“What you can sell — what you better be able to sell — is intimacy. It’s interactions in public. Souvenirs. Limited things of value. Experiences. Memories. People will pay for those things, IF: your art is actually great and if you make it possible for them to buy them.”

— Seth Godin in an interview with Derek Sivers

I spent the past week at Midem, a music conference in Cannes, presenting Kickstarter as the mechanism for doing exactly this. The presentation focused especially on Allison Weiss’ project, rewards, and interactions. (The BBC wrote about this today, in fact.)

Many of our social media interactions revolve around little more than promotional cross-talk — the ability to really engage and make a genuine connection between artist and fan is something much rarer. On Kickstarter, though, it’s what drives almost every interaction.

Allison’s project update “Phone call with The One who hit the mark” is an amazing example. Immediately after reaching her $2,000 goal in just ten hours, Allison posted a video chat with Jacquie in Australia, the young woman whose pledge pushed the project over its goal. Their interaction is heart-meltingly endearing, and immediately showed backers (and potential backers) just how special it was to be an Allison Weiss fan.

It’s not just Allison Weiss. It’s Emily sailing around the world. It’s Meaghan and Melissa’s book about sex. It’s even buying salt shakers, for crying out loud! Intimacy, memories, and experiences are at the heart of those projects, and so many others.