D.I.Y.

Amanda Palmer Raises $591,665 With 23 Days Left, Shatters Kickstarter Music Record

image from www.google.com

UPDATE 3: 10,908 backers have helped Amanda Palmer raise $591,665 on Kickstarter with 23 days left to go in her campaign.

Amanda Palmer has used the power of her fanbase to raise $591,665 for a new album, art book and tour on Kickstarter.  That shatters the previous record for music of on the crowd-funding platform of $207,980 for Five Iron Frenzy.  Palmer has also launched a companion funding vehicle called LoanSpark, to enable her more wealth fans to loan her money to be paid back along with "creative interest".

Also Read: Amanda Palmer's Tips For Kickstarter Success

MORE:


Palmer's original goal had been $100,000. But with the help of her half million Twitter followers and other fans, she exceeded that in just 7 hours. As of Wednesday morning, 6523 backers had contributed between $1 and $1000 for a total of $360,328.  Premiums offered fans included a download of the new CD ($1), signed art books, a series of limited edition 7 inch vinyl singles and art openings/parties from San Francisco to Berlin.

The LoanSpark Collectiveimage from loanspark.org

Alongside the Kickstarter campaign, Palmer has launched her own The LoanSpark Collective, to involve fans that are able to loan more than the $10,000 Kickstarter donation limit. If it works, Palmer will open the platform to other artists.

Palmer says she'll pay back any money loaned via LoanSpark within 18 months. But instead of adding interest, sshe's offering her artistic output.  "In this case, the "Creative Interest" I'm offering is to perform live and/or make visual art to directly support a charity you're passionate about" says Palmer. "It's my way of saying thank you…and continuing to pass on the good karma." Palmer's LoanSpark loans start at $25,000:

LEVEL ONE: $25,000
I will perform a concert for you: in your home, at a party you're hosting, or an event you create for the occasion. OR, better yet, you can donate me as a performer to the charity of your choice (within reason, I won't play ukulele for the KKK or the NRA…or if I do, prepare for an anarchic subversion). This can happen anywhere in the world, and we can work together to tailor a set of songs on piano and/or ukulele that'll fit the bill.

LEVEL TWO: $50,000
Same as above, PLUS: I will create a painting or other work of art inspired by, and in support of, your favorite charity, to be included in the Art Tour. (a link to more info on the Art Tour can be found, below)

All Loanspark Patrons' names will be included in a list of "OFFICIAL PATRONS (on behalf of Charity X)" in the following:
        • album credits (online, and in physical CDs and vinyl) (includes links to charities)
        • a press release specifically detailing this LOANSPARK campaign in conjunction with Amanda's         new album

All Loanspark Patrons will also receive multiple copies of the album, access to all of my upcoming headlining shows for the next year of touring, and a signed copy of the art book.

MORE: Music On Kickstarter By The Numbers [Stats]

Bruce Houghton on 05/04/2012 in D.I.Y. | Permalink | Comments (16)
Share on:

16 Comments

  1. Very impressive! I’m trying to do the same thing for a documentary film project about gas prices and alternative fuels. I would love to learn some of Amanda’s golden marketing skills! 🙂

  2. Since the beginning of Kickstarter, I have been curious about how cross-media collaborators share or don’t share in whatever money is raised.
    If, for example, a musician is offering something as a reward that the musician didn’t make him or herself, does he contract for it, creating a work-for-hire arrangement (e.g., he hires someone to make a design for a t-shirt and then owns the design and can sell multiples)?
    Or does the musician team up with others and they share in the income in some fashion? And if they share in it, how do they decide what each earns? Do they split it up equally? Do they get different amounts, depending on how much each contributes? And if that, how do they decide? By the amount of time put in? By the commercial going rate? By how much “fame” each brings to the project?
    Amanda Palmer has multiple people contributing to her Kickstarter project so I shot her a question to see how she handles it (no answer yet). I’m curious what was the arrangement going to be if they just hit their goal and what’s the arrangement now that they have greatly exceed their goal?
    There’s been so little discussion of music/multi-collaboration income sharing that I’ve wondered how various people divide it up. In some cases, the musicians may be hoping that the artists/photographers/graphic artists are donating their contributions in exchange for exposure, but if they are, I’m guessing that if the project is very successful, the volunteers are going to want some compensation, even if they don’t think about it until after the fact.
    And I think one of the interesting aspects of Kickstarter is the transparency. People can see how much money is coming in for each project. So if the various collaborators on the project didn’t work out an agreement beforehand but now see how much money is coming in, they may adjust their terms accordingly.
    Let’s say, for example, you were going to cut a musician a break because he had no money. But then he raised $300,000 on Kickstarter. I’m going to guess that now you know he has money, you won’t feel the necessity to give him your work for free or at a rock bottom price.

  7. Great idea! But all of these sites are just ArtistShare.com all over again. This has been going on for the past 10 years. None of this is innovative in the least. Congratulations to Amanda for her continued success but please, this is not an innovation.

  8. I would hope all of the money goes towards what the artist says it will be used for. That goes for any Kickstarter project.
    If I’m not mistaken, the money is meant for creative people to create interesting projects. Not money to buy groceries. If you want to take care of basic needs then get a job, like the rest of us. The money should be for creative endeavors. You know, things that the rest of us can’t do but will happily pay you to do. Otherwise, you should be completely transparent about it from the beginning.
    If you need help that bad, just put a paypal donate button on your site. That way there’s no “goal” to reach and you get every cent minus the fees.

  9. I’m asking about projects that involve multiple artists. If one of the rewards involves contributions from artists working in more than one media, but they aren’t the ones collecting the money, how does that work? Are they volunteering their time (as they might do for a crowdsourced project)? Are they being paid as a work-for-hire arrangement (the way musicians often get designs done for their album covers)? Are they sharing in the Kickstarter money and/or profits in some fashion?
    I’m sure there are all sorts of different arrangements. I just want some people to say how they do it so I have more case studies of collaborations, particularly Kickstarter collaborations.
    I’ve seen so little being written about collaborations that I think it’s a topic which would be relevant and of interest to many people moving forward with Kickstarter projects.

  10. I’d assumed that the announcement of the new Loanspark platform resulted directly from the excess abundance Palmer achieved via Kickstarter; I’d personally have trouble figuring out where to spend nearly half a million dollars, since I’d never spend so much on a single recording project. (at least not for the recording, per se; maybe for a recording studio)
    For an artist as fan-oriented as Amanda, spending the extra on promotion might seem like a slap in the face to her fans, who are already her biggest promoters. Like Susan, I can’t help but wonder if the prices for ongoing services that Amanda’s career depends on (such as graphics, printing, web design, etc) didn’t just get a significant bump, despite existing relationships. It’s enough money for a number of upgrades, but doesn’t quite qualify as ‘buy a Learjet for touring’ money.

  11. What some have done for their Kickstarter projects, and what I’d love to see Palmer do, is give us a breakdown of how the money will be used. Not because I think it will be misued, but because I think it would educational for all of those hoping to do something similar.
    I’d love to see more musicians open up their books. With Kickstarter we already know the income (at least what was raised on Kickstarter), so it would be enlightening to also see the expenses that go along with it. On a post elsewhere, someone pointed out that many Kickstarter projects actually lose money when it is all said and done because the cost of fulfilling the rewards turns out to exceed the money raised for them.
    I don’t think Palmer will have that problem, but she does have some big plans and lots of people involved (creating art, playing music) so it would be interesting to see how the money is divvied up or isn’t divvied up among them.

  12. No. Just no. You should not ask for people to open their books. WTF? It makes you look like a fascist. People are entitled to their privacy. You are not entitled to information. If you want to learn how to budget stuff, you need to ask someone who will trust you with that sensitive information. Musicians are not the government, and unlike governments, people VOLUNTARILY give money to artists.

  13. A number of people have published the details of their Kickstarter projects. In fact, that is part of the crowdfunding process, in many cases — to bring your contributors into the project at all levels.
    As for Palmer, she has been more open about how she funds her projects than just about any artist I know, so I don’t think she’d have a problem with sharing the info at all. What I am asking her is how she works her collaborations. It’s not a prying question at all. I’ve read her blogs and she’s really comfortable talking about money and art because she doesn’t see that there’s anything to hide.

  14. Here are some examples of people breaking down their Kickstarter projects:
    What the hell did you do with our money? — Kickstarter
    Kickstarter Costings!
    What’s all the money for? – XI
    The Books of the Bible Block Set by Brad Thomas — Kickstarter: Here is a breakdown of the project expenses:
    Goal: $8,000
    Production Costs: $6,250 (There are several “one-time” setup costs, which total $1,090: $800 for screens, $150 for file setup and $140 for Pantone color matching. We get a total of $6,250 when we add the $5,160 block cost and the $1,090 setup expenses.)
    Cost of Shipping out Rewards to Backers: Approx. $1,650
    Kickstarter and Amazon Expenses: 7% = $560
    Total Expenses: Approx. $8,460
    All pledged funds up to $8,000 will go toward first-time tooling/setup costs, block production and shipping expenses. The goal of the campaign is to “Kickstart” this product into existence. If there is enough interest and support, The Books of the Bible Block Set will be offered in the future on the http://www.66clouds.com website and possibly in retail stores as well.

  15. This comment was posted on Palmer’s Kicksterter campaign:
    It would be interesting to see how the money is used for your album. We never see that side of the music. We don’t normally see the business side of things. Also what cool things are you going to do with the extra surprise money? The artistic side is fun to watch..but maybe we need to know what our cash does to help a project. I am excited for you and to see where this all goes.
    For those of you who don’t think artists need/should share where the money goes, keep in mind that the point of Kickstarter is to help people do creative projects they might not otherwise have the funds to do. So they are asking fans to kick in something. That is a bit like a charity, and the fans, thinking they are helping to fund a worthy project, might very much like to know how the money will be used.

Comments are closed.

Top