Although impressive, this still doesn't include the difficult bootstrapping step. What this example, along with Louis CK, Trent Reznor, and Radiohead show, is that if you're already famous via traditional means, then you can crowdsource enough money for your 3rd, 4th, or 8th production to go indie. But how do you crowdsource money for your first, without going with the "traditional" media industry?

In fact if you are well-known, it's not clear you even need Kickstarter at all. Einstürzende Neubauten, a niche-well-known industrial band, raised a substantial amount of money just by adding a subscription feature on their website in 2002, for example.