Alright, my input on all this.
Apologies to 3phase and the few others who aren't happy with how I approached this. I've noted your points and they will ultimately influence my future decisions on how I market and raise money to further my project.
I dispute the calls that reference me as a beggar, I am offering a service here, a paid service. People have asked me for paid online lessons in the past, so I thought I would put together something fun that would help these people, creating a community vibe around the whole thing, which I think is an important factor when it comes to learning something new.
I would have been interested in having a decent discussion about this concept, the whole "digital busker" idea as I have a lot to say, but that topic got turned to immature shit pretty quick so I am keeping out.
There are two particular audiences I tried to attract with this fundraiser.
People who are still learning, and would like to get some one on one style help
People who I have helped someway in the past, and wanted to contribute something back
I understand a lot of people here in the forums aren't in one of those two categories, and that seems to be the upsetting point, so I apologise for actually posting this here, I should have kept it internal to the personal community on my website.
I mainly teach beginners, I don't hide this. My passion is getting people up to speed with Ableton as fast as possible so they can start mechanizing their own way of producing and develop their own style. If you think I am failing at this I would much rather constructive criticism emailed directly to me (
[email protected]) than insulting slander on a public forum. I am all up for changing if it's for the better, and am very open to suggestions.
I give SubFunk credit here, within hours of the first post he had private messaged me his thoughts on what I had done wrong, as well as suggest ways I could change things, some of which I did.
Another point I wish to make is that I am not hiding that the money raised from here is going into my pocket, or my business's pocket to be exact. Sure it will be spent on a flight, but I am not raising money for charity here (that was my mistake with the last fundraiser, something I will never do again).
Finally, thanks to all those who contributed something intelligent to this thread . It's been a great read, and will no doubt change the way I operate in the future.
This will be my last post in this thread.
Cheers
-Tom
p.s. The things that are left are... Snare, Percussion, Melodies, Pads, a few Sound FX, The Structure and the Name