Kickstarters can now go live, thanks to a streaming video initiative the company officially rolled out Tuesday. Kickstarter Live enables people raising money on the crowdfunding platform to have a live streaming presentation of their work-in-progress, while taking questions from their audience and, of course, accepting funding.
According to the Kickstarter Blog:
The key to Kickstarter Live is its intimacy. It brings creators and the people supporting them right into the same room together. And it encourages personal connection. Viewers can ask questions, chat, send selfies, select rewards, and back the project — all while tuned in.
Creators are already jumping onboard the platform, which is simply a live chat with some custom features. Here’s a screenshot of Carcel, a team in Copenhagen that sells designer clothing made by women in prison:
If used correctly, this can be an excellent tool for creators to stay current with their funders. One of the big complaints with Kickstarter has been communication between creators and funders. If you’re a funder, you usually only see one video – the pitch video – and then get some email updates. Kickstarter Live gives creators the opportunity to show funders how things are going throughout the creation process, and get realtime feedback.
You can check out which streams are scheduled at any given moment by going to live.kickstarter.com/explore.