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Do we have any musical people on DC?
40hz:
Amanda Palmer
-40hz (November 16, 2015, 07:58 PM)
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I wouldn't consider her a Cinderella in this piece. She performs a lot.
-wraith808 (November 16, 2015, 08:55 PM)
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By that I meant somebody who broke the limit and actually took in $1M+ on a crowdsource campaign that was targeting something like 1/10th of that.
Please don't get me wrong. I have a lot of respect for her as an artist and a businessperson. (I actually kicked in on her project and I own everything she ever released.) But she is so far removed from a typical musician that I think her story is more inspirational than it is instructional for most people.
I also think she was the right person, with the right project, in the right place, at the right time - and the crowdsourcing scene was in a unique moment where it wanted to put some real momentum behind something. So I think it was more a phenomenon rather than a sign that pointed the way for others.
40hz:
This short documentary on Loreena McKennitt :-* shows the realities of being a musician as well as running and being in a band - and how I think you still need to do things if you want to be a successful musician today. It runs a little under an hour and I think it's worth watching. Check it out soon before YT realizes it's been uploaded and take it down:
wraith808:
I also think she was the right person, with the right project, in the right place, at the right time - and the crowdsourcing scene was in a unique moment where it wanted to put some real momentum behind something. So I think it was more a phenomenon rather than a sign that pointed the way for others.
-40hz (November 16, 2015, 09:33 PM)
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There are a lot of successful music and art campaigns on Kickstarter and Patreon. And I think it's awesome. It hails back to the 18th century when patronage was a thing. Pentatonix is a group that has benefited from it. And Lindsey Sterling. But that is a supplement that allows them to do their thing in all three cases, rather than a support. And I think that's an important distinction. Without the other side - engaging with your fans in a real way, producing, and performing, you'll never rise to the level of real sustenance. More... subsistence, I think is the word I'm looking for.
40hz:
I also think she was the right person, with the right project, in the right place, at the right time - and the crowdsourcing scene was in a unique moment where it wanted to put some real momentum behind something. So I think it was more a phenomenon rather than a sign that pointed the way for others.
-40hz (November 16, 2015, 09:33 PM)
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There are a lot of successful music and art campaigns on Kickstarter and Patreon. And I think it's awesome. It hails back to the 18th century when patronage was a thing. Pentatonix is a group that has benefited from it. And Lindsey Sterling. But that is a supplement that allows them to do their thing in all three cases, rather than a support. And I think that's an important distinction. Without the other side - engaging with your fans in a real way, producing, and performing, you'll never rise to the level of real sustenance. More... subsistence, I think is the word I'm looking for.
-wraith808 (November 17, 2015, 09:58 AM)
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I have very mixed feelings about patronage. Because in the 18th century, it meant that art was almost exclusively reflecting and promoting the values and opinions of a certain monied subset of the society. You would not get authors like Dickens or Twain under a system dependent purely on patronage. Even PBS discovered how easily funding could be withdrawn if you riled the wrong person or irked the government by rocking the boat too much - or not reflecting the sentiments of the status quo.
So I don't see a return to patronage as necessarily desireable or without danger to artistic integrity.
wraith808:
So I don't see a return to patronage as necessarily desireable or without danger to artistic integrity.
-40hz (November 17, 2015, 07:26 PM)
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I do agree there are dangers- but there's danger in everything. The trick is to be aware of them, and work to avoid them. You really think that the current system we have is any better? And that those same pressures don't exist? The current system is closer to classical patronage- the few hold the money, and they support who they will on a whim. When I say patronage, I don't think towards that system- but more towards those that want support directly. That is what I like about patronage. I give $1 and it's not much. 10000 give $1 and it's a clear sign that you're doing something that people like. 100,000 give $1... and you're well on your way. So I mean everyone being a patron of what they like. Rather than the artist getting only a fraction of what I pay, and being in control of a lesser fraction. And where you have to basically sign away your work in order to get published.
I had a friend... a moderately successful writer. He wrote a pretty niche set of novels, and still writes them. It was originally his story... and one that the publisher just publishes, right? He tried to go into different media. Things that the publisher wasn't even into. Used Kickstarter for it, and was very successful. Too successful one might say- there was nothing from the publisher's side, until the Kickstarter did so well. You can imagine the rest. It ended *reasonably* well, but still, it shows that people above will grasp onto anything they can keep ahold of, and squeeze until there's nothing left.
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