Comments on: Financial breakdown of Amanda Palmer's million-dollar Kickstarter

By: cisco

cisco — Thu, 24 May 2012 22:44:00 +0000

Maybe those commenting on how Amanda Palmer is planning on misspending the funds by paying too much for certain things should contact her directly. After all, I don’t know that anyone “here” can do anything about it. But it’d probably be super helpful to her if she didn’t overpay for, e.g., vinyl pressing costs. Maybe she really doesn’t know, and has been simply overpaying for these things for years.

By: whatwewantisfree

whatwewantisfree — Thu, 24 May 2012 22:01:00 +0000

I don’t know where she comes up with these manufacturing numbers. I can’t comment on all of them, but as someone who does a hobby record label, and worked for a moderate sized Independent label for almost 7 years, I can say the costs outlined for the 1500 vinyl copies of the record are completely absurd. You can very easily do 1000 copies of a record, with full color covers, for well under $5,000. The per unit cost also decreases the more copies you press, usually in increments of 500. To claim it would cost $20k to press 1500 records is ridiculous. Unless you are trying to claim you are recouping all your recording/production costs in just the vinyl pressing, the numbers make no sense. As for most of the other numbers thrown around, it sounds like she is basing her numbers as if everything is the resale price, not wholesale, and acts like none of the money is ever going to be recouped.

By: Michael Lieberman

Michael Lieberman — Thu, 24 May 2012 21:42:00 +0000

I think a lot of her profit comes from actually selling the album and the tour afterwards. Except for the higher priced pledges, there’s no “here’s a ticket to the show.” She’s trying to paying off the majority of expenses before the tour as opposed to be in debt. At least that’s the way I figure it. There’s still a ton of money for her to make on this tour even if she gets $0 for herself from the initial kickstarter.

By: Michael Lieberman

Michael Lieberman — Thu, 24 May 2012 21:25:00 +0000

If I remember correctly, VC for the most part expect 9/10 startups to fail. However the 1 that is successful is usually incredibly successful and grows very rapidly.

By: Sandy Ogilvy

Sandy Ogilvy — Thu, 24 May 2012 16:07:00 +0000

In reply to snow.
Yes. I have and had heard of them. I still think her wedding doubled her fan base and a million dollar kick starter wouldn’t have been possible previously. Sorry if that irritates you. And its possible that I might not be rolling my eyes at this woman if she didn’t spew the word fuck every time she opens her mouth. Its NOT edgy. Its just crass. As creative as she seems to be I would think she could come up with a better catch phrase.

By: snowmentality

snowmentality — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:22:00 +0000

I can’t reply to Sandy Ogilvy directly, but hey Sandy, FYI, a lot of people were paying a lot of attention to Amanda Palmer long before she was romantically involved with Neil Gaiman. Ever hear of the Dresden Dolls?

By: Sandy Ogilvy

Sandy Ogilvy — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:09:00 +0000

Its not really a “handout” if your married. Although their financial arrangements are a private matter anyway. My question is would all these people be paying this much attention to her if she weren’t married to NG? I think not. And the fuck every other word thing is REALLY tired.

By: nyya

nyya — Thu, 24 May 2012 03:34:00 +0000

Have you been happy with the items you received and did you feel they were a good exchange for what you gave?

I’m asking because I finally decided to really look into this Kickstarter thing because of this thread and am interested in not only funding interesting projects but possibly also doing my own Kickstarter for a photography project that I have been wanting to do.

I really like the idea of connecting artists directly with people in this way and I hope Kickstarter continues to be successful.

By: Marc Mielke

Marc Mielke — Thu, 24 May 2012 01:37:00 +0000

Well that’s obviously inefficient anyway. You would fill the private jet with hookers and blow, obv.

By: edgore

edgore — Wed, 23 May 2012 22:13:00 +0000

I think it would also be great if Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman can live the 500 or so years needed to do that (assuming a little womb downtime in-between twins). In fact, I will donate to the Kickstarter to accomplish that. Assuming the reward is one of the kids.

By: Patti Sundstrom

Patti Sundstrom — Wed, 23 May 2012 21:58:00 +0000

“…a “deluxe” self-funded entertainment product”? If other people are giving her the money for this, that doesn’t really sound like “self-funded” to me; if it was self-funded, she would be paying for it with her own money – I guess I have a different definition of what “self” means : P

By: Tynam

Tynam — Wed, 23 May 2012 21:30:00 +0000

They’re not even good at maximizing profits.

By: Tynam

Tynam — Wed, 23 May 2012 21:28:00 +0000

The companies they back do.

By: Xof

Xof — Wed, 23 May 2012 21:23:00 +0000

I’ve noticed that successful indie artists attract a kind of hostility that is really unique to that particular line of work. My personal pop-psych analysis is that for some reason, it really triggers the resentment in a lot of people that they didn’t get to be the artist they always wanted to be.

By: magnetiquewolf

magnetiquewolf — Wed, 23 May 2012 21:22:00 +0000

didn’t realize there were quotas. my apologies.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 23 May 2012 21:15:00 +0000

Magnetiquewolf,

You have vastly exceeded your quota for this thread. Stop, please.

By: Arys

Arys — Wed, 23 May 2012 21:10:00 +0000

I guess my confusion is that you seem so bitter that other people wanted to give her money in exchange for the art she is making in the way she wants to make it. Her numbers may not be perfect yet, but likely all of the bills aren’t in yet. From what I had been reading most of the album is already recorded so she has it underway.

She can create the art how she wants to create the art. That is what artists do. I get that you think you can eyeball what you think those costs should be, but if it isn’t your art, then maybe those choices aren’t yours to make.

And yeah, so you don’t buy the product. And sure you can tell your friends that you don’t they should either, but when it comes down to it, that’s not really about math, that’s about tastes and preferences and individual aesthetics. Math and economics doesn’t decide what art is, no matter how intelligent.

By: dadara

dadara — Wed, 23 May 2012 21:08:00 +0000

We are doing a crowd funding campaign for the Transformoney Tree project, and in this case it will be very clear where the money goes: we don’t ask for money, but only for banknotes, and all banknotes received will be glued onto the tree………. https://www.indiegogo.com/transformoney

By: Xof

Xof — Wed, 23 May 2012 21:01:00 +0000

If you honestly believe that Ms Palmer, who has had a fairly long and substantive career in music (whether you like her tunes or not) is going to simply run away with all the money and never do any of the things she says she is going to do with it… well, you are certainly welcome to that opinion. I’m not sure what it is based on it, but hey, that’s the Internet.

For someone who claims to be an accountant, you’re really not getting that this is prepaying for a service, not an equity investment that is offering a particular ROI. The only risk to the person plonking down the money is that the product or service will never come through. People prepay for goods and services all the time; there’s nothing super-special about this one.

By: Arys

Arys — Wed, 23 May 2012 20:56:00 +0000

No, David Byrne was in the Talking Heads… Amanda Palmer was in the Dresden Dolls. I see now why you’re confused, perhaps you were expecting different sort of music.

By: Arys

Arys — Wed, 23 May 2012 20:51:00 +0000

So every time you mosey down to Best Buy to buy a CD or head to the cinema to watch a movie or when you get around to consuming some art in whatever fashion floats your boat you get an entire financial breakdown from the artists to make sure they are using the money you laid out for your ticket/disc/gametime/etc in exactly the way you’d prefer? You use accountant super powers to check that they spent what you think they should on printing and touring and recording and whatever else?

Man, your life must be exhausting…

By: magnetiquewolf

magnetiquewolf — Wed, 23 May 2012 20:34:00 +0000

my point is, what she posted was a blog post with extremely vague descriptions of where the Kickstarter money *may* be going. It nowhere even remotely close to being a “financial breakdown”.

THIS is what a financial breakdown really looks like:

http://www.downloadsoftfree.com/download/4343-Quick-3-Year-Plan_boxshot_url_01.JPG

http://www.bcbudget.gov.bc.ca/2007/bfp/img/QP_05_Part1_ThreeYrFiscalPlan_11-63_Graphics/Graphics/three_year_part_1_table_1.3.gif

http://i.zdnet.com/blogs/msft072111c.png

http://img.docstoccdn.com/thumb/orig/280356.png

By: Xof

Xof — Wed, 23 May 2012 20:33:00 +0000

Well, you can’t expect artists to actually receive money. They should play in the minstrel gallery for free while we eat our pickled quail brains and cluck our tongues about malnutrition. Doesn’t anyone understand social classes anymore?

By: AwesomeRobot

AwesomeRobot — Wed, 23 May 2012 20:32:00 +0000

Yeah, it’s that age old musician scam: write an album, charge people for it. It’s almost as bad as playing live shows and selling tickets.

By: AwesomeRobot

AwesomeRobot — Wed, 23 May 2012 20:31:00 +0000

Yeah, it’s so fucking weird that musicians make albums and have shows and ask people to pay them for it.

By: AwesomeRobot

AwesomeRobot — Wed, 23 May 2012 20:30:00 +0000

They’re purchasing her album and tickets to private shows, it’s hardly just donation.

By: Xof

Xof — Wed, 23 May 2012 20:26:00 +0000

So, which of her costs are unreasonable?

This is the thing about Kickstarter: You pay money, you get a specific thing for it. You may not think that thing is worth as much as it costs; that’s cool. (I didn’t participate in her Kickstarter.) You may think that she’s not controlling her costs properly; you’re entitled to your opinion, although just stating it is not much of an argument.

But this is not a matter of people just throwing money at her on stage; they’re getting something specific in return for it. I don’t demand supporting documentation when I have dinner at a restaurant; I pay what they ask, or I don’t eat there. I don’t see what the outrage is.

By: matthewfabb

matthewfabb — Wed, 23 May 2012 20:22:00 +0000

Well, the live CD & tour Kickstarter that she did previously went quite well. Those who attended the tour seemed to have a great time and those who got CD’s were happy with them. The CD packaging was quite nice and facy and because the project was such a success she put together a cover album of Lou Reed & The Velvet Underground covers and included the extra CD despite not listing that with the original rewards.

There’s always a certain amount of risk with any KickStarter project, but she has proven herself that she can pull it off and seems to be more interested in creating a high quality product that people hopefully will enjoy, rather than rip people off.

By: matthewfabb

matthewfabb — Wed, 23 May 2012 20:16:00 +0000

Well, I’ve funded about a dozen Kickstarter projects over the past year. The earlier ones have all produced the items that I pledged for and the most recent ones seem to be on their way to doing so.

So personally, I’ve yet to have any of them go bad, but I completely recognize the risk associated with funding any Kickstarter project.

Edited to add:
Nyya, I didn’t see your comment until revisiting this page after comments were closed. I was totally happy with the quality of the items that I got and that they were a great exchange for the money I pledged for them.

By: matthewfabb

matthewfabb — Wed, 23 May 2012 20:11:00 +0000

How about people want to support her artwork simply because they enjoy the art she is creating? That’s all I see that people are doing here.