Chris Chrebet won $30,000 through the Knight Arts Challenge to expand Leggo My Demo, a monthly demo competition for electronic music.  Chris started Leggo My Demo in 2006 when he found himself with a pile of new electronic music demos given to him at the Winter Music Conference in Miami Beach. He decided to choose the most artistic demos, post the results online and hold an event featuring the best from around the world.

Leggo My Demo now has the support of thousands of artists and producers and is about to launch version 2.0 of the web platform.  Each month, participants submit their newest demos.

We talked to Chris about his experience with the Knight Arts Challenge application process and what he’s done  with his grant.

Knight Arts: What made you decide to apply to the Knight Arts Challenge? Chris Chrebet: I had been working hard on our project for several years and really just needed that extra push.  I knew that the application process was uniquely simple and straightforward.  This gave me the confidence to apply.

Do you have any advice on writing those 150 words for people who are applying this year? Yes, look at the projects that have won in previous years.  This is the rule of thumb. (View the 2010 winners here.)

How did you raise the matching funds for your grant? I still don’t know, but we did! LOL.  We held approximately 30-35 small events throughout the year at Townhouse Hotel’s Rooftop Lounge.  A portion of the event proceeds went to our fund-raising efforts.  This accounted for about 75  percent of the funds we raised.  The final 25 percent came as the result of an online crowd-sourcing fundraiser at www.indiegogo.com/leggo.

What has the Knight Arts Challenge grant meant for you and your work? It has brought our platform to a level of professionalism and effectiveness that would not have been possible before.  Besides providing the funding to build the in-depth social network for which our project is based, Knight Foundation has also provided ample desirable exposure.  Further, the grant process forces you to become more organized and involved in community outreach.  Since I have had my experience with Knight Foundation, the Leggo My Demo project has built its platform, received professional media opportunities, incorporated a large number of supporting producers, artists and listeners, and set itself up in a way that is more attractive to future funders.  All in all, we probably wouldn’t have the funds to exist right now.  With the Knight Arts Challenge grant and ensuing process we now have about 1,500 contributing producers and over 100,000 people around the world all focused on the artists in our platform.

I heard you’re launching a new site soon. Can you tell us about it? The Leggo My Demo version 2.0 platform has too many advancements to note.  From a more engaging user experience and live feed process, to a unique time-sensitive pricing system for new music, to a revolutionary Internet radio of independent music  ranked in real time at leggo.fm, the new platform is going to engage independent artists in a way that has never before been possible.  While the V1.0 did provide the real-time rankings and social networking tie-ins, the new 2.0 site provides an exponential increase in user interaction.  The official launch is March 8, the beginning of WMC 2011.

Submit your best idea to the Knight Arts Challenge here.