Friday, May 18, 2012

Amanda Palmer Reveals New Track, Hits Record-Breaking $735,000 in Pre-Sales!



"Do It With A Rockstar” MP3 Available at Amanda Palmer’s Website

Album Drops in September,
6 City Exclusive Art & Acoustic Events 

+ Live Rock Shows* This Summer
*ALL general admission tickets SOLD OUT, now ONLY available through Kickstarter.

“Palmer is set to join Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails as the artists that people tend to mention when they talk about the new music business.” – Billboard 

"The Best New Thing In The World"  The Rachel Maddow Show

" ...Ms. Palmer sings dark and jubilant songs."  The New York Times

Singer, songwriter, piano-slayer, super blogger, Amanda Palmer is preparing to release her first new studio album in four years, in conjunction with her new band, The Grand Theft Orchestra, featuring Michael McQuilken, Chad Raines and Jherek Bischoff. The album, recently recorded in Melbourne was produced by John Congleton (St. Vincent, Modest Mouse).  Palmer and GTO will embark on a six city summer tour unveiling the new album as a series of intimate performances alongside a dynamic visual art exhibit featuring 30 contemporary artists to include Shepard Fairey, Kristin Hersh (Throwing Muses), David Mack and Cynthia Von Buhler.

True to form, the undisputed queen of crowd-sourcing and fan engagement enlisted her community of loyal supporters to launch her ambitious global release. On her Kickstarter campaign Palmer is offering her new album in multiple formats and a variety of unique merch items at nearly a dozen different price points, including a deluxe CD and LP version of the album along with 7” singles, hand-painted turntables, and two different coffee table art books featuring art from the group exhibit. This innovative campaign offers fans numerous Amanda Palmer experiences, including “house parties” ($5,000), VIP tickets to private, semi-acoustic performances during the art gallery tour ($300 per ticket), and a chance to spend the entire day with Amanda (solo, or with her band) during which she will wine and dine the fan and stage a day of art involving portrait painting or a professionally shot, fully styled photo shoot with the band and the fan ($10,000).  Palmer has already pre-sold $735,000, breaking new boundaries in music marketing garnering accolades from the likes of Forbes’ (“Five Things All Companies Can Learn from Kickstarter (and Amanda Palmer),” CNN and HypeBot.



Watch video above by Jim Batt for an introduction to 
Amanda Palmer’s new band & global album release.

Since parting ways with her record label four years ago, Amanda Palmer has navigated her own fiercely independent path through the music business. A long-standing blogger who routinely tweets incredibly intimate details of her life, and who maintains constant and genuine communication with her fans, Palmer has fully embraced the “pay what you want” business model to proven financial success (See Palmer’s “How to Get Rich onTwitter as an example of a random Friday night in Amandaland). Through it all she has built a loyal community of supporters (now over 500,000 on Twitter) that continues to grow with every piece of music she gives away (all of which is free on her website save for mechanical royalty charges) and every concert and flash-mob-style free "ninja gig" she performs.

Now Palmer is ready to raise the bar even higher, planning a 2-year global release of creative output that will feature a multitude of videos and remixes, 18 months of global touring, and pop-up art exhibition featuring 30 visual artists that will touch down in 6 cities in the U.S. and Europe this summer. Recently in a correspondence with Bob Lefsetz, Palmer said, "I've been waiting what seems like ages to release this album, trying to figure out how to serve it best, since i think it's the best material I've ever written. I had to find the right business team (Girlie Action Media & Marketing), the right musicians (Grand Theft Orchestra), the right producer (John Congleton), and most importantly, the right system through which to release it. I've been experimenting with self-releasing little projects for a while, learning as I go, and my team knows enough now to self-release a massive record."

Amanda Palmer Pop-Up Art Gallery Tour
+ Intimate Live Summer Gigs

CLICK HERE FOR FULL LIST OF SHOW DETAILS 

There has rarely been an Amanda Palmer or Dresden Dolls release without a strong visual art component, and Palmer has pulled no punches with this album: In conjunction with the album's release in September 2012, Amanda has commissioned 30 unique artists (many of whom are musicians as well) to create work inspired by her new album. This art will be featured - live on local gallery walls - in a traveling “Pop-Up” art exhibit that will touch down in 6 cities in the U.S. and Europe, where Amanda & The Grand Theft Orchestra will perform exclusive acoustic shows within the gallery to reward local Kickstarter backers. Palmer explains: "I'm pretty sure I became a musician so I'd have an excellent excuse to throw an Art Party everywhere I went. This upcoming gallery tour is about as close as I get to fulfilling that fantasy. Wine flowing, visual art and artists everywhere, music playing loudly, everybody excited about the album in one tiny room, jumping up and down...it doesn't get any better than that, really."
In addition to her 6 city travelling art show this summer, Amanda and her band will debut her new songs to the public in series of initimate rock gigs as a warm up for their full US tour (in much larger venues) this fall. Public tickets are SOLD OUT for all of these rock gigs, BUT a limited number of tickets to these shows can still be found onKickstarter.

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