1
00:00:10,101 --> 00:00:11,623
(Breathes in)

2
00:00:12,384 --> 00:00:13,384
(Breathes out)

3
00:00:18,014 --> 00:00:20,959
So, I didn't always make
my living from music.

4
00:00:21,863 --> 00:00:23,863
For about the five years after graduating

5
00:00:23,887 --> 00:00:26,992
from an upstanding
liberal arts university,

6
00:00:27,016 --> 00:00:29,354
this was my day job.

7
00:00:29,871 --> 00:00:31,079
(Laughter)

8
00:00:31,103 --> 00:00:35,647
I was a self-employed living
statue called the Eight-Foot Bride,

9
00:00:35,671 --> 00:00:39,387
and I love telling people
I did this for a job,

10
00:00:39,411 --> 00:00:41,372
because everybody always wants to know,

11
00:00:41,396 --> 00:00:43,351
who are these freaks in real life.

12
00:00:43,375 --> 00:00:44,376
(Laughter)

13
00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:45,415
Hello.

14
00:00:45,892 --> 00:00:49,047
I painted myself white
one day, stood on a box,

15
00:00:49,071 --> 00:00:51,455
put a hat or a can at my feet,

16
00:00:51,479 --> 00:00:53,806
and when someone came by
and dropped in money,

17
00:00:53,830 --> 00:00:56,491
I handed them a flower...

18
00:00:57,911 --> 00:01:00,545
and some intense eye contact.

19
00:01:01,987 --> 00:01:03,687
And if they didn't take the flower,

20
00:01:03,711 --> 00:01:06,781
I threw in a gesture
of sadness and longing...

21
00:01:07,757 --> 00:01:09,242
as they walked away.

22
00:01:11,941 --> 00:01:13,372
(Laughter)

23
00:01:15,645 --> 00:01:19,611
So I had the most profound
encounters with people,

24
00:01:19,635 --> 00:01:20,946
especially lonely people

25
00:01:20,970 --> 00:01:24,295
who looked like they hadn't talked
to anyone in weeks,

26
00:01:24,319 --> 00:01:30,288
and we would get this beautiful moment
of prolonged eye contact

27
00:01:30,312 --> 00:01:32,605
being allowed in a city street,

28
00:01:32,629 --> 00:01:35,250
and we would sort of fall
in love a little bit.

29
00:01:35,941 --> 00:01:37,560
And my eyes would say...

30
00:01:38,433 --> 00:01:39,433
"Thank you.

31
00:01:40,028 --> 00:01:41,028
I see you."

32
00:01:41,925 --> 00:01:43,280
And their eyes would say...

33
00:01:45,329 --> 00:01:46,828
"Nobody ever sees me.

34
00:01:47,901 --> 00:01:48,901
Thank you."

35
00:01:50,908 --> 00:01:52,393
I would get harassed sometimes.

36
00:01:52,417 --> 00:01:54,481
People would yell at me from their cars.

37
00:01:54,505 --> 00:01:55,567
"Get a job!"

38
00:01:56,147 --> 00:01:58,187
(Laughing) And I'd be, like,

39
00:01:58,211 --> 00:01:59,344
"This is my job."

40
00:02:00,041 --> 00:02:03,750
But it hurt, because it made me fear

41
00:02:03,774 --> 00:02:08,008
that I was somehow doing
something un-joblike

42
00:02:08,032 --> 00:02:09,940
and unfair, shameful.

43
00:02:11,146 --> 00:02:15,995
I had no idea how perfect
a real education I was getting

44
00:02:16,019 --> 00:02:18,131
for the music business on this box.

45
00:02:18,755 --> 00:02:20,327
And for the economists out there,

46
00:02:20,351 --> 00:02:23,932
you may be interested to know I actually
made a pretty predictable income,

47
00:02:23,956 --> 00:02:28,147
which was shocking to me,
given I had no regular customers,

48
00:02:28,171 --> 00:02:31,435
but pretty much 60 bucks on a Tuesday,
90 bucks on a Friday.

49
00:02:31,459 --> 00:02:32,720
It was consistent.

50
00:02:32,744 --> 00:02:36,204
And meanwhile, I was touring locally
and playing in nightclubs

51
00:02:36,228 --> 00:02:38,066
with my band, the Dresden Dolls.

52
00:02:38,090 --> 00:02:40,164
This was me on piano, a genius drummer.

53
00:02:40,188 --> 00:02:42,077
I wrote the songs, and eventually

54
00:02:42,101 --> 00:02:46,463
we started making enough money
that I could quit being a statue,

55
00:02:46,487 --> 00:02:48,724
and as we started touring,

56
00:02:48,748 --> 00:02:51,098
I really didn't want to lose this sense

57
00:02:51,122 --> 00:02:53,798
of direct connection with people,
because I loved it.

58
00:02:53,822 --> 00:02:57,753
So after all of our shows,
we would sign autographs

59
00:02:57,777 --> 00:03:00,665
and hug fans and hang out
and talk to people,

60
00:03:00,689 --> 00:03:06,357
and we made an art out
of asking people to help us and join us,

61
00:03:06,381 --> 00:03:09,503
and I would track down
local musicians and artists

62
00:03:09,527 --> 00:03:12,695
and they would set up
outside of our shows,

63
00:03:12,719 --> 00:03:14,183
and they would pass the hat,

64
00:03:14,207 --> 00:03:16,683
and then they would come in
and join us onstage,

65
00:03:16,707 --> 00:03:20,092
so we had this rotating smorgasbord
of weird, random circus guests.

66
00:03:20,715 --> 00:03:23,196
And then Twitter came along,

67
00:03:23,220 --> 00:03:25,252
and made things even more magic,

68
00:03:25,276 --> 00:03:28,011
because I could ask instantly
for anything anywhere.

69
00:03:28,035 --> 00:03:30,076
So I would need a piano to practice on,

70
00:03:30,100 --> 00:03:32,369
and an hour later I would be
at a fan's house.

71
00:03:32,393 --> 00:03:33,430
This is in London.

72
00:03:33,834 --> 00:03:35,914
People would bring home-cooked food to us

73
00:03:35,938 --> 00:03:38,653
all over the world backstage
and feed us and eat with us.

74
00:03:38,677 --> 00:03:40,059
This is in Seattle.

75
00:03:40,083 --> 00:03:43,686
Fans who worked in museums and stores

76
00:03:43,710 --> 00:03:46,893
and any kind of public space
would wave their hands

77
00:03:46,917 --> 00:03:50,157
if I would decide to do
a last-minute, spontaneous, free gig.

78
00:03:50,181 --> 00:03:52,793
This is a library in Auckland.

79
00:03:53,604 --> 00:03:58,057
On Saturday I tweeted
for this crate and hat,

80
00:03:58,081 --> 00:04:00,840
because I did not want to schlep them
from the East Coast,

81
00:04:00,864 --> 00:04:03,887
and they showed up care of this dude,
Chris, from Newport Beach,

82
00:04:03,911 --> 00:04:05,042
who says hello.

83
00:04:05,644 --> 00:04:09,326
I once tweeted, "Where in Melbourne
can I buy a neti pot?"

84
00:04:09,350 --> 00:04:11,856
And a nurse from a hospital drove one

85
00:04:11,880 --> 00:04:14,127
right at that moment to the cafe I was in,

86
00:04:14,151 --> 00:04:15,595
and I bought her a smoothie

87
00:04:15,619 --> 00:04:18,159
and we sat there talking
about nursing and death.

88
00:04:18,183 --> 00:04:21,214
And I love this kind of random closeness,

89
00:04:21,238 --> 00:04:24,595
which is lucky, because I do
a lot of couchsurfing.

90
00:04:25,928 --> 00:04:29,018
In mansions where everyone
in my crew gets their own room

91
00:04:29,042 --> 00:04:30,295
but there's no wireless,

92
00:04:30,319 --> 00:04:31,851
and in punk squats,

93
00:04:31,875 --> 00:04:34,813
everyone on the floor
in one room with no toilets

94
00:04:34,837 --> 00:04:37,832
but with wireless,
clearly making it the better option.

95
00:04:38,654 --> 00:04:40,412
(Laughter)

96
00:04:40,999 --> 00:04:47,065
My crew once pulled our van
up to a really poor Miami neighborhood

97
00:04:47,089 --> 00:04:49,771
and we found out that our couchsurfing
host for the night

98
00:04:49,795 --> 00:04:52,358
was an 18-year-old girl,
still living at home,

99
00:04:52,382 --> 00:04:56,485
and her family were all undocumented
immigrants from Honduras.

100
00:04:57,006 --> 00:05:00,382
And that night, her whole family

101
00:05:00,406 --> 00:05:03,459
took the couches and she slept
together with her mom

102
00:05:03,483 --> 00:05:05,213
so that we could take their beds.

103
00:05:06,038 --> 00:05:08,855
And I lay there thinking,

104
00:05:08,879 --> 00:05:10,578
these people have so little.

105
00:05:11,673 --> 00:05:12,879
Is this fair?

106
00:05:13,773 --> 00:05:15,086
And in the morning,

107
00:05:15,110 --> 00:05:17,433
her mom taught us
how to try to make tortillas

108
00:05:17,457 --> 00:05:19,434
and wanted to give me a Bible,

109
00:05:19,458 --> 00:05:25,027
and she took me aside and she said
to me in her broken English,

110
00:05:25,051 --> 00:05:29,505
"Your music has helped
my daughter so much.

111
00:05:30,584 --> 00:05:33,220
Thank you for staying here.
We're all so grateful."

112
00:05:33,894 --> 00:05:37,448
And I thought, this is fair.

113
00:05:38,178 --> 00:05:40,307
This is this.

114
00:05:41,305 --> 00:05:44,225
A couple of months later,
I was in Manhattan,

115
00:05:44,249 --> 00:05:46,513
and I tweeted for a crash pad,
and at midnight,

116
00:05:46,537 --> 00:05:48,315
I'm on the Lower East Side,

117
00:05:48,339 --> 00:05:51,108
and it occurs to me I've never
actually done this alone.

118
00:05:51,132 --> 00:05:53,085
I've always been with my band or my crew.

119
00:05:53,109 --> 00:05:54,947
Is this what stupid people do?

120
00:05:55,414 --> 00:05:56,414
(Laughter)

121
00:05:56,945 --> 00:05:58,881
Is this how stupid people die?

122
00:05:59,344 --> 00:06:01,869
And before I can change my mind,
the door busts open.

123
00:06:01,893 --> 00:06:02,924
She's an artist.

124
00:06:02,948 --> 00:06:05,268
He's a financial blogger for Reuters,

125
00:06:05,292 --> 00:06:07,306
and they're pouring me a glass of red wine

126
00:06:07,330 --> 00:06:08,477
and offering me a bath,

127
00:06:08,501 --> 00:06:12,834
and I have had thousands of nights
like that and like that.

128
00:06:13,810 --> 00:06:17,457
So I couchsurf a lot.
I also crowdsurf a lot.

129
00:06:17,848 --> 00:06:20,785
I maintain couchsurfing and crowdsurfing

130
00:06:20,809 --> 00:06:22,719
are basically the same thing.

131
00:06:23,057 --> 00:06:25,538
You're falling into the audience

132
00:06:25,562 --> 00:06:27,078
and you're trusting each other.

133
00:06:27,429 --> 00:06:29,693
I once asked an opening band of mine

134
00:06:29,717 --> 00:06:32,384
if they wanted to go out
into the crowd and pass the hat

135
00:06:32,408 --> 00:06:35,098
to get some extra money,
something that I did a lot.

136
00:06:35,122 --> 00:06:36,910
And as usual, the band was psyched,

137
00:06:36,934 --> 00:06:39,108
but there was this one guy in the band

138
00:06:39,132 --> 00:06:42,990
who told me he just couldn't
bring himself to go out there.

139
00:06:43,014 --> 00:06:46,704
It felt too much like begging
to stand there with the hat.

140
00:06:47,208 --> 00:06:50,828
And I recognized his fear

141
00:06:50,852 --> 00:06:52,941
of "Is this fair?"

142
00:06:52,965 --> 00:06:54,303
and "Get a job."

143
00:06:55,756 --> 00:06:58,832
And meanwhile, my band
is becoming bigger and bigger.

144
00:06:58,856 --> 00:07:00,385
We sign with a major label.

145
00:07:01,011 --> 00:07:03,925
And our music is a cross
between punk and cabaret.

146
00:07:03,949 --> 00:07:05,331
It's not for everybody.

147
00:07:05,355 --> 00:07:07,782
Well, maybe it's for you.

148
00:07:07,806 --> 00:07:09,890
(Laughter)

149
00:07:09,914 --> 00:07:13,710
We sign, and there's all this hype
leading up to our next record.

150
00:07:13,734 --> 00:07:17,403
And it comes out and it sells
about 25,000 copies

151
00:07:17,427 --> 00:07:18,716
in the first few weeks,

152
00:07:18,740 --> 00:07:21,620
and the label considers this a failure.

153
00:07:22,708 --> 00:07:24,597
I was like, "25,000, isn't that a lot?"

154
00:07:24,621 --> 00:07:26,589
They said, "No, the sales are going down.

155
00:07:26,613 --> 00:07:27,629
It's a failure."

156
00:07:27,653 --> 00:07:28,668
And they walk off.

157
00:07:29,578 --> 00:07:32,938
Right at this same time,
I'm signing and hugging after a gig,

158
00:07:32,962 --> 00:07:34,729
and a guy comes up to me

159
00:07:34,753 --> 00:07:36,931
and hands me a $10 bill,

160
00:07:36,955 --> 00:07:38,612
and he says,

161
00:07:38,636 --> 00:07:41,016
"I'm sorry, I burned
your CD from a friend."

162
00:07:41,478 --> 00:07:45,361
(Laughter)

163
00:07:46,319 --> 00:07:48,827
"But I read your blog,
I know you hate your label.

164
00:07:48,851 --> 00:07:50,634
I just want you to have this money."

165
00:07:51,731 --> 00:07:54,670
And this starts happening all the time.

166
00:07:55,225 --> 00:07:58,666
I become the hat after my own gigs,

167
00:07:58,690 --> 00:08:01,952
but I have to physically stand there
and take the help from people,

168
00:08:01,976 --> 00:08:04,161
and unlike the guy in the opening band,

169
00:08:04,185 --> 00:08:06,979
I've actually had a lot
of practice standing there.

170
00:08:08,773 --> 00:08:09,852
Thank you.

171
00:08:10,331 --> 00:08:12,458
And this is the moment I decide

172
00:08:12,482 --> 00:08:15,350
I'm just going to give away
my music for free

173
00:08:15,374 --> 00:08:17,082
online whenever possible,

174
00:08:17,106 --> 00:08:20,568
so it's like Metallica
over here, Napster, bad;

175
00:08:20,592 --> 00:08:22,258
Amanda Palmer over here,

176
00:08:22,282 --> 00:08:25,557
and I'm going to encourage
torrenting, downloading, sharing,

177
00:08:25,581 --> 00:08:27,679
but I'm going to ask for help,

178
00:08:27,703 --> 00:08:30,406
because I saw it work on the street.

179
00:08:30,999 --> 00:08:33,903
So I fought my way off my label,
and for my next project

180
00:08:33,927 --> 00:08:36,607
with my new band,
the Grand Theft Orchestra,

181
00:08:36,631 --> 00:08:38,341
I turned to crowdfunding.

182
00:08:39,359 --> 00:08:43,503
And I fell into those thousands
of connections that I'd made,

183
00:08:43,527 --> 00:08:45,634
and I asked my crowd to catch me.

184
00:08:46,792 --> 00:08:49,634
And the goal was 100,000 dollars.

185
00:08:49,658 --> 00:08:53,173
My fans backed me at nearly 1.2 million,

186
00:08:53,197 --> 00:08:56,079
which was the biggest music
crowdfunding project to date.

187
00:08:56,103 --> 00:09:00,167
(Applause)

188
00:09:00,191 --> 00:09:03,517
And you can see how many people it is.

189
00:09:04,858 --> 00:09:06,350
It's about 25,000 people.

190
00:09:08,239 --> 00:09:09,709
And the media asked,

191
00:09:09,733 --> 00:09:13,187
"Amanda, the music business is tanking
and you encourage piracy.

192
00:09:13,211 --> 00:09:15,545
How did you make
all these people pay for music?"

193
00:09:15,569 --> 00:09:17,930
And the real answer is,
I didn't make them.

194
00:09:18,398 --> 00:09:19,398
I asked them.

195
00:09:20,258 --> 00:09:24,096
And through the very act of asking people,

196
00:09:24,120 --> 00:09:25,812
I'd connected with them,

197
00:09:25,836 --> 00:09:29,686
and when you connect with them,
people want to help you.

198
00:09:30,995 --> 00:09:34,741
It's kind of counterintuitive
for a lot of artists.

199
00:09:34,765 --> 00:09:36,431
They don't want to ask for things.

200
00:09:36,455 --> 00:09:40,108
But it's not easy.

201
00:09:40,132 --> 00:09:41,599
It's not easy to ask.

202
00:09:42,116 --> 00:09:44,298
And a lot of artists have
a problem with this.

203
00:09:44,322 --> 00:09:46,021
Asking makes you vulnerable.

204
00:09:46,613 --> 00:09:51,137
And I got a lot of criticism online,

205
00:09:51,161 --> 00:09:52,758
after my Kickstarter went big,

206
00:09:52,782 --> 00:09:55,717
for continuing my crazy
crowdsourcing practices,

207
00:09:55,741 --> 00:09:58,598
specifically for asking musicians

208
00:09:58,622 --> 00:10:00,971
who are fans if they wanted
to join us on stage

209
00:10:00,995 --> 00:10:05,286
for a few songs in exchange
for love and tickets and beer,

210
00:10:05,310 --> 00:10:09,810
and this was a doctored image
that went up of me on a website.

211
00:10:10,342 --> 00:10:13,225
And this hurt in a really familiar way.

212
00:10:13,956 --> 00:10:15,658
And people saying,

213
00:10:15,682 --> 00:10:18,711
"You're not allowed anymore
to ask for that kind of help,"

214
00:10:18,735 --> 00:10:22,931
really reminded me of the people
in their cars yelling, "Get a job."

215
00:10:23,849 --> 00:10:27,952
Because they weren't
with us on the sidewalk,

216
00:10:27,976 --> 00:10:31,209
and they couldn't see the exchange

217
00:10:31,233 --> 00:10:33,281
that was happening
between me and my crowd,

218
00:10:33,305 --> 00:10:37,638
an exchange that was very fair
to us but alien to them.

219
00:10:38,948 --> 00:10:40,971
So this is slightly not safe for work.

220
00:10:40,995 --> 00:10:43,558
This is my Kickstarter
backer party in Berlin.

221
00:10:43,582 --> 00:10:46,615
At the end of the night, I stripped
and let everyone draw on me.

222
00:10:46,639 --> 00:10:49,632
Now let me tell you,
if you want to experience

223
00:10:49,656 --> 00:10:52,127
the visceral feeling
of trusting strangers...

224
00:10:52,151 --> 00:10:53,598
(Laughter)

225
00:10:53,622 --> 00:10:54,813
I recommend this,

226
00:10:54,837 --> 00:10:58,180
especially if those strangers
are drunk German people.

227
00:10:58,204 --> 00:11:00,115
(Laughter)

228
00:11:00,139 --> 00:11:03,959
This was a ninja
master-level fan connection,

229
00:11:03,983 --> 00:11:06,479
because what I was really saying here was,

230
00:11:06,503 --> 00:11:08,047
I trust you this much.

231
00:11:09,095 --> 00:11:10,216
Should I?

232
00:11:10,984 --> 00:11:11,984
Show me.

233
00:11:13,223 --> 00:11:15,235
For most of human history,

234
00:11:15,259 --> 00:11:19,314
musicians, artists, they've been
part of the community.

235
00:11:20,617 --> 00:11:24,260
Connectors and openers,
not untouchable stars.

236
00:11:24,834 --> 00:11:29,152
Celebrity is about a lot of people
loving you from a distance,

237
00:11:29,176 --> 00:11:30,321
but the Internet

238
00:11:30,345 --> 00:11:33,946
and the content that we're freely
able to share on it

239
00:11:33,970 --> 00:11:36,247
are taking us back.

240
00:11:36,744 --> 00:11:40,428
It's about a few people
loving you up close

241
00:11:40,452 --> 00:11:43,702
and about those people being enough.

242
00:11:45,003 --> 00:11:47,130
So a lot of people
are confused by the idea

243
00:11:47,154 --> 00:11:48,445
of no hard sticker price.

244
00:11:48,469 --> 00:11:51,667
They see it as an unpredictable risk,
but the things I've done,

245
00:11:51,691 --> 00:11:54,079
the Kickstarter, the street, the doorbell,

246
00:11:54,103 --> 00:11:55,933
I don't see these things as risk.

247
00:11:55,957 --> 00:11:57,257
I see them as trust.

248
00:11:58,075 --> 00:12:00,069
Now, the online tools

249
00:12:00,093 --> 00:12:04,841
to make the exchange as easy
and as instinctive as the street,

250
00:12:04,865 --> 00:12:06,063
they're getting there.

251
00:12:06,603 --> 00:12:10,178
But the perfect tools
aren't going to help us

252
00:12:10,202 --> 00:12:12,646
if we can't face each other

253
00:12:12,670 --> 00:12:15,705
and give and receive fearlessly,

254
00:12:15,729 --> 00:12:16,928
but, more important...

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to ask without shame.

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My music career has been spent

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trying to encounter people on the Internet
the way I could on the box.

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So blogging and tweeting
not just about my tour dates

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and my new video
but about our work and our art

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00:12:37,106 --> 00:12:40,223
and our fears and our hangovers,

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our mistakes,

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and we see each other.

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And I think when we really see each other,

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we want to help each other.

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I think people have been obsessed
with the wrong question,

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which is, "How do we make
people pay for music?"

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What if we started asking,

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"How do we let people pay for music?"

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Thank you.

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(Applause)