by Jesse Cannon

Duke’s note:

You know her. She has a real gift for articulating the thing in the back of your mind before you really knew it was there – especially when it comes to DIY music. Last week we read about how she isn’t afraid to ask for money from fans.

This week she reminds us that even she has a hard time with it sometimes. Most of us don’t like going “hat-in-hand” for anything. That’s our manager/producer/label’s job. Less delegation means less shelter from unpleasant tasks like fundraising (a.k.a. begging, as a certain mystic once called it).

Enough from me. Back to Amanda:

“With more and more artists going their own way and looking to connect “direct to fan” some of the more “entitled” fans seem appalled you are asking for money. With that said, from my experience when you have a middleman (label) asking for this money some people seem to no longer question the request for money.

“Once it is seen that you are a part of ‘the system’ it is as if some of the more connection challenged fans understand why you are charging.

“I have begun to wonder about the problems DIY/go-it-alone artists are going to face with this. As a producer I have found that having management deal with problems where I need to ask for more money keeps me as the good guy, and the management as the guy who has to deal with a bottom line.

“When the manager is a dick, I have been able to say, ‘I’m not good with money and I need this guy to do that side of things otherwise I’d be broke and homeless.’

“My questions is this an issue DIY artists with strong fan bonds are looking at dealing with? Amanda’s blog post adresses the issue that many of the professionals she is working with are feeling guilted for charging for content these days.

Get the full story at Musformation

Technorati Tags: Amanda Palmer, DIY, independent, Jesse Cannon, manager, music

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 2:04 pm and is filed under Music Business, Wisdom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.