Is Amanda Palmer getting a little too greedy with her crowd-funding initiatives, or is she doing the independent musician thing the most logical way?
This question piqued our interest after the former Dresden Doll launched a new fan-financed campaign on the platform Patreon which within 24 hours saw the songstress attract almost 1600 pledgers, who will collectively fork-over $14,000 to the artist each time she posts a new creation, as Hypebot reports.
Basically, what this means is that each time Palmer releases a new song, video, or any other creative material on Patreon, $14,000 will go straight to the artist from the fans that have signed-on to her new creative project. Sounds pretty crazy, right? We’ll explain a little further.
The way in which the funding project via Patreon works is that each pro-Palmer sets an amount of money they wish to donate to the artist, for example $1.00, $5.00 and so on. From there, the total amount of each donator is combined, and every single time she posts new content online, fans receive the exclusive material as whatever monetary amount they nominated is deducted from their bank accounts.
For the current Palmer case, this means that on average right now fans are paying just under $9.00 each time Palmer drops a new track, which seems pretty pricey considering the most a pre-sale of a track normally fetches for is anywhere from free to $3.99.
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But what is all this money actually going to?
Palmer’s profile states that she needs funds because she wants to record in album in Berlin in German, the same of Paris in French as well some recordings with her Dad (because she promised she would) as well as a collection of videos, “i want to do a LOT of things. they’re gonna cost money” she writes.
This seems a little off to us, especially when considering the whopping $1.2 million she received from fans back in 2012 that went toward a new record and tour, surely she’d have a little bit left over to put towards making an album with her old man? And what about the money made from the record and tour?
What’s even stranger is that according to The Guardian, Palmer attests that once all her new material is finished, she will release “pretty much” all of it for free on various mediums including YouTube, Bandcamp and her own website and that her kickstarter campaign is only to assist in getting her work off the ground and into the air as well as a pre-ordering tool.
The argument of greed wields warrant, however the talented punk cabaret artist does have an incredibly dedicated fanbase and is not signed to any major label, and if they are willing to hand over their hard-earned, perhaps this is the best method to abide by.
Regardless of how one labels it, Palmer’s Patreon is exploding, we’re certain the crowd-funding queen will once again triumph and release plenty more fresh material, we’re just not sure how ethical it truly is.
