You raise good points JS... But my concern for example is Maria Schneider's latest. You can pay $20 for the CD and then the next price point is $350.00 To me that's ridiculous! I love her stuff, have all of her CD's but there's no way I would or could give her $350. Previously for other projects she had other pricing options (e.g., $40, etc.). I'm happy to support the concept. I've probably bought over a 15 CDs from artistshare BUT they have got to have more intermediate (modest) funding options.
Like Virginia Mayhew (renmarecordings.com) did the same thing (along with other artists who use kickstarter). I gave her $50 since I love her stuff. I got listed on the CD which was great. The max I would give for almost any artist would be $100. Jim Hall's $75 was a stretch and I only did that cause I have the original CD.
I'm totally into supporting the artists directly. I just think (given this economy especially) it's not fair to those of us who don't have $350 to limit our participation to two options.