Amanda Palmer has written an open letter to Morrissey offering to help him crowdsource his next album.
In her letter, written for Salon, the former Dresden Dolls singer shares her love of Morrissey’s music, even admitting to turning down the opportunity to meet him in person: “I couldn’t stomach the idea of Morrissey meeting me and not liking me, even if the chances were small.”
After asking her Twitter followers how many of them would be prepared to pay £3.22 to fund a digital-only Morrissey album, she gained over 1,400 positive responses “You have some of the most fanatical fans in the world; caring and devoted people from countries far and wide who would be really, really happy to support you at levels far beyond $5 just to have the songs in their ears,” she writes. “You’re possibly one of the best candidates on the planet to use crowdfunding, because of who you are and what you mean.”
Dismissing the idea that an artist needs a record label, Palmer continues: “What does one need a record label for nowadays? To put albums in stores? The stores are closing. To make all the phone calls, so that radio plays the album? The radio stations are closing. The good outlets with human beings programming them (non-commercial radio, college, the BBC) will probably just download the record if it’s good, and play it.”
However, Palmer ends the letter by admitting she thinks it unlikely Morrissey would get involved with a crowd-funded album.
Crowdsourcing has proved successful recently; with American TV show Veronica Mars raising $2 million in under 12 hours on Kickstarter and Scrubs star Zach Braff gaining the same amount to produce a follow-up to his 2004 film Garden State.