Amanda Palmer, who says that she’s been getting criticism for making money from her webcasts, has one hell of a manifesto up on her blog called, subtly enough, “Why I Am Not Afraid to Take Your Money.” She’s got a pretty convincing and simple argument as to why artists shouldn’t be afraid to ask their fans to support them:
“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.
…
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.”
My first reaction, to be honest, was to be angry at her. The consumer in me hated this. That guy who spent his youth downloading stuff from Napster thinks there has to be some other way. The Internet should make everything free, damn it, while at the same time making everyone rich. That was it’s promise. That’s what it was meant to do.
But that other guy — that guy who spends his nights collecting rejection letters from lit mags like my Grandma collected statues of elephants and his days working a job in which he does nothing but count other people’s checks — hopes she’s onto something. He really hopes she succeeds in finding a model that will work for other artists, even ones that are still figuring their art out.
So the question becomes: Will non-artists, who may have no frame of reference as to how much this can suck financially and who have the option of getting art for free through the Internet, agree to pitch in?
Surprisingly, they might. Just the act of writing “Why I Am Not Afraid to Take Your Money” seems to have helped Amanda Palmer raise some (see the bottom of her post). (via)
3 responses
I am a street performer. I also do festivals, corporate events and theatre shows. The street performer model works like this:
We give away the product for free.
After the audience has enjoyed the product, some of them – fortunately for us, most of them – give us money.
The ones who can afford to give more subsidize the ones who can’t.
I’m seeing Amanda Palmer perform for a $20 concert ticket next month. Way cheap for live music. I read her blog for free instead of buying her book. I watch her videos for free on YouTube and buy a song or two on iTunes. And if she wants to auction off art in the middle of the show, go for it, baby – I don’t have to bid. And the person who can afford to pay $200 or $500 for an amazing painting gets something far more special and unique than a mass-produced t-shirt, and it keeps my ticket costing $20.
I am a full time professional artist. I can only be good enough at my work to make money because I can afford to do it all the time, 40-80 hours a week. And I can only afford to be full time if people choose to pay me. The “everything should be free on the internet” model is great – if what you want is homemade videos of cats doing wacky antics. If you want art, start paying. And it’s OK if you can only pay a quarter, because every little bit counts.
To misquote the lovely Debbie Allen: You want art? Well, art costs. And right here is where you start paying.
Why are artists always expected to give away what they do for free? Why are we supposed to be embarrassed to charge? Why are we told to keep the fee quiet? The dentist isn’t embarrassed to tell you what it costs to get your teeth cleaned. He’s rather vocal about it actually.
I like Amanda isn’t afraid to fail. That she’s well aware the times they are achaning and instead of sticking her head in the sand and waiting for someone else to do the dirty work, she’s getting her hands in the mud. We all should do the same.
Hey A, fancy meeting you here. 🙂
Allison, it is good to hear you confirm that every bit counts. I expect AFP’s approach to money benefited from what she learned as a street performer (living statue etc).
I chose to pay $10 for Amanda’s single “Map of Tasmania” (“name your price, no minimum”), which was what I could afford. In the lyrics, in between support for women not interested in waxing our nethers back to the baldness of primary school (and those who love us*) is a short version of her manifesto:
…we are the media
…we start the mania
[*including a soupçon of personal sex-related info in this comment, just to fit in with y’all at The Rumpus]
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