Thread by @amandapalmer

{thread + discussion} i’m leaving for the next leg of my global tour today. in london about to board a train to the netherlands for the first show (sold out amsterdam, hooray!) but what’s on my mind right now is crowdfunding, and i want to talk about it for a second if it’s ok.

yesterday, i did five phone interviews, and most of the journalists had read my twitter feed. earlier in the day, a random woman had told me (via tweet) that i was tone-deaf for asking people to fund my fabulous lifestyle on patreon when real people had real bills to pay. *sigh*

dudes. i spent 2 years after my kickstarter in 2012 trying to explain crowdfunding. i wrote a book, did a TED talk & gave up 2 years of songwriting/art-making time to argue the case for artists who wanted to work outside the system and do business with their audiences directly.

crowdfunding - whether it’s kickstarter, indiegogo, patreon, or just a band pre-selling their album on their website instead of working with a corporation - is just a simple trust-based agreement between consenting adults. if you don’t want to be involved, great. don’t consent.

many people have finally learned this and come around. in 2012, few people had even heard of kickstarter, now it’s commonplace for an artist to crowdfund a project. and people are starting to learn about patreon & other long-term sustainable support-systems for artists. yay. but:

the reason so many artists still shy away from crowdfunding is because we ALL fear that woman’s tweet. no artist wants to appear entitled, greedy, desperate. it can seem easier to hide behind the safety of a label or larger “credible” system or middleman who collects your dough.

telling me that i am tone-deaf & entitled for asking my community to pay my salary via patreon is no different than saying it to beyoncé.
it’s just that she is selling a product via a middleman (itunes, whatever), i’m not.

but it’s ALL just artists needing money to live & work.

it’s like yelling at a street performer that they have no right to ask for money to be tossed in their open guitar case, and insisting that they make a deal with the theater down the street and book a show with a concrete ticket so that everyone can feel less awkward. it’s silly.

what i’d also like to remind everyone is that having 15,000 patrons who unconditionally support my voice, my work, my collaborators and my staff is one of the most artistically liberating and empowering things that’s EVER happened to me as a creator. i didn’t see this coming.

i just recorded the most honest, vulnerable, difficult, beautiful, and non-commercial albums of my career. it was expensive. it was hard to make. the opening track clocks in at fuckin 10 minutes. there are songs about death, abortion, cancer, miscarriage. it’s not easy listening.

i know the music business. there is no way in HELL i would have had the fortitude to walk into my old major label to argue my case that a record like that deserved to exist and be sold in stores. i would have lost the argument & exhausted myself in the process. i know the deal.

so to the people who think it’s tone-deaf and entitled to use crowdfunding: you couldn’t be more wrong.

LOOK AROUND. we need honesty, authenticity & bravery in art now more than ever before in human history.

the “system” isn’t willing to reward art like that.

but PEOPLE are.

i think that patronage & the ability for folks to promise $1/month to artists, especially women & minoroties in america who want to tell their stories and make their bold art outside a punishing and cold-transactional business model should be a fucking cause for celebration. 🎉💃

the media is flailing.
artists are scrambling.
the music business - after everything it should’ve learned post-napster - is still screwing artists & the public is none the wiser.

but bold art will surface to the top.

pay attention.
the revolution may well be crowdfunded.

over and out. please share this thread with artists and creators who are using crowdfunding and struggling to defend and explain their choices. the stigma is real and it’s toxic. but our numbers are growing and the public is gradually getting hip to how important it is.

also, feel free to use this thread to share links to independent, crowd-supported artists whose voices need amplifying.

talk about this.

ask me questions.

and here’s a link to my patreon. i’d love you to come be part of our community. it is awesome.

patreon.com/amandapalmer

one last thing: here’s my commercially-suicidal album, “there will be no intermission”. ill be playing it all across europe & the UK this fall.

it’s cheap on bandcamp because it was paid for by my patrons. (& to them, you know the deal guys. i love you). nointermission.amandapalmer.net

awesome response to this via IG