Hey guys, slow down the internet lynch mob. She's not being nearly as unreasonable as enraged people on the internet are making her out to be.
1. She is self-publishing an album and artbook which is probably going to run her many hundreds of thousands of dollars in start up costs and printing fees. While she will certainly recoup those costs, it will be a while before she does. Without the money she got from the kickstarter, she never gets the money she gets from the album. What sane bank is going to give somebody a bank loan to publish an album, considering the notorious reputation of musicians not making any money? There's a reason that the recording industry exists today and has been so successful for so long.
2. It costs money to rent venues. Bars, concert halls and outdoor arenas do not offer their space for free. Musicians make their money at these events by promoting their record. A significant chunk of the kickstarter is just going to go to getting their band in the door and on the stage. They are unlikely to make any money from any tour gigs.
3. She
IS paying a backup band. She's collecting volunteers for additional slots in that backup band. She had conceptual ideas that would have required more money from the kickstarter and rather than scrap them she is giving fans an opportunity to meet her, play with her band, and walk away with memorabilia, a full stomach and a good memory. She is not recruiting people to tour with her, but is looking for musicians to play one or two songs at each given venue. Here's the blogpost causing the outrage where she says as much:
Amanda Palmer's blog.
I know 1.2 million dollars seems like a lot of money but the money collected was never to just fund the tour in the first place and chances are pretty good she's going to be reaching into her own pocket (and her husband's) to cover production costs and tour expense. She could have just cut the extra parts from her tour altogether, which would have probably been fine, but I would definitely call the opportunity to share the stage with Amanda Palmer an opportunity for an amateur musician. Considering, again, she's not likely making any money off the shows, how is this legitimately different from busking for change?
edit; Rico's post indicates Palmer is probably making money or breaking even off the tour dates. Probably a lot more profitable when you're playing bars and small venues, so I stand corrected there, but the post corroborates pretty much everything else. There's no way she cut a profit on that kickstarter at the end of the day. Reward fulfillment alone is killing half of it.
