My previous blog post (hyperlink
essay) focused on the increasingly well known organization TED , yet I did not actually link to any specific
TEDtalk. Therefore, this week I have decided to discuss one talk that assists
in furthering the arguments set forth in my previous post related to the
incredible opportunities the internet provides us with.
The talk I have selected to bring
to your attention is entitled The
Art of Asking , and it was presented by a female artist in the music
industry named Amanda
Palmer . Palmer discusses a
creative idea that, prior to the age of the Internet, would have NEVER come to
fruition. Concisely, Palmer discusses the unbelievable experiences and support
she has managed to receive from her fans all purely thanks to social media and
the affordances of the Internet itself. The web is essentially responsible for
her continued career. Palmer’s record label dropped her band before it produced
a record, therefore, she wouldn’t have been able to share her music with others
without the Internet. The Internet enabled her with the ability to share her
music technically for free. The
reason I say technically for free is
because despite the fact that anyone could download her stuff for free, Palmer requested that her fans make donations
for the music. So instead of insisting her fans pay a set amount, this system allowed
them to pay what they wanted for her songs- a concept which reminds me a lot of
the idea of our new gift
economy.
Regardless, in doing this Palmer
was able to earn $1.2 million via Kickstarter
from approximately 25 000 fans that preordered her album. This is the power of fan
culture. Artists produce art for them,
therefore, especially in today’s global
village they should be entitled to a say in this relationship between what
they give and receive – Palmer provided them with this voice.
The fact that Palmer could be so
successful in making money this way opens doors to a whole other way for
struggling artists in the deteriorating music industry to make money. This
notion of asking for donations to help proliferate the music and support the
artist is fantastic. It embraces change rather than trying to fight it. Most
importantly though, fans really feel like they are consciously, actively
supporting the art of an artist they love.
Hey Monica, loved the blog. I think what Amanda Palmer did was a great idea for it seemed to make her some money. On an additional, note she was not the only artist to do this for Radiohead did the same thing with one of their albums and make a lot of money by doing so. Even though an artists goal in making music is to express themselves and generate attention, they still need to make money. With the advent of the Internet, this has become much harder for them because of downloading- it seems that nobody buys records anymore. I think all artists will begin to use the reach capacity of the Internet as a means of making money, for it certainly has the capacity to bring them proper financial compensation.
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