amanda "$1.2m" palmer wants you to play with her for free

[Colonel Panic]

Welcome to the new incarnation of the music industry.

As blatantly cynical and manipulative as a stunt like this may appear, it's still nowhere near as shitty as the old-school model whereby giant "music" corporations decided who made records and who didn't, determined the bands' overall sound, booked and managed all the tours, dictated the contents of all the record albums, and accounted all the finances at the ultimate expense of the artists.

It's just another, more extreme take on the whole "cheapskate bands financing their tours through Kickstarter" thing in the first place. If you really don't like it, then just don't allow your band to do it, and don't pay your good, hard-earned cash to others who do.

Same goes for this case. If you're offended by the idea of playing free for the benefit of some tasteless skank with an obscenely inflated ego, then don't volunteer to do it. If you object to the idea of paying a premium ticket price to see a professional entertainer up on stage with a bunch of unpaid amateurs, then don't go to her show. It's as simple as that.

After all, it's not like she's taking food out the the mouths of anyone's children.

[total_douche]

Shit, I'd like to go back to school and meet attractive young women all day instead of this 12 hours 7 days a week shoveling flour and fixing milling machines at work bullshit. Where the fuck can I get my million?

[noise&light]

Shit, I'd like to go back to school and meet attractive young women all day instead of this 12 hours 7 days a week shoveling flour and fixing milling machines at work bullshit. Where the fuck can I get my million?

Put together a kickstarter.
Apply for a grant.
Apply for a loan.
Ask to borrow the money from friends.

There are four suggestions. I don't think that money comes your way just by complaining about other people figuring out how to obtain money or we would all be rich.

[Yodzinga Phazor]

I guess I have more of a problem knowing that 1.2 million dollars' worth of fandom supports music this annoying. People will always play for nothing. That is less depressing than people willing to throw money at music this bad.

[Johnny C]

the detail that ties it all together is that she didn't want to shell out the $35k – out of $1.2 million, during a series of shows that will likely sell near-capacity for most of the venues – for the extra musicians she really wants

[Yodzinga Phazor]

Oh yes. Definitely a cheapskate-who-can-afford-not-to-be of the highest order, making anyone who plays with her that much more the fool, beyond merely being a fool with questionable taste.

[brando562]

a part of me feels like people who are outraged by kickstarter had once made their own page and the minimal goals were not able to be met. WHY IT NO WORK FOR ME WHEN IT WORK FOR YOU?

[Luzwei]

I'm really looking forward to the Metallica Kickstarter campaign starting in about 6months funding their new record. 10 million? Am I off by much? 15 million???

[subprime]

Jesus christ what a fucking cunt.

[motorbike guy]

who the fuck is this woman? I looked at a couple of videos last night, and damn, that shit was rank! her voice sucks, the tunes are completely lame, the arrangements are redolent of 4th grade music class. I will not even go into the visuals.

i have never heard of her. has she had a hit, or was she in some other band before?

[dvockins]

Now you know how much she values the quality of her live performance.

Ask anyone that has seen Chuck Berry from 1960 to now how this policy works out.

[Twilight Sparkle]

i have never heard of her. has she had a hit, or was she in some other band before?

She was half of the Dresden Dolls.

[subprime]

piano cabaret rock, oh boy...

[madlee]

I think this stuff is like Insane Clown Posse for college kids.

[motorbike guy]

i have never heard of her. has she had a hit, or was she in some other band before?

She was half of the Dresden Dolls.

Ah, i thought i recognized the aesthetic from somewhere. Based on her solo work, i would say she is more like one-fifth of the Dresden Dolls. Not that they were anything interesting. I recall their songs had some craft to them.

Seriously, I watched one video last night of a live performance of a song by her, and it consisted of her plonking two chords on a piano and her yowling off-key, while people in white shirts danced around her. WTF? People pay to see that shit?

I immediately switched to a Nina Nastasia video to clear my mind and refresh my ears.

[subprime]

Shit, I'd like to go back to school and meet attractive young women all day instead of this 12 hours 7 days a week shoveling flour and fixing milling machines at work bullshit. Where the fuck can I get my million?

You work 84 hours a week? Christ man. Move to newfoundland, you can subsist on 40 hours a week minimum wage pretty well here. (assuming you live with atleast one other person you can get about 400$ rent a month.

[total_douche]

Shit, I'd like to go back to school and meet attractive young women all day instead of this 12 hours 7 days a week shoveling flour and fixing milling machines at work bullshit. Where the fuck can I get my million?

Put together a kickstarter.
Apply for a grant.
Apply for a loan.
Ask to borrow the money from friends.

There are four suggestions. I don't think that money comes your way just by complaining about other people figuring out how to obtain money or we would all be rich.

In other news, the sky is blue and water is wet. I will refrain from posting without warning placards which clearly state my intentions and tone in the future. Please accept the following several paragraphs of explanatory remarks about the deeper meaning of my words in the context of what I was thinking at the moment, in MLA format, so that I might justify every comment I make lest I be accused of complaining, ostensibly because of my lack of "LOL"s and little 15x15 graphical representations of human faces miming various emotions.

Or not.

For what it's worth, I actually think that it's kind of neat that artists and their audiences can pool their resources to fund projects without dealing with labels and the like. But I'd still do a lot of cool things with a million. I'd start with a pig cannon and little plastic piggie-wings.

I was thinking Ponzi scheme and running for President, by the way. They're all the rage these days.

[total_douche]

Shit, I'd like to go back to school and meet attractive young women all day instead of this 12 hours 7 days a week shoveling flour and fixing milling machines at work bullshit. Where the fuck can I get my million?

You work 84 hours a week? Christ man. Move to newfoundland, you can subsist on 40 hours a week minimum wage pretty well here. (assuming you live with atleast one other person you can get about 400$ rent a month.

I was exaggerating, man. It's not that brutal! Although it should be said I do work a lot of hours, and we have gone several months without a day off. I don't work seven twelve-hour days every week. It's usually just seven eight-hour days with a few twelve-hour shifts thrown in for mill repair and other functions. I average around 60. It's not that bad, the only part I don't like is the rotating shifts which makes a normal social life and any consistency in attending functions outside of work practically impossible.

[subprime]

Yeah. That is that bad. That is terrible. When I was working fulltime (30-35 h a week) on my second job I made enough to live on my own with one or two roommates with enough left over afterwords to eat real food or save for instruments. Come to newfoundland.

[Christopher]

They also referred to the money Ms. Palmer had raised. But in the interview, she stressed that most of it went toward recording expenses and the costs of promotion and touring.

Pure bullshit. I'd like to see an itemized, Louis C.K.-style breakdown of the 1.2 million and why it cost that much to record, promote and tour with nothing left over to pay her Cirque du Soleil backup band or whatever.