Amanda Palmer was one of the first artists to make big headlines with a crowdfunding campaign, thanks to her 2012 Kickstarter campaign which raised nearly $1.2m for an album, art book and tour. Since then, she’s switched to ongoing fan-funding on Patreon, where she has more than 15,000 patrons paying from $1 per ‘thing’ that she produces. This week, she’s also been tweeting about the worries she thinks artists still have about the fan-funding model. We recommend reading her thread in full (there’s too much to fit into a bulletin-length story) but it was sparked by a tweet criticising Palmer for being ‘tone-deaf’ for funding her art on Patreon.
“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,” wrote Palmer. “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… I think that patronage & the ability for folks to promise $1/month to artists, especially women & minorities in america who want to tell their stories and make their bold art outside a punishing and cold-transactional business model should be a f***ing cause for celebration…”
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