Yesterday marked the release of Amanda Palmer Performs the Popular Hits of Radiohead on Her Magical Ukulele. Reports from bandcamp indicate that this event "less resembled a record release than a coordinated strike of ravenous piranha." Why? Because in one 90 second period, her fanbase snapped up $15,000 in music and merch. That's why. From there on out: 4,000 digital EPs were sold, the vinyl sold out, most of the high end packages disappeared in minutes, and it looks like every other package will be gone in a matter of days. Miss Palmer's "go-to" digital strategist Sean Francis had these things to say:
"I
possible. If we were just using iTunes, we couldn’t be doing tie-ins
with physical product, monitoring our stats (live), and helping people
in real-time when they have a question regarding the service. Being able
to do all of those things and having such a transparent format in which
to do it has been a dream come true. We all buy stuff on the iTunes
store – or AmazonMP3 or whatever – but it’s not THE way artists should
be connecting to fans, and it’s certainly not the way someone is going
to capture the most revenue on a new release
." Read more.
