Amanda Fucking Palmer

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"The Killing Type". Also NSFW (is there any other type of AFP video now?).

The sampler from the new album includes four new songs and three of them are IMHO among the best work she's done. The above video is one, "Want It Back" (the first NSFW video above) is another, and the third is "Do It With A Rockstar", for which there's not a proper video (yet) but it was uploaded to Youtube:

And to complete the set a clean/safe for work video of "Want It Back", via her new VEVO channel.

(The fourth of the new tracks, "Trout Heart Replica", just doesn't grab me the same way; it sounds like something from Who Killed Amanda Palmer. No video for it yet.)

Finally, she's launching the new album with a concert in NYC which will be streamed live on Tuesday, 11th, on YouTube, starting 10PM EST. The link given for that is:
http://www.youtube.com/amandapalmer
though nothing's there yet.

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Just under 2 hours to the live album launch. I'll likely be asleep but here's the link and embed for anyone who's up for it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz7uCiTtV4E

[venusian]

Also http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/14 ... _for_beer/

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Also http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/14 ... _for_beer/

Yes, you do read some crap on the internet: I gave up reading the register a a long time ago as it stopped being relevant. Seems it's gone downhill since; they clearly know jack shit about music. If you want some more balanced reporting try the NYT, or simply read both sides on AFP's Tumblr where she links to the letter and replies.

BTW, the above 'live in NY' link now has the whole concert available for viewing or download in 720p (3.55 GB if you go for the HD download).

[Dio]

It's a completely fair point though. Nobody who's doing a tour should be asking anyone of any standard to play for free unless that person has a stake in the act.

[pogo]

Except they do have a stake, they are getting experience and exposure unlike anything they'll get doing nothing, or performing for the people who will see them if they put on their own concert. As for fair the reg writes

Palmer has been heavily promoted on sites which are often hostile to the established music industry, such as BoingBoing. Now we know what their vision of the future looks like. It's one where wealth never trickles down...

Implying she's fabulously rich, but offering no evidence of it. Her Kickstarter raised $1 million, yes, but that was to pay for stuff, as Kickstarter's always are. It seems that she's found a way to make a living as an independent musician in the post-Napster world, and people just want to knock her down for daring to do so.

In the end it's people getting worked up about nothing. Some musicians' unions have been advocating that musicians get paid, but they often don't, and no-one is being forced to do anything.

Here's the letter that started it:
http://amyvs.weebly.com/1/post/2012/09/ ... almer.html
Here's the NYT piece (if you only read one thing make it this):
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/ ... r-play/?hp
And here's the lengthy reply to the original letter:
http://amandapalmer.tumblr.com/post/315 ... -musicians

[(o)(o)]

When you've just been given a million bucks, it's time to put the hat away.

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But she hasn't. She ran a Kickstarter that raised $1 million gross – to pay for an album (digital download/CD/vinyl), books, artwork, a tour, a series of special events and one-off rewards. So for every $1 or $5 or $25 she raised has to deliver something. The first two reward levels were digital only but those account for only 3% of the total raised. The other 97% involves delivering a physical package or a performance. And she only raised so much because her rewards were well worth the prices.

[(o)(o)]

But she hasn't. She ran a Kickstarter that raised $1 million gross – to pay for an album (digital download/CD/vinyl), books, artwork, a tour, a series of special events and one-off rewards. So for every $1 or $5 or $25 she raised has to deliver something. The first two reward levels were digital only but those account for only 3% of the total raised. The other 97% involves delivering a physical package or a performance. And she only raised so much because her rewards were well worth the prices.

Yeah, it's a real hardship delivering a few books and a couple of CDs when you've only got $1,200,000.00 US in the bank.

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But she hasn't got $1.2 million. Some went to Kickstarter, some went to Amazon who handle payments, so she never even saw $1.2 million. The money she did receive was in payment for goods and services, which she is now delivering (most of the rewards are tied to the album just released).

And again she only did so well as the rewards were so attractive. If they had been overpriced she would not have got anywhere the level of support she did (which seems to be the way with Kickstarter: the most successful drives are those that attract a large number of people paying for affordable rewards).

[gravy]

That all said she'll be making a shed load out of this for no initial investment in a no risk endeavour.

And that Reg piece? It's not just Reg snark or does Steve Albini now work for them?

And she is a multi millionaire, by proxy. She's married to Neil Gaiman ffs.

So yeah, I can see how "come and work for free for me" might not be that palatable coming from a multi-millionaire taking no financial risk. Especially for a set of gigs that the most likely outcome is she'll be coining it in bigstyle.

[Dio]

Except they do have a stake, they are getting experience and exposure unlike anything they'll get doing nothing, or performing for the people who will see them if they put on their own concert.

I'm not normally specifically rude about these things, but that's bollocks - similar logic to that which interns all over the world are working for hugely profitable international companies for free.

People have a right to be paid the going rate for the work that they do if they are engaging in generating money for someone else.

Or, to put it another way, if the business model involves 'not paying your staff', it's not a business model.

[pogo]

I'm not normally specifically rude about these things, but that's bollocks - similar logic to that which interns all over the world are working for hugely profitable international companies for free.

People have a right to be paid the going rate for the work that they do if they are engaging in generating money for someone else.

Not a right recognised by many systems of rights or even legal systems. "The right to be paid" is a particular problem for musicians right now as a large number of people are not paying for music – the music industry raises 1/3 what it did a little over a decade ago. And I'd hardly compare working weeks or months as an anonymous unpaid intern (which is very legal in most countries) with performing in front of thousands for a couple of hours.

So she's trying a very different approach to music making. Not just the Kickstarter, although the success she's had with that is a first for a musician. Divorcing her record company so doing everything herself. Giving away the music (the minimum $1 pledge was for the whole album, it's downloadable now for 'pay as much as you want' including $0, and of course most of it ends up on YouTube), so she has to make money other ways. All of which cost money to deliver. It's not a get rich scheme and she's certainly not getting rich out of it.

Anyway, I doubt I'm going to persuade anyone, so here's another video; a slow, soulful cover of MJ's Billy Jean:

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20 minutes after posting that I read that she's now paying the volunteer musicians, and made a video of them:

(and the album is #10 on the Billboard charts): http://www.amandapalmer.net/blog/20120919/

[(o)(o)]

Pomplamoose got bottled for panhandling on kickstarter.

Still.. who needs novelty-armpit-hair-music when you've got RAW TALENT like this.