I stumbled upon this video last night, and it really struck a chord with me.
Lately, I’ve been inwardly struggling with my fears of trusting myself, my art, and those who love my art. I have a tendency (a deeply hidden tendency) to feel a strange sort of shame in what I do and in asking for the outside help that’s always been needed in order to accomplish what I do — even though it’s how I’ve built what I’ve built so far, since the late ’90s.
There have been plenty of people in my life who have thrown the whole “Get a real job” trope my way and scoffed at my ambitions. And there have been many fellow colleagues who’ve berated me for even suggesting that they may wish to partner with me on a project for something in return other than financial reward.
It’s important to remember that “it takes a village” of people to care for one another — body, soul, and spirit — in this life. And Art brings a community together in ways like nothing else can. I’ve always felt that Music is more meaningful when made and experienced with friends… And that means You! 🙂
In this heartfelt TED Talk, Amanda Palmer asks:
…what I was really saying here was, I trust you this much. Should I? Show me. For most of human history, musicians, artists, they’ve been part of the community. Connectors and openers, not untouchable stars. Celebrity is about a lot of people loving you from a distance, but the Internet and the content that we’re freely able to share on it are taking us back. It’s about a few people loving you up close and about those people being enough…
I think people have been obsessed with the wrong question, which is, “How do we make people pay for music?” What if we started asking, “How do we let people pay for music?”
