher tiers as I mentioned before. So in any case I guess the success of this project proves that I have no clue about the classical music scene and what people expect. I guess his backers all come from his youtube channel and are people who knew his stuff well before the KS started, but I'm just guessing here.

Despite my ignorance of the wants and needs of the classical music community, I'd still say the important thing is to explain exactly why you do what you do, that you take the utmost pleasure in what you do and why anyone should support your idea.

I'm still not convinced of your pitch. What is your motivation? Try to win me over.

Also I cannot stress this enough: You are no Tycho & Gabe, but you have a certain publicity from your work with Resonance. That's invaluable. Don't miss the chance to use that. And about that youtube problem, I think you are right that this is too little for a successful KS project. But wouldn't it be better to practice publicity work and setting a personal goal of getting to a given numbers of visitors to your channel? 50.000 maybe? If you succeed you can use that momentum to carry over to KS.

To repeat a previous idea: Could you try and do a piano piece based on your Resonance work and put it on your channel just to test the waters? Or is that path out of the question? I could imagine that you want to keep the gaming and the classical music separately to avoid carry over effects (gamers might find classical music boring, while classical music lovers might find game music mindless).

[Nikolas]

Ok, Thanks once more! Your advice, posts and comments are most helpful...

Here's the pitch idea more or less:

I'm a classical composer, with a few awards, scholarships, etc in my belt. All is good and I'd like for the first time in my life to try and offer to the world my music as a recording, and a DVD. My scores are being published so that's no issue, but the CD and DVD is a separate business that I have little knowledge and no funds. And I can't do it on my own (like I do with music scores, since I've found the connections and people to work with).

My music can be very exciting (as you said so yourself), interesting and fullfilling. Piano lovers adore watching videos of people playing the piano (I've had many comments about this in various sites, facebook, forums, etc).

Right now my publishing house is doing well, but because we're rapidly advancing, it's impossible to side track any funds into my personal CD/DVD project. Thus Kickstarter!

Yes, I'm trustworthy, and since the video I've shown you (with me and Myrto playing my duets) IS there, it goes to show that I can produce  recording and a video... And since I run the publishing house, I can also produce the music scores easily enough. So there's very little risk involve if I reach the goal! Actually the only risk I could think of is either the pianist is not able to learn the works in time (which takes A LOT OF EFFORT AND TIME), in which case the project will be delayed, and if Greece goes into war, civil war, junda or something like that... Otherwise there's no other risk really (given the fact that I deliver almost anything I commit to (minus a couple of freeware computer games here in AGS, but to counter that I've done more than 15 computer games, plenty of scores, performances, blah blah)...

_____________________

The "prizes" I offer to the pledges are very reasonable, and within an idea of 'small discount' as opposed to getting all the products (this is acting like a pre-sale a little but, because it's involving physical objects there can be no other way). And there's no silly items in there: CD, DVD, 3 music scores for 70$ = GREAT DEAL (believe me. It's some 30% off a regular price). For the higher pledges there's the autographs and for the even higher ones the commissioning of new works (give me 500$ and I'll write a work specifically for you, with your guidelines, and within reason (considering I am human and have my own personality (eg. I won't give you an R&B track for 500$ ! ).

_______________________

The Resonance project you describe is out of the question right now, for many reasons (nothing to do with legal stuff. I know Vince and Dave would have no problem with me doing that). One of them is exactly that classical listeners think of computer game music as inferior, while gamers think of classical music as boring. Plus I need to retain a single status as a composer... The "very diverse working on anything" status is beginning to hurting my image rather than the other way around... It was good for computer games, but not for classical music.

That said I do not intend to stop working on computer games... Not at all... but for a publicity project such a KS, I think I need to lay low for a bit...

________________________

And that's my main question, as you said. I've been using everything I have for the publishing house and our youtube vids and I've never hit more than 1500 views in any single video! On the contrary, with another account I put in my wife and I playing a work by Kachaturian (rather well known composer) which's reached 26,657 views in a few years, but with NO promotion whatsoever from me! Nothing AT ALL!

Which goes to show that my name is not strong enough (not at all), and my friends project got so much support because of his use in well known names... which is what got him so many views in youtube as well. If I was to make a classical transcription of PSY 'gentleman' I know I'd do rather well, but that's not what I aim for and I'm NOT doing that!

So, in other words, I'm battling, not only the project to succeed (which would help raise the awareness status of myself and the publishing house and the pianist), but also battling my own anonymity here (which isn't too anonymous, to be honest, but neither well know by any chance)... Double jepeardy I guess...

Thanks!

[Cerno]

Wow, very insightful post.

So first things first. I think your pitch is reasonable and could work. Nothing that blows me out of the water but again, I am not your target group.

I know that what you wrote is just a mock-up but don't stress the trustworthiness issue too much. It gives people the feeling you have something to hide 
From what you wrote earlier I think you are very self conscious about the KS project failing, but you must not let that show when presenting your pitch.
The risk issues belong in the special risk section of KS and have no place in the pitch. Positive things only!

I can fully understand that you want to keep the gaming world and the classical music world separate and I can see the risks of "pollution" between the two worlds (missing the correct word here). So using your Resonance fanbase is out of the question I guess.

One important thing I already mentioned is to build momentum beforehand. Take a few months to spend more time in online places where your target audience hangs out. Forums, Message Boards, Twitter and all the other newfangled Interweb 2.0 stuff. Let them get to know you and be part of their community. Then, when you start the KS it won't appear as a rip off. "O Hai, Newb here, I have zero posts and don't care about what you do here but back my Kickstarterz, kay?". Also try to get more people to your youtube channel. Practice there and if you are successful at this whole media thing, carry over to KS.

One other thing: You have an online store, add a newsletter to it that can be ordered by ticking a box once you order something (opt-in!). This lets you keep in touch with the people that you know like your music because they already bought from you. Offer the newsletter in Greek and English and send one out each month or so with recent news. This sounds like a lot of work, but imagine to be able to tell people about your KS who already bought and like your stuff.

All this will take quite some time, but if you are unsure about doing it at all I think it would be better to wait a bit and gain confidence by interacting with people who like your stuff. An insecure pitch video will not work. You have to be confident about what you want to achieve.

Finally, an idea I had this morning about higher reward tiers: What about for a substantial pledge a limited number of people will get the chance to visit you (one by one, bring one friend) and spend the evening with you, dinner on you, while you play some music for them. Depending on how fast you can compose you might even go so far as to offer them a live composition they can take home with them (mp3, transcription). I think a reward like that is invaluable, but of course you would have to be ready to let strangers into your home (or find a different venue). Add the clause "Must be able to travel to Greece at own costs". I've seen a number of people do this, but usually the meetings happen at the office (e.g. of a game studio).

[selmiak]

The "prizes" I offer to the pledges are very reasonable, and within an idea of 'small discount' as opposed to getting all the products (this is acting like a pre-sale a little but, because it's involving physical objects there can be no other way). And there's no silly items in there: CD, DVD, 3 music scores for 70$ = GREAT DEAL (believe me. It's some 30% off a regular price).

You should consider offering this for a $150 pledge then. In the end this is not ebay but kickstarter and you want to get some money in to do something new (and offer people some rewards for donating money, not sell it for store prices) and not print CDs and DVDs which also costs money and is a lot of work distracting from the original goal.
just my 2 cents, interesting read throughout the whole thread, please continue

[Cerno]

I second that. The reward tiers have to be well thought out.

The other day I way pondering on the worst case scenario of a kickstarter campaign.
I believe that it's not failure, since you don't lose anything (apart from a bruised ego maybe). In fact it is success after bad planning.

So what is the worst case scenario after winning a campaign?

Imagine a very simplified case where you only have two reward tiers.
Let's assume for $10 the backer gets a copy of something (no cost for the project owner) and for $50 they get something physical (cost for the project owner: $10)
For each $10 pledge you get $10, for each $50 pledge you get $40 (after subtracting the cost).
So let's assume the KS goal is $1000 and that goal is barely reached.
If everyone backs at $10, your total funding will be $1000 for which you will have to fulfill your project's goals
If everyone backs at $50, your total funding after paying for the physical rewards will only be $4000, so you will be missing $1000 to fulfill your project's goal.
These parameters will be much more complex in reality with multiple stretch goals and no way of guessing how many people will pledge for the intangible rewards and how many will pledge for the physical rewards.

All in all I think successful projects can be really risky if many people pledge for physical rewards and the financial buffer was too small.
I backed for this project and I've seen it backfire: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/714810375/elixirs-of-pain
Fortunately I got my reward, but many people didn't, due to several reasons. Now the project starter cannot be contacted anymore. I am pretty sure he did not factor in lost packages and simply does not have the funding to reimburse.

So these things will have to be taken into account and that underlines selmiak's point that you should not bargain away your stuff.

[Nikolas]

The amount of money involves the making and manufacturing of the CDs and DVDs. Thus if this is covered, then I'm fine. The rest of the physical objects in my case come from my own publishing house, and are either already published, or to be published shortly and fully funded. So if I win the goal I'm 'perfectly fine', just very very very busy.

But because it's classical music, the physical objects NEED to be there... I know for a fact that classical music, still sells a lot in physical CDs, rather than downloads... It probably has to do with the higher audio fidelity requested by the listeners, as well as the older age of them... :-/

But you're both right. This is not a sale, or a group sale or something like that. This is kickstarter, so I have to re-evaluate the "gifts" for the pledges.

EDIT: The links provided are awesome, btw! And thanks everyone so far...

EDIT x 2: Visiting me. If I was somewhere more central, I'd do this, but Greece is not exactly a hot destination right now, plus it's quite pricey to get here for quite a few people. I'd be ready to offer dinner, piano music, and whatever else might seem interesting, but still... :-/ hmmm...

[Cerno]

But you lose nothing by offering that reward. Maybe nobody chooses that, but if at least one person does, that is going to be a huge achievement.
Also don't forget about your potential Greek backers. If they are in the area, traveling to your place might not be such a big deal.

[Nikolas]

But you lose nothing by offering that reward. Maybe nobody chooses that, but if at least one person does, that is going to be a huge achievement.

true, but still somehow I don't like feeling too 'important'... I'm not sure anybody would be interested in meeting me (especially since I'm a very open guy and quite sociable, in which case having someone to give me 500$ to pay me almost seems like a scam! )

Also don't forget about your potential Greek backers. If they are in the area, traveling to your place might not be such a big deal.

That yes, but you should remember that with the current financial situation in Greece I doubt anybody would be willing to do that (along with the above).

Of course the other way around that idea would be to arrange for a small recital with the pianist, in the persons home, or my home, or something like that... This COULD probably work... hmmm... you've got me thinking...

[Cerno]

Anyway, I think I contributed all I can on that topic.
Let me know if you decide to kickstart your project, I might be inclined to back it

Good luck to you in any case.

[Nikolas]

Cerno: You've done wonderfully here... It will take a while to kick start... the kickstarter project but I think that it will happen. In which case I'll promptly ask everyone I know to share, show, offer, etc... ^_^ Until then... bye bye (from this thread, not the forums )

[EchosofNezhyt]

 

One of them is exactly that classical listeners think of computer game music as inferior, while gamers think of classical music as boring

Depends... Cod fans prolly.. But I think that might be generalizing to much.
I know quite a few people like that classical stuff and the other end of spectrum like tupac lol.

I kinda skimmed through this though im super tired atm... Best of luck though. (Btw if you need a art guy for anything hit me up )

[Cerno]

Of course there are exceptions, as always.

I am also aware that many game enthusiasts like classical music (see the success of the Skyrim composer's Kickstarter project). However, I think there is a difference between the classical music of a pompous movie or game soundtrack which is easily accessible, and the more artsy complex stuff that the classical music scene prefers.

Again, this topic is somewhat beyond me as I cannot judge what people might like, but I am still certain that there is the danger that classical music lovers will think less of Nikolas's work after his involvement in video games.

[EchosofNezhyt]

I am also aware that many game enthusiasts like classical music (see the success of the Skyrim composer's Kickstarter project). However, I think there is a difference between the classical music of a pompous movie or game soundtrack which is easily accessible, and the more artsy complex stuff that the classical music scene prefers.

Yeah true.

Best of luck though with this Nickolas.