Amanda Palmer agrees to pay crowdsourced musicians

Amanda Palmer ends a week-long controversy by yielding to outcry from musicians (and Steve Albini).

A lengthy and public back-and-forth between Palmer and her critics has come to an end. The controversy began when Palmer decided to use fans who play strings, saxophone and brass on her current tour, but with only beer, merchandise, and the experience as compensation.

The Internet outcry was swift and sizable, with professional musicians weighing in on the practice as detrimental to their livelihoods; disgruntled producer Steve Albini called her an idiot (and later apologized). Compounding the backlash was the fact that Palmer’s recent Kickstarter campaign raised over $1 million; many accused her of crying with a loaf of bread under her arm.

Initially, Palmer fought back, claiming that the opportunity was a good one for artists, who must “make their own decisions about how they share their talent and time.” However, after a long week of her business practices in the spotlight, she has reconsidered. In a post on her blog, Palmer says,”we have decided we should pay all of our guest musicians. we have the power to do it, and we’re going to do it.” The full post is definitely worth a read.

In addition, Palmer’s Kickstarted album, Theatre is Evil, debuted at #10 on the Billboard 200 chart with 24,000 units sold. Palmer also shared a video of how her musical experiment is going, with a performance video from New Orleans.

[via Pitchfork]

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