Amanda Palmer And OK Go Get Together To Celebrate Being Dropped From Their Record Labels

from the party-time dept

Recently, we've noted some similarities between Amanda Palmer and the band OK Go, in that both had been signed to major record label deals, both had built up an amazing (and amazingly loyal) group of fans through various means (different for each) using methods totally outside of their major label marketing effort (which was somewhat lacking in both cases)... and last month, both were officially dropped from their label deals.

In the past, getting dropped from a major record label deal was seen as a bad thing -- a sign of trouble for the band. But in both of these cases, the process of getting dropped was initiated by the musicians themselves, who realized they could do much more outside of the major label system, than within it. So it seemed like a bit of serendipity, that both acts had aspects of their ongoing tours overlap in San Francisco this week -- leading to an event put together by Creative Allies at the Ex'pression College for the Digital Arts, where both acts performed and did some chatting about music and the music business as part of a webcast. Thanks to Amanda, I was able to attend in person with a small group of folks in the studio, and it was a fun time -- as both acts basically celebrated their freedom from their record label deals.

You can see the webcast in two parts below (not sure why it's two parts, and it was not easy at all to find the second part):


It's yet another reminder of how the role of the major labels is totally changing. Historically, the only way to be successful in the music business was to get a major label deal. They were the gatekeepers, and without a deal, you were out of luck. Being dropped from a major was effectively the end of your career as a performer with a very small number of exceptions. But, these days, artists are realizing that there's so much more that can be done without major label help, and that actually being on a major can hinder or block those opportunities, that it's become a cause for celebration when you get "dropped" -- or, perhaps, more accurately, freed!

While there's plenty of music, there were two key points on the whole business model side of things that came up that are worth repeating (in case you don't feel like watching both videos -- though, you should, since they're pretty cool). The first is that during the interview session between acts, Amanda was asked about "direct to fan" stuff, and she made a point that I've been trying (perhaps unsuccessfully) to highlight for quite some time: and that's that each act needs to do something that fits with what works for them. Her fear is that there's so much talk about "direct-to-fan" offerings, that people are going to start just trying to all do exactly the same thing, rather than charting a course that's unique to them.

We've tried to point this out as well, in noting how different the various success stories are. Inevitably, of course, someone says that we're saying everyone should do what one of these artists are doing (a favorite of critics is the false idea that we've said everyone should go to Disneyland with some fans, like Josh Freese). But that's not the case at all. For Freese, it was a part of his personality (and his life, as he basically grew up at Disneyland, and performed there as a kid). The whole point of learning how to better connect with fans and giving them reasons to buy, is not that everyone has to use Twitter, or that everyone has to offer "tiered" offerings. Or that everyone has to tour, even. It's that there are many different ways that each artist can connect with fans and give them a reason to buy directly, and that each artist has to figure out the way to apply the concept in a way that fits with their own personality and sensibilities. It's great that Amanda was able to really drive home that point during her interview.

The second part is actually an amusing exchange between OK Go and Amanda after OK Go's second song. Lead singer Damian Kulash asks the audience for questions, and if you listen closely on the video, you can hear Amanda ask about how the band was able to not just get dropped by Capitol/EMI, but also to take the last record with them (something she was unable to do with Roadrunner/Warner Music). Kulash tries (not all that successfully) to dance around the legalities by setting up a hypothetical version of EMI -- but basically admits that with EMI more or less fighting every day to avoid defaulting on massive loans -- while at the same time fighting with the Beatles and other top acts, the label apparently found the fact that Kulash might occasionally pen op eds for the NY Times that made the label look totally clueless on digital things, that it was better to just usher the band out the door as quickly as possible. And, as such, the band had a bit of leverage, which was used to not just get out of the contract, but to take the last record with them.

Of course, the business model stuff was a minor part of the overall evening, which really was very much about music, and a rather celebratory mood from both acts about their freedom to stretch out creatively -- as both demonstrate beautifully in their separate performances. Among the many highlights, there's Kulash forgetting lyrics and later getting a case of the giggles in the middle of the band's hit song "Here It Goes Again" -- plus a rendition of "What To Do" performed entirely by the band using a table full of hand bells... And Amanda playing a song from her upcoming EP of Radiohead covers played on the ukulele because, as she noted, she can.

Filed Under: amanda palmer, business models, major labels, music, ok go, record labels

Amanda Palmer Talks About Record Labels, Art, Commerce & Retiring To Open A Juice Bar

from the free-to-be dept

We've discussed in the past some of Amanda Palmer's business model experiments, and she's guest posted on this site herself about connecting with her fans. Last month she finally was "freed" from her major record label deal and celebrated that fact. Anyway, she's in the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend performing both Saturday and Sunday... and then on Monday, she'll be teaming up with Ok Go, the band that similarly just celebrated being "dropped" from their label, to do a combination webcast/art contest. As she prepares for all that (and is in the middle of a tour) she took some time to answer a few quick questions about the whole process of freeing oneself from a major record label deal...

---

You've been fighting your (old) label, Roadrunner for a while now, in response to your feeling that it didn't do much (if anything) to support your last album. As of a few weeks ago, you're now officially free from that label. What can you tell us about how those discussions went?

Well, I made it clear to the label a good year and a half ago that i wanted out of the relationship - it was clear to me that things had fallen apart as soon as I went on tour with Who Killed Amanda Palmer, my solo record, and there wasn't any promotion. They're a hard bunch of people to figure out. I think the thing that bothers me most about their system was the difficulty of finding out the Real Truth about things. I'm a generally straight shooter, often to my own demise, and I find it incomprehensible when people play giant games and tell giant stories that are misleading just as a matter of day-to-day business. I just can't function that way.

Of course decisions get made, things change in a moving marketplace - but the label would just keep me totally in the dark about decisions. It became intolerable to feel like there wasn't even an inkling of a partnership. I'd finally been in the business long enough to realize that the people you work with are your Life. And life's too short to not work with people you love. I don't care if I never see a cent they owe me, it's worth it to be free. Everything ahead of me will be so much more joyful, and every penny I earn will feel more joyful.

With both you and Ok Go recently celebrating getting out from under a major label contract, is this a beginning of a shift in how bands view label relationships? For years, the goal was always to get a major label contract and musicians would celebrate getting that deal. Now musicians are celebrating being "dropped" from major labels. Is this a turning point in how musicians interact with labels? Do you see yourself working with a label in the future? If so, how would you structure the relationship?

I have nothing against Labels at all. Labels are groups of people, trying to work. I like people, and I like work. But I think that the collapsed system has made it so hard for them to work well.

If I signed with another label, it would have to be a very personal partnership between me and a group of people that I really trusted to understand my bigger picture.

I would sit down with folks and seriously drill them on what they believed. I've made enough mistakes at this point, I'd proceed with extreme caution and not lock myself into a long-term deal.

Labels are REALLY useful. Any touring band who's successful knows that you can't tour and run an office at the same time. But I think the functionality is going to change...I think labels are going to basically dissolve into promotional companies, now that hard-copy music is going bye-bye.

You've also been pretty active in experimenting with all sorts of creative business models -- and not being ashamed to ask for money. Is there anything in your experiences that you think are applicable to others, or are they more specific to your circumstances? Also, what did you do that didn't work?

I think asking for money is generally considered shameful in the art and music world; it has been for ages. Art has this untouchable romanticism constructed around it; this cultural ideal about artists and how they shouldn't touch money because it strips away the integrity of their art. But that's obviously bullshit, especially if you look throughout history and see that artists have ALWAYS needed to fund themselves and their work creatively, sneakily, with gusto and with shamelessness. The only mistake I think I've made is not making the connection sooner. I think I was still living in the delusion back when we signed. Living inside this idea that we, as major-label-artists, would get to live on the Special Cloud of Art without Commerce. If I'd been thinking ahead, I would have been training and educating our audience form the very start to support us directly.

One of the complaints that people have leveled towards a model that involves using social media to talk with fans is that it takes away from their ability to make music. As someone who uses tools like Twitter, blogging and video streaming all the time, what are your thoughts on that?

If people are complaining that social networking is taking away their ability to make music, they're mistaking "ability" with "priority" and they're being pussies.

There's no rule that says that if you join twitter you had to hang your guitar on the wall and let it collect dust - that's just a fucking myth we tell ourselves to excuse ourselves from work when we find networking fancy and shiny and tempting. Networking and twitter and all the things that connect bands to their fans and to their fellow artists can be INSPIRING and DISTRACTING, depending how you use them. It's just a tool, like the telephone. You choose when to pick it up. If you're strong, you know how to prioritize your life. I'm not saying I'm GOOD at it, but I see where the lines are and I know when I'm falling into the over-communication ditch...then I scrape myself off, unplug, let my brain turn back into a creator's brain, and strap myself there until I have something interesting to bring back to the mac.

What's next for Amanda Palmer?

My new huge exciting project is an album of Radiohead ukulele covers (no, really) that I'm releasing on digital and vinyl only this july. It's a really gorgeous record. Right after that comes out I'm starring in the musical "Cabaret" this fall at the American Repertory Theater, directed by my old high school mentor Steven Bogart, who was the same one that co-created the Neutral Milk Hotel-inspired musical I did last year. I miss and love the stage...rock world gets a little old sometimes. After that, I don't know, I'll probably open a juice bar and retire. But I'll tweet about exciting juice combinations every morning.

Filed Under: amanda palmer

The Future Of Music Business Models (And Those Who Are Already There)

from the a-thorough-look dept

I'm at the Midem conference this week, and in preparing for it, Steven Masur asked me to write up a chapter for a book he was putting together of thoughts from various thinkers for a gathering of the International Association of Entertainment Lawyers (IAEL) here at Midem. Below is what I submitted. If you're a regular reader of the blog, there's little that will surprise you, but even so, it may be a good read, as it's got a whole bunch of different things I've discussed about -- things like "CwF+RtB" all summarized in one single place. Later, I'll do another post on what I discussed this year at Midem, since it builds on what's written below, and digs in much deeper on how to create compelling reasons to buy.

It's no secret that there's a lot of concern these days about what the music industry will look like going forward -- especially from those who work on the label side of the business and have been around for a bit. A variety of things have caused rapid change in the market. Competition from other forms of entertainment, such as the internet, movies and video games, have put more pressure on the industry, as consumers have been presented with significantly more options for their entertainment attention and dollars. And, of course, there's the ever-present specter of unauthorized file sharing -- or, as the industry prefers to call it (accurately or not), "piracy."

While the industry spent many years fighting the rise of the internet as a distribution and promotion method for music, it was eventually forced to recognize it. The labels eventually licensed music to Apple and iTunes (as well as some other stores). It took them way too long to recognize that people wanted DRM-free music, but they've finally come around to recognize that as well.

But the big new questions are all about licensing. New services are starting to show up on the scene, such as the industry's new darling, Spotify. Then there are attempts, such as those by Choruss and Warner Music, to set up something that is somewhat akin to a blanket license. For the most part, the industry hasn't shown much willingness to do these sorts of deals in manners that allow the underlying companies to survive, let alone profit. Numerous innovative startups have suffocated under burdensome licensing terms -- and as each one fails, it just gives consumers fewer and fewer reasons to actually use these services, wondering how long each will last until it goes out of business.

However, there is another solution: stop worrying and learn to embrace the business models that are already helping musicians make plenty of money and use file sharing to their advantage, even in the absence of licensing or copyright enforcement.

In simplest terms, the model can be defined as:

Connect with Fans (CwF) + Reason to Buy (RtB) = The Business Model

Sound simple? It is, if you understand the basics -- and it can be incredibly lucrative. The problem, of course, is that very few seem to fully understand how this model works. However, let's go through some examples.

Trent Reznor, the man behind the band Nine Inch Nails, has done so many experiments that show how this model works that it's difficult to describe them all. He's become a true leader in showing how this model works in a way that has earned him millions while making fans happy, rather than turning them into the enemy.

Reznor has always reached out to his fans, and has an amazingly comprehensive website, with forums, chat rooms and many other ways of interacting. He encourages fans to better connect with each other as well. While companies like Warner Music forced all the music videos of their artists off YouTube for many months, Reznor actually aggregates all the videos his fans take at concerts (he encourages them to bring cameras) on one page on his own website. He does the same for photos. He released a (free) iPhone app that allowed fans to locate each other, and communicate with each other, while sharing photos and videos as well. It's all about connecting with those fans, and helping them better connect with each other, so they feel like a part of a club.

From there, he gives fans real reasons to buy. Lately, he's taken to releasing everything he records for free online, knowing that the music will show up on file sharing sites anyway, so he sees no reason to fight it. Yet, he adds many other options that people might want to buy. With his release of the album Ghosts I-IV, he released all the tracks under a Creative Commons license that allowed anyone to share them online for free. Yet, he also set up some cool "reasons to buy." You could get the two disc CD, if you wanted, for just $10. Above that, though, was a Deluxe Edition Package, for $75. It was, effectively, a box set, but around a single album. Beyond the two CDs, it also included a DVD and a Blu-ray and a photobook of images.

Where the experiment got even more interesting was that he offered up the $300 Ultra-Deluxe Limited Edition Package -- of which there was a limit of just 2,500 available. This was an even more impressive "box" that also included the songs on high quality vinyl, and some beautiful giclée print images. But, most interesting of all was that that limited set of 2,500 were all signed by Reznor himself.

It took just 30 hours for all 2,500 to sell out, bringing in $750,000 in just over a day.

For music he was giving away for free.

But, by connecting with fans, and giving them a reason to buy, they did. In the first week alone, combining all the other offerings for Ghosts I-IV, Reznor brought in $1.6 million. Again, this is for music he was giving away for free.

The idea that you "can't compete with free" or that free means there's no business model is a myth. As Reznor and others have recognized, when the music goes free, it opens up new opportunities for better, stronger, more efficient business models.

Reznor's next album, The Slip, was released just a few months later, and again, was given away entirely free, but it was released the very same day as he announced his next Nine Inch Nails tour. All he asked, if you wanted to download the music, was that you provide an email address. He then gave fans the option of what quality to download the songs -- all the way up to lossless FLAC files. All for free. But, if you downloaded the files, you also learned about the tour, and the tickets were quickly snapped up.

The free music didn't hurt Reznor's ability to earn money. It enhanced it.

By connecting with fans and giving them a reason to buy, he's been able to thrive.

Some have complained that Reznor is not a representative example. After all, that huge fanbase came about in large part because of his success under the "old" model, where he was signed to a major record label who helped promote his album and turn him into an international rock star. While some may quibble with how much the label actually helped Reznor, it's worth exploring how this model has also worked for many other artists -- from the superstars to new up-and-coming acts.

Josh Freese is a session drummer based in Los Angeles, who appears on well over 100 albums and performs with many different bands. He's played with (among others), Nine Inch Nails, Guns 'N Roses, Sting, Devo, The Vandals, the Offspring. Yet, outside of certain musical circles, he doesn't have a huge individual reputation with fans. So, when he released his first solo album, called Since 1972, in March of 2009, he decided to set up a system similar to Reznor's Ghosts I-IV experiment, but made it more fitting to his own personality -- which meant making the options extreme and hilarious.

There were cheap options to get the music and CDs, but at $50, you would also get a personal 5 minute "thank you" phone call, where he said you could ask anything you wanted (his suggestion: "Which one of Sting's mansions has the comfiest beds.") There was a limited $250 option to get lunch with Freese at a PF Changs or a $500 chance to get dinner with him at Sizzler. The lunches sold out in about a week.

Then Freese took the model to a different level altogether. At $2,500 (limit of 5 available), he would provide a drum lesson, where you'd get to keep one of Freese's snare drums. You'd also visit the Hollywood Wax Museum with Josh and one of a rotating list of his rockstar friends (depending on who was available). Finally, you'd get to take and keep any three items from Josh's closet.

At $10,000, you'd get dinner with Josh and a rockstar friend, before hanging out at Disneyland (where Josh's father worked for many years, and where Josh got his start as a professional drummer) with Josh. And at the end of the day, you would get to keep Josh's Volvo station wagon -- after dropping him off at home. Obviously, there was only one of those available.

There were also $20,000 and $75,000 options available, including many more offers, like having Josh join your band or be your personal assistant for a few weeks. You'd also get to go on tour with Josh. He would also write and record a five-song EP about you. A teenager in Florida actually purchased the $20,000 option, and spent a week with Josh, including a night on the Queen Mary cruise ship, a pizza party at Mark Mothersbaugh (of Devo)'s house and a game of mini-golf with the singer from Tool.

Once again, by connecting with his fans, and giving them something of scarce value, Freese was able to create a business model that worked.

Connecting with Fans (CwF) plus a Reason to Buy (RtB) worked again.

However, some still complain that he's a product of the "old" industry, even if he was little known outside of it.

The next example is Jill Sobule, who had a hit song in 1995 with "I Kissed A Girl" (not the Katy Perry song). Since then, however, she's been dropped from two record labels and had two independent labels she was signed to go out of business. When it came time to record her latest album, she decided to get her fans to help fund it. She'd already done an excellent job connecting with her fans, regularly interacting with them on Facebook, where she would hold fun contests each day and actually chat with them and respond to questions.

She launched a website called "Jill's Next Record" that -- like Reznor and Freese -- offered up many options for how her fans could support her to fund a new album. They could pay $200 and get free access to any shows for a year. They could get their name mentioned on a "thank you" song. At $5,000, she would do a home concert at your house. She even noted you could charge for that one, and maybe even make some money. She ended up doing five or six such concerts. At $10,000 (described as the "weapons grade plutonium" level) you could sing on the album. This was meant to be a joke, but a woman in the UK purchased it, and Jill had her flown out to LA where she did, in fact, appear singing backing vocals on the album.

Her goal was to raise $75,000, and she had no idea if she'd be able to reach that number at all. Yet, she broke through that number and ended up raising over $80,000 in just 53 days. With that, she was able to go into the studio and record a full scale production, including hiring famed producer Don Was to handle production.

CwF+RtB worked again.

Again, some complain that Jill is not representative, due to her hit song in 1995 -- though, again, they'll ignore her being dropped from two record labels and and having two others go out of business.

So, let's look at Corey Smith. In the earlier part of this decade, Smith was a high school teacher, playing open mic nights on weekends. But then, he started focusing on building his music career. He started playing numerous live shows, and really worked hard to connect with fans. He gave away all of his music for free off of his website, and used that to drive more fans to his shows. On top of that, he offered special $5 pre-sale tickets to many shows, which has a useful side effect: his biggest fans would convince many others to go as well, building up his fan base, and getting more people to go to more shows. He tried pulling his free music off of his website as an experiment, and saw that his sales on iTunes actually dropped when he did that. In 2008, mostly thanks to live shows, Corey was able to gross nearly $4 million. While giving his music away for free. Connecting with fans and giving them a reason to buy worked wonders.

Jonathon Coulton was a computer programmer. In September of 2006, he decided to write, record and release a new song every week for a year -- with all of the songs being released under a Creative Commons license, so anyone could share them. And share them they did. Coulton became a cult sensation, and was making a good living within months of this decision. His fans were supporting him along the way, even creating music videos for every song he released. He started using services like Eventful to more strategically target concert opportunities. If enough people requested a show in a certain location, he knew it would be profitable and started "parachuting" in to do shows that he knew would make him money. Again, by connecting with fans and giving them a real reason to buy, he was able to build up a great following and make a good living.

Moto Boy is a singer/songwriter in Sweden on the wonderfully named label "Songs I Wish I Had Written." Moto Boy and his label purposely put all of his songs on file sharing networks -- including The Pirate Bay (the label's founder, at times, has shared an office with one of The Pirate Bay's founders). But, Moto Boy has worked quite hard to connect with fans. He has a great website, where fans can interact, and he encourages sharing his music in creative ways. When a bunch of his fans started filming his concerts and putting them on video hosting sites like YouTube and Vimeo, his label found the best such vidoes, and put them all together into a "YouTube concert." Compare that to record labels like Warner Music forcing their content off of YouTube. While all of Moto Boy's music is free, he's continued to connect with fans in fascinating ways. Last year, he began selling wind-up music boxes, that play one of his songs. Just recently, he launched a limited edition (only 25) of those music boxes in beautiful, hand-crafted wooden boxes, signed by Moto Boy, with a CD and the music notation inside the box. Connecting with the fans and giving them a reason to buy beyond just the music has turned Moto Boy into a star in Sweden.

Amanda Palmer is a singer who made a name for herself as a member of the "punk cabaret duo" The Dresden Dolls. While she put out a solo album on Roadrunner Records (a subsidiary of Warner Music), she found that they had little interest in promoting her, and took things into her own hands. She reached out directly to fans on services like Twitter, often setting up "flash gigs" where people would show up wherever she wanted to perform. In June of 2008, one such flash gig at a beach in Los Angeles ended up with an impromptu, beautiful, music video for a song that Palmer had just learned that morning, due to a suggestion from a fan on Twitter. And she's doing a good job making money, as well. Bored in her apartment one evening, she started twittering with fans and came up with a jokey t-shirt suggestion, and set up an immediate store, selling $11,000 worth of t-shirts in days. Another night, she started a live video stream from her apartment, and started an impromptu online auction for various items in her apartment associated with a recent tour, often with a personalized twist. In three hours, she brought in $6,000. Connecting with fans and offering them something fun and unique to buy worked wonders. To date, she hasn't received a single royalty check from Warner Music on her album.

Matthew Ebel is a singer in Boston who started building a fanbase by playing live and actively participating in social networks and other sites. He started regularly performing in Second Life, for example. At one point, he decided to set up a "subscription" backstage pass offer, whereby fans could pay $5, $10 or $15/month to get various benefits -- including access to new songs every couple of weeks, as well as having new recorded shows sent to them. Depending on the level of support, they could get access to special shows, gift bags or other opportunities for unique offers not available to others. Ebel has discovered that he's making enough so that music is his full-time job. Subscription revenues represent nearly 40% of his income, which is about equal to live gigs and sales of CDs and digital songs combined. Connecting with fans and giving them a real reason to buy has made it so that he can have career as a musician.

Moldover is an electronic musician based in San Francisco. Being in such a high tech hub, he had an interesting idea for his next album. Along with the music itself, the CD case would be a working circuit board, with all the songs spelled out in soldered electric circuits. These connected various components to make the CD case itself an instrument. Pushing a button on the side of the case, would light up the center and make a noise, which could be modified through a pair of light sensors, creating a virtual theremin. The case even had a line out jack, so it could be plugged into a computer or an audio system. The CDs themselves were sold for $50, and Moldover discovered the demand was far stronger than he expected. Yes, even though we're told that no one will pay for music (without strict copy protection), this less well known artist is doing brisk business selling $50 CDs.

Of course, these are just musicians, but these sorts of models impact the wider ecosystem. Companies like TopSpin, Nimbit and Kickstarter are making this work today (for artists big and small). TopSpin has helped enable musicians to better connect with fans and give them a reason to buy over and over again -- and found that, when it's done right, people absolutely buy. One of TopSpin's artists recently had an average transaction price of over $100, and multiple artists have seen their average transaction price at over $50. The claim that fans just want stuff for free is not borne out by these examples. Across all of TopSpin's artists, they've seen an average transaction price well over $20 -- more than the cost of your average CD. By enabling bands to connect with fans while giving them something of unique value to buy, beyond just the music, these bands are thriving.

And, of course, there's a role for labels to play as well. Terry McBride runs Nettwerk, a Canadian-based label that has tremendous success embracing these sorts of models with a bunch of different artists. McBride has declared that copyright won't even matter within a decade, and he's acting accordingly. But he's making sure that his acts really do connect with fans. With a recent album release by the hip hop artist K-OS, before the album was released, they released all the stems from the songs to let the fans do their own mixes. These weren't "remixes" because the original mixes weren't even out! Rather than worrying about an album leaking, K-OS and Nettwerk purposely got the core of the music out themselves and let fans do what they wanted with it. They then set up a system to submit the fan mixes and to vote on them, such that the best mixes were then put on their own album, and both the "professional" and the "fan mixed" albums were released at the same time -- leading many fans to buy them both. Both albums, separately, but at the same time, ended up in the top 50 on the charts.

As you look through all of these, some patterns emerge. They're not about getting a fee on every transaction or every listen or every stream. They're not about licensing. They're not about DRM or lawsuits or copyright. They're about better connecting with the fans and then offering them a real, scarce, unique reason to buy -- such that in the end, everyone is happy. Fans get what they want at a price they want, and the musicians and labels make money as well. It's about recognizing that the music itself can enhance the value of everything else, whether it's shows, access or merchandise, and that letting fans share music can help increase the market and create more fans willing to buy compelling offerings. It's about recognizing that even when the music is shared freely, there are business models that work wonders, without copyright or licensing issues even coming into play.

Adding in new licensing schemes only serves to distort this kind of market. Fans and artists are connecting directly and doing so in a way that works and makes money. Putting in place middlemen only takes a cut away from the musicians and serves to make the markets less efficient. They need to deal with overhead and bureaucracy. They need to deal with collections and allocation. They make it less likely for fans to support bands directly, because the money is going elsewhere. Even when licensing fees are officially paid further up the line, those costs are passed on to the end users, and the money might not actually go to supporting the music they really like.

Instead, let's let the magic of the market continue to work. New technologies are making it easier than ever for musicians to create, distribute and promote music -- and also to make money doing so. In the past, the music business was a "lottery," where only a very small number made any money at all. With these models, more musicians than ever before are making money today, and they're not doing it by worrying about copyright or licensing. They're embracing what the tools allow. A recent study from Harvard showed how much more music is being produced today than at any time in history, and the overall music ecosystem -- the amount of money paid in support of music -- is at an all time high, even if less and less of it is going to the purchase of plastic discs.

This is a business model that's working now and it will work better and better in the future as more people understand the mechanisms and improve on them. Worrying about new copyright laws or new licensing schemes or new DRM or new lawsuits or new ways to shut down file sharing is counterproductive, unnecessary and dangerous. Focusing on what's working and encouraging more of that is the way to go. It's a model that works for musicians, works for enablers and works for fans. It is the future and we should be thrilled with what it's producing.

Filed Under: amanda palmer, business models, connect with fans, corey smith, culture, cwf, jill sobule, josh freese, matthew ebel, moldover, moto boy, music, reason to buy, rtb, techdirt feature, trent reznor
Companies: nettwerk, topspin

Part Of The Reason To Buy Is Actually Asking For Money

from the and-talking-about-money dept

A bunch of folks have been sending over Amanda Palmer's latest blog post, where she discusses the importance of content creators today getting used to both asking for money and talking about money. This came after a couple people suggested to her that she not be so open about money issues in talking about her various business model experiments. Amanda notes that it's becoming the new norm to talk about money, and it shouldn't be seen as a bad thing. Part of the whole process of connecting directly with fans is that you take out the middleman, who had a variety of jobs, but one of them was asking for money. So if that middleman is gone, then the only person left to ask for money is the artist, and this shouldn't be seen as bad.

artists need to make money to eat and to continue to make art.

artists used to rely on middlemen to collect their money on their behalf, thereby rendering themselves innocent of cash-handling in the public eye.

artists will now be coming straight to you (yes YOU, you who want their music, their films, their books) for their paychecks. please welcome them. please help them. please do not make them feel badly about asking you directly for money. dead serious: this is the way shit is going to work from now on and it will work best if we all embrace it and don't fight it.

unless you've been living under a rock, you've surely noticed that artists ALL over the place are reaching out directly to their fans for money.
how you do it is a different matter.
maybe i should be more tasteful.
maybe i should not stop my concerts and auction off art.
i do not claim to have figured out the perfect system, not by a long shot.

BUT ... i'd rather get the system right gradually and learn from the mistakes and break new ground (with the help of an incredibly responsive and positive fanbase) for other artists who i assume are going to cautiously follow in our footsteps. we are creating the protocol, people, right here and now.

i don't care if we fuck up. i care THAT we're doing it.

She goes on to compare the new model to her experience busking in the past. In a separate discussion I had with Amanda a few months back, she referred to the new business model, "power busking." I agree almost entirely with her on this... with one, perhaps crucial, quibble. I get a little wary of focusing too much on the "busking" aspect, as it feels a little too close to the give it away and pray model, that isn't really a complete business model. I tend to believe that if you give people a real reason to buy (i.e., something scarce and valuable, offered at a reasonable price), then it's not "busking" at all. It's not "asking for money" at all.

It's offering a great deal that people want to buy. It's the difference between the PBS telethon fundraising effort and people gleefully snapping up merchandise from a TV show or movie. It's not about asking for money. It's about providing a "reason to buy" in the form of scarce offerings that are made more valuable thanks to the content that is being shared. From there, you're not begging for money, but you're offering up a great deal to fans who are thrilled to exchange their money for what they get in return.

So, I absolutely agree with almost all of what Amanda is saying, and think it's great that she's being so open about her experiments (and, yes, I know, I've been bad about giving up the data on our own experiment, which is entirely due to being too busy to just focus and write up what we learned... but it's coming soon!). But, I think that one way to get beyond the issue of "asking for money" and making that feel crass, is not to think of it as busking or asking for money or begging for money, but to focus on experimenting with ways to offer up scarce value that people simply want to pay for, rather than feel goaded into paying for it.

Filed Under: amanda palmer, asking for money, business models, busking, music, reason to buy, rtb

The Details Behind Amanda Palmer's Amazing Impromptu Music Video

from the connecting-with-fans dept

On Friday, we posted a guest post from singer Amanda Palmer, all about her thoughts on connecting with fans. If you didn't get a chance to read the whole thing, at the end she included a music video that she did. However, the story behind that music video is so good that it deserves a separate post of its own. We already know that Amanda has been a big fan of using Twitter to reach out to fans, and she did exactly that in this case -- but not to film a video. Just to hold an impromptu "flash gig" on the beach with two days' notice. Cool idea. Other bands should try that as well.

And then... one of her fans suggested the morning of the gig that she learn this song by Cat Stevens. So she did. And she went to the beach and a bunch of her fans showed up and she played some music and everyone was happy. And then they realized that the setting was great to film a music video. One of the people there was Danna Kinsky, who hardly knew Amanda, but is a filmmaker, and had her camera. Another person there was Lindsey Barnes, a photographer, who agreed to shoot some photos of the group. And, with the help of Kirsten Vangsness to corral and organize people, they created an impromptu music video...

The whole thing was thought up, organized and completed in 20 minutes. There was some after the fact editing and sound work, which appears to have taken a few weeks, but the end result is really amazing. It's a better music video than an awful lot of expensive professional music videos... and it was a spur of the moment thing. As the video notes at the end, musicians shouldn't fear Twitter, but learn to embrace it: It's really an amazing example of what you can do by connecting with fans. We're so thrilled that Amanda is taking part in our CwF + RtB experiment, that this week's special promo is that you can just buy her book and CD by itself (the book is signed by both Amanda and Neil Gaiman), or for a little bit more, you can also buy the whole Techdirt Music Club and get a bunch of other stuff as well. If you just want the Amanda Palmer stuff separate from The Music Club, it's only available until midnight August 10th, so don't miss out...

Filed Under: amanda palmer, connect with fans, fans, reason to buy, video

Amanda Palmer Talks About Connecting With Fans: Fans WANT To Support Artists

from the and-so-they-do dept

With our CwF + RtB experiment in full swing, we've asked some of the participating artists/authors to provide some guest posts about their own experience with new business models and new promotions. Amanda Palmer, one of the artists involved in our Techdirt Music Club, is someone you're hopefully familiar with by now. She's really been at the forefront of experimenting with these sorts of business models and agreed to write a guest post about her experiences.

As part of this, we're also doing an early announcement of the special promotion that we'll be running next week only. If you don't want the entire Techdirt Music Club, you can just order Amanda Palmer's part: the Who Killed Amanda Palmer book of photographs and short stories -- signed by both Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman -- and Amanda's signed CD as well. That's available now... but only through August 10th until midnight PT.

And here's Amanda's post:

i've been talking with a lot of folks lately about "why this works". the things i find myself saying over and over to people is that twitter and the new networking technologies are simply new tools for artists who have been super-connecting with their fans all along.

i started my band in 2000. we didn't play rock clubs. we played in our friends houses, in our own houses, in art galleries, in lofts, at parties. then we gradually brought the party indoors, into clubs that would book us once they knew we'd bring in 50 drinking/paying bodies. i treated our email list like gold. i obsessively stayed up all night and added named after every show. we took the time to meet every single fan who wanted to meet us after every show (i still do this, and i know that brian does it in his current punk band, world/inferno). but this wasn't because i felt it was mandatory....i did this because we LIKED it.

i got into music-making in the first place because i was so hungry to just CONNECT WITH PEOPLE. to me, the meeting&greeting was part of the reward, not a chore. but not all bands think like this. we were lucky. we liked it.

i'm still lucky, because i STILL LIKE IT. i actually love sitting down for an hour or two and bantering back and forth with my fans on twitter. they're all intelligent, funny, cool people. very few of them are mundane or obnoxious. very few of them ask stupid questions. there's a huge amount of respect between me and the fans and between the fans themselves. i feel proud that my music has brought all these freaks together, and i still like attending the party.

for artists who have NO desire to do this, it's quite a quandary nowadays, because many fans have come to expect it.

it's a slight catch-22: it's impossible to hide and it's impossible to fake.

and artists who have huge walls about what they're willing to share can end up seeming irritated....and letting someone else tweet for you is the kiss of death. the last tweet a fan ever really wants to see is : "hey THE ARTIST'S fans!! check out THE ARTIST'S new single, available now on itunes!!!" people hate that shit. not when you know you can go somewhere else and get: "fucking hell, let me share with you guys i'm feeling..."

re: the connecting to fans, and giving them a reason to buy....

what i've found is that once people trust and love you as an artist, some percentage of them will buy ANYTHING if they know the actual exercise is to simply put money in the artist's pocket. case in point: when i did my hock-weird-shit-from-my-apartment webcast auction a few months ago, fans wrote in asking if they could bid on the glasses and wine bottle we were drinking from. the answer: fuck yes. why not? they sold for a few hundred dollars each. the reason? these fans knew that it wasn't the objects themselves that were important. they knew that i was raising rent money, and they wanted to help; wine bottle was pure symbolism.

another fan tweeted in that they'd love to get involved by buying a signed postcard for $20...would i do that? when i told them that sure, i'd do it, 70 other fans wrote in and wanted one for themselves.... and most of them KNEW that i have a section of my website that states clearly that if you simply send me your address, i'll send you a signed postcard...FOR FREE!

but they wanted to help. and be involved. and involved them i did...before ending the webcast i read off a list of all their names. i knew they'd dig that...and i hadn't promised anything. i just knew that being recognized means so much when you're sitting randomly alone behind your computer, watching a webcast, feeling only slightly connected.

so:
connecting with fans, if they LIKE YOUR ART, automatically gives them a "reason to buy", even if it's NOT ART, because they want to SUPPORT YOUR HABIT.

i think we're going to see more and more of that as fans come to realize that the music is free but comes with the emotional price-tag of supporting the artist in any way the artist puts their proverbial hat out (merch, mementos, special packages, literal/web-based tip jars...or wine bottles).

how much do you think the hardcore fans who buy the $300 vinyl/art-print bundles would simply buy a random pretty book of monochrome prints by an unknown artist in a bookstore?

my guess: they will look at the bundle book a few times, admire it, appreciate it, put it on the coffee table or the bookshelf. and they will listen to the vinyl....probably. but are most of those people vinyl-philes? art print collectors? the point is, they will get two other things that are more important: bragging rights and the knowledge that they were singlehandedly involved with and supporting an artist's personal enterprise. because they love the artist, and they want to support him/her, period.

but the nature of fandom & its responsibilities is going to have to change to the same extent that the musicians are going to have to look at their lives & livelihoods (as "working musicians") more honestly.

as musicians rely more and more on fans/listeners/audience within this kind of honor system, the fans/listeners/audience will have to ante up or the system just won't work.

my hope is that the future culture of music will equate the pleasure of hearing a brand new band in a teeny club with the moral responsibility to toss them a few bucks to keep going, instead of just walking into the night, feeling lucky.

p.s. i created this video about a month ago with my fans at the beach at the tail end of a twittered flash-gig in LA. watch it, it's awesome. Thanks Amanda! To get the signed book & CD check out the Amanda Palmer Special, or get the entire Techdirt Music Club for just a little more. Or, if you want to go all out before midnight PT on Monday the 3rd, if you buy both the Techdirt Music Club and the Techdirt Book Club before midnight PT, August 3rd, we'll throw in a free Techdirt hoodie, or a free lunch with Mike Masnick.

Filed Under: amanda palmer, connect with fans, reason to buy

A Closer Look At How Amanda Palmer Connected With Fans To Become Successful

from the it-ain't-'cause-of-the-label dept

We've written a few stories about Amanda Palmer, and her amazing success in connecting directly with fans (and her struggle to get dropped by her major record label), but none got quite as much attention as the last one about her massively successful Twitter experiments last month. The comments on that post got pretty involved, with Amanda herself stopping by to clarify some points. Some people argued that the only reason she had a fan base at all was because of her major record label association, and also claimed that the label financed the album -- which Palmer denied, noting:

for the record, i actually fronted ALL of the money for this record, because the label wasn't interested in supporting the effort.... i put in my own 200k (much of it borrowed) to make the record. the label picked it up, but i was never fully paid back (long, vile and complicated), which added insult to injury when they did FUCK all to promote the record.

Even more to the point, others are pointing out how much of her core loyal following had nothing to do with anything done by the record label. Hypebot asked Emily White, who's had a long history with Amanda and her work, to weigh in on how she built up her fanbase, and how much impact the record label had. The answer is that the label didn't do very much at all. It got some new markets interested... briefly... but those fans didn't stick around. The true fans were the ones who found out about Amanda and the Dresden Dolls via word of mouth. A few key excerpts (though you should read the whole thing):

I tour managed The Dresden Dolls from 2003-2006 and later co-managed the band as well as managed the launch of Amanda Palmer's solo career. The band self-booked a spring 2004 tour around SXSW hitting everything from sports bars to a bbq restaurant. They had no label, publicist, radio promo, agent, etc. to help book or promote the shows. Before hitting the road, I thought, "who is going to turn up to these shows outside of the Northeast? (as the band is from Boston). How will anyone know about them?"

But kids DID turn up. Whether it was 100 folks in Carbondale, IL or the amazing show Appalachian State University students put together in Boone, NC, the tour was a smashing indie success. I asked the fans at the merch table and the folks who helped us put the shows together how they knew about the band. The answers were consistently along the lines of "my cousin in Vermont IM'd me," "my boyfriend sent me a CD from Boston," or "someone forwarded me one of their mailers." It was true word-of-mouth about an incredible new band, fostered by Amanda and Brian's commitment to playing killer shows, writing personalized mailers and signing an autograph for every fan who wanted one, no matter how many hours it took.

....

And because of that decision [to sign with a major label], the band did receive pockets of radio success in markets like St. Louis and Arizona. The attendance at those shows spiked in 2006 when a few Dolls songs were receiving airplay. Awesome, right? Well, now it's 2009 and we've returned to some of those markets. Many of those radio fans don't turn up anymore. Yet, the hardcores or "1000 true fans" are still there, just like they have been since they organically founded The Dresden Dolls back in the day. They still line up outside for hours, know every word of every song (whether or not it has been released), and wait around for Amanda's autograph. They don't need a top down marketing plan to tell them what to like. And who are the new hardcore Dolls/ Amanda fans? They are the younger siblings and friends of the original fans, who continue to spread the gospel about an artist who's work they love so much they can't not talk about.

Once again, if you can connect with fans, and give them a true reason to buy, they will. That doesn't mean labels are useless. If they can help artists better connect with fans and provide more reasons to buy, they can absolutely be helpful. But that's just not the way many old school label folks work these days. Some of them are finally getting it (and I've actually had some really great conversations lately with record label folks who are figuring this out). But for artists who can (and want to) do it themselves, there are an increasing number of wonderful opportunities.

Filed Under: amanda palmer, connect with fans, reason to buy

Amanda Palmer Connects With Fans, Gives 'Em A Reason To Buy... And Makes $19k In 10 Hours

from the that's-the-way-to-do-it dept

We keep talking about artists who are connecting with fans, and giving them a reason to buy, and it seems like every day we hear of more and more new and creative ways that artists are doing this -- even as the naysayers stop by daily to insist it's impossible for such things to scale. It's a blast to see it scale more and more every day and prove them wrong. The latest example comes from Amanda Palmer -- who we've written about a few times before. She's the singer who has been fighting with her major record label (Warner Music's Roadrunner) for not just being a pain to deal with, but for making it harder for her to both connect with fans and give them reasons to buy. For example, she got caught in Warner's stubborn decision to fight YouTube over payments, and had all her videos taken down from YouTube against her wishes. So, at a concert, she told fans to upload the video to YouTube as she sang a song begging her label to drop her.

But, even as she's stuck on the major label, she's shown that by connecting with fans and giving them a reason to buy, they absolutely will support her. Back in April, we wrote about how she got her fans to help support the backup dancers on the tour, since they had no money to pay them, but the fans came through with money/food/lodging.

However, now she's going much further, much of it using Twitter to closely connect with fans. She recently explained three separate experiments, all done on a whim this month, which allowed her to bring in $19,000, and all of which show those same basic characteristics: connect with fans and give them a reason to buy. The story is so good that I ended up including the whole thing, because it's too good not to read -- but check out Amanda's site directly.

this story has just been blowing people’s minds so i figures i should write it down.

1.
FRIDAY NIGHT LOSERS T-SHIRT, $11,000

about a month ago, i was at home on a friday night (loser that i often am when i’m not touring, i almost never go out) and was, of course, on my mac, shifting between emails, links and occasionally doing some dishes and packing for a trip the next day. just a usual friday-night-rock-star-multi-tasking extravaganza.

i twitter whenever i’m online, i love the way it gives me a direct line of communication with my fans and friends.

i had already seen the power of twitter while touring…using twitter i’d gathered crowds of sometimes 200 fans with a DAY’S notice to come out and meet me in public spaces (parks, mostly) where i would play ukulele, sign, hug, take pictures, eat cake, and generally hang out and connect. this was especially helpful in the cities where we’d been unable to book all-ages gigs and there were crushed teenagers who were really grateful to have a shot at connecting with me & the community of amanda/dolls fans.

i’d also been using twitter to organize ACTUAL last-minute gigs…i twittered a secret gig in LA one morning and about 350 folks showed up 5 hours later at a warehouse space….i played piano, filmed by current.tv, and then (different camera crew) did an interview with afterellen.com.
the important thing to undertsand here is that the fans were never part of the plan..,i basically just INVITED my fans to a press day, the press didnt’ plan it…i did.
i was going to be playing in an empty room and doing q&a with afterellen on a coach with only the camera watching.
it was like….why not tell people and do this in a warehouse instead of a hotel lobby or a blank studio? so i did.

it cost me almost nothing. the fans were psyched.

but back to the bigger, cooler story….

so there i am, alone on friday night and i make a joke on twitter (which goes out to whichever of my 30,000 followers are online):

“i hereby call THE LOSERS OF FRIDAY NIGHT ON THEIR COMPUTERS to ORDER, motherfucker.”
9:15 PM May 15th from web

one thing led to another, and the next thing you know there were thousands of us and we’d become the #1 topic trend on twitter.
zoe keating described it as a “virtual flash mob”.

the way twitter works (if you don’t have it) is that certain topics can include a hashtag (#) and if a gazillion people start making posts that include that hashtag, the topic will zoom up the charts of what people are currently discussing. it’s a cool feature.

so anyway, there we were, virtually hanging out on twitter on a friday night. very pleased with ourselves for being such a large group, and cracking jokes.

how do you “hang out” on the internet? well, we collectively came up with a list of things that the government should do for us (free government-issued sweatpants, pizza and ponies, no tax on coffee), AND created a t-shirt.
thank god my web guy sean was awake and being a loser with me on friday night because he throw up the webpage WHILE we were having our twitter party and people started ordering the shirts - that i designed in SHARPIE in realtime) and a slogan that someone suggested: “DON’T STAND UP FOR WHAT’S RIGHT, STAY IN FOR WHAT’S WRONG”. neil gaiman and wil wheaton joined our party. the fdnas felt super-special.

by the end of the night, we’d sold 200 shirts off the quickie site (paypal only) that sean had set up.
i blogged the whole story the next day and in total, in the matter of a few days, we sold over 400 shirts, for $25/ea.

we ended up grossing OVER $11,000 on the shirts.
my assistant beth had the shirts printed up ASAP and mailed them from her apartment.

total made on twitter in two hours = $11,000.
total made from my huge-ass ben-folds produced-major-label solo album this year = $0

2.
WEBCAST AUCTION, $6000

a few nights after that, i blogged and twittered, announcing a “webcast auction” from my apartment.
it went from 6 pm - 9 pm, my assitant beth sat at my side and kept her eyes on incoming bids and twitter feed.
while we hocked weird goods, i sang songs and answered questions from fans. we wore kimonos and drank wine. it was a blast.

people on twitter who were tuned in re-tweeted to other fans. the word spread that it was a fun place to be and watch.
we had, at peak, about 2000 people watching the webcast.

at the suggestion of a fan early in the webcastm anyone could, on demand, send us $20 via paypal and we would chew,
sign and mail them a postcard. we sold about 70, and we read all those names at the end of the webcast and thanked those
people for supporting us. here’s how the sales broke down:

all the items were signed by moi and hand-packed by beth and kayla._ the items and highest bidders were as follows:_ hilary, ukulele used on the european tour: $640 _jake, “guitar hero” plastic guitar controller used in album promo shoot: $250_ lary b, copy neo2 magazine, plus two post-war trade slap-bracelets & a crime-photo set: $230_ devi, glass dildo, with subtley-sordid backstory: $560 _liz b., “hipsters ruin everything” t-shirt, made by blake (get your very own here!!!!): $155.55_shannon m., my bill bryson book, a short history of neary everything: $280_ nikki, huge metal “the establishment” sign, used at rothbury festival for the circus tent i curated: $450 _j.r., purple velvet “A” dress used in the dresden dolls coin-operated boy video shoot: $400_ jessie & alan: who killed amanda palmer vinyl: $100_ nikki: wine bottle, auctioned BY REQUEST!!! $320 _shannon w., torn-to-shit vintage stockings used in the who killed amanda palmer/ michael pope video series: $200 _jodi,
school-note-book break-up letter, written to amanda from jonas woolverton in 7th grade (i still haven’t emailed him about that….): $250_ daryl, ANOTHER wine bottle, by request, that we had LYING AROUND: $320
and…………..
reto emailed, having barely missed the wine bottle, and asked us to send him “something funny” for $129.99. we sent a heath ledger statuette.

total made on twitter in 3 hours, including the postcards, was over $6000.
again, total made on my major-label solo album this year: $0

3.
TWITTER DONATION-ONLY GIG, $1800

a few days later, i twittered a guest-list only event in a recording studio in boston, to take place a week later.
the gig lasted about 5 hours, all told, with soundcheck and signing. i took mostly requests and we had a grand old time.
first come, first served. the first 200 people to ask got in, for free. i asked for donations and made about $2200 in cash.
i gave $400 back to the studio for the space and the help. we sold some weird merch. i think we should call it an even 2k.

total made at last-minute secret twitter gig, in about 5 hours = $2000
major-label record blah blah blah = $0

…..and for fun, and to thank my fans for being awesome, i’ve been doing some twitter perfomance art, including answering their questions by magic-markering my body until it’s covered, and displaying time-lapse make-up application advice….but that’s another story.

TOTAL MADE THIS MONTH USING TWITTER = $19,000
TOTAL MADE FROM 30,000 RECORD SALES = ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

turn on, tune in, get dropped!!!!!

love,
amanda fucking palmer
http://www.amandapalmer.net
http://www.dresdendolls.com

There are so many different examples buried in there of both connecting with fans and giving them a reason to buy, it's worth reading multiple times. So, go on, naysayers in the comments. Point out, yet again, why this is the exception, and explain why other artists can never do their own creative means of connecting with fans and giving them a reason to buy. We'll chuckle, and watch as more and more figure it out.

Filed Under: amanda palmer, connect with fans, reason to buy

Amanda Palmer Shows How Her Fans Support Her

from the connect-with-fans... dept

One of the most amazing things to me about those who think that we need stronger copyright laws or that the music industry will "die" if we don't enforce copyright laws more stringently is what they're really saying about fans: they're saying that fans don't want to support artists. However, as we've seen over and over and over again, that's simply not true. Fans have no problem supporting musicians, if those musicians make an effort to connect. The idea that fans will suddenly stop supporting artists is shown to be false over and over again. The latest example comes from Amanda Palmer -- who's been on something of a crusade to get out of her record label contract with a subsidiary of Warner Music, Roadrunner Music. In an email to Bob Lefsetz, she talks about the support her fans are giving (voluntarily) as well as how she's better connecting with her fans via Twitter (despite the record label saying Twitter wasn't worth bothering with):

it's a lesson in how the future of music is working - fans are literally (and i mean that....literally) lining up at the signing table after shows and HANDING me cash, saying "thank you".

i had to EXPLAIN to the so-called "head of digital media" of roadrunner australia WHAT TWITTER WAS. and his brush-off that "it hasn’t caught on here yet" was ABSURD because the next day i twittered that i was doing an impromptu gathering in a public park and 12 hours later, 150 underage fans - who couldn't attend the show - showed up to get their records signed.

no manager knew! i didn't even warn or tell her! no agents! no security! no venue! we were in a fucking public park! life is becoming awesome.

also interesting: i brought a troupe of back-up actors/dancers on the tour (we were only playing 300-1000 seaters) and had no money to pay them, so we passed the hat into the crowd every night. each performer walked from each show with about $200 in cash. the fans TOOK CARE OF THEM. they brought us dinner every night, gave us places to sleep. (i couldn't afford to put up that many people in hotels). all sans label, all using email and twitter. the fans followed the adventure. they LOVED HELPING.

so?

the times they are a-changing fucking dramatically, when pong-twittering with trent reznor means way more to your fan-base/business than whether or not the record is in fucking stores (and in my case, it ain't in fucking stores).

twitter is EVERYTHING that you explain in your rants: it is a MAINLINE insta-connection with the fans. there is ZERO middleman. my fans hung out with me all day on twitter today while i unpacked weird tour shit, fan art, gifts and paraphernalia that usually just ends up in my closet or in the trash and took pictures of it for them.

Connect with your fans. Give them a reason to buy and they'll support you. This doesn't require DRM, lawsuits, collective licensing, blanket licensing or even copyright. It's a model that works today and works well for musicians of all stripes (though, you actually have to be good... no new model works that well for bad musicians).

Filed Under: amanda palmer, fans, support

Amanda Palmer Asks Fans To Upload Her Anti-Record Label Song To YouTube

from the nice-going-warner... dept

You may recall (of course) that Warner Music and Google are in a fight over YouTube. Warner Music is demanding that Google pay more than Google thinks is reasonable, so now all Warner Music Group videos have been pulled from YouTube. Of course, this is actually pissing off numerous Warner Music musicians, who realize that YouTube (even if not paying directly for their videos) benefits their careers greatly. One such artist is Amanda Palmer -- who is signed to Roadrunner Records, a subsidiary of WMG. She was one of the first to complain about Warner pulling her videos from YouTube. Now she's going even further. Rose M. Welch sends in a link to a YouTube video of a recent Amanda Palmer concert where she first tells the camera operator to make sure he puts the video on YouTube so she can watch it, and then sings a song to her record label, demanding they drop her: Yup. That decision to demand a few extra pennies from Google while pissing off your artists, sure makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?

Filed Under: amanda palmer, videos
Companies: warner music group, youtube