Former Dresden Dolls singer Amanda Palmer has smashed all fan-funding records, raising over $1,000,000 to fund her new album in just one month.
The singer took to the fan-funding site Kickstarter to find ways to fund the release and promotion of her new solo album ‘Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra’. She raised the money by by taking pre-orders for future work and selling deluxe packages including backstage doughnut eating sessions and house parties.
In under a month, she has raised $1,000,000, breaking the previous record for music on the crowd-funding platform of $207,980 for Christian ska band Five Iron Frenzy: “WE. FUCKING. DID IT,” she tweeted her fans yesterday. “$1,000,000 OF PURE FUTURE ARTMUSIC”.
Palmer initially set up the pledge site on April 30, saying she was seeking $100,000 in pre-orders and fan investment – a target she reached in just six hours. Within 48 hours she’d been pledged a total of $300,000 and after a week she had doubled that figure. Last week she outlined how, if the million dollar mark was passed, the money would be spent, admitting that $100,000 wouldn’t have even covered the costs she has already incurred to get the ambitious project off the ground.
Speaking to NME previously about the project, Palmer said: “This isn’t a shtick or a gimmick – the idea of releasing a record n a major label again for me is absurd. The music industry has long needed a new system and crowd-funding is it. The game is reversing – the media and the machine are following, rather than creating, the content.”
‘Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra’ will be released in September followed by a US and European tour this autumn.