"Who fucking cares about the charts? I have music, love and support" -- Amanda Palmer on her Kickstarter success and a new music business model

Earlier today we posted about the fund-raising success of AMANDA PALMER, who in one day pulled in more than a quarter-million dollars from more than 5,000 backers via Kickstarter.

The one-time Dresden Doll has finished recording a new record in Australia with her new project, GRAND THEFT ORCHESTRA, and yesterday set a Kickstarter goal of $100,000 to help finish and promote the album as well as fund a tour, art book, and other cool stuff. Palmer's fans responded in droves and they hit their target goal in seven hours. Happy birthday, Amanda.

"I set the goal conservatively and was certainly hoping we'd beat it, but I didn't expect we'd beat it in a single day," Palmer writes in an e-mail to the Phoenix this morning. "But all this does is solidify my belief in the power of direct-to-fan connection, and how years of touring and staying truly, humanly connected to a fanbase really does pay off when you come back around to ask for help."

If you equate Kickstarter supporters with people who would buy the record in a traditional marketplace, then Palmer says the numbers wouldn't necessarily add up to what was previously considered a success. But in this new music business environment, it represents something much more positive.

"If you look at the numbers -- right now, about 5,000 backers from one day of funding -- that's NOTHING in 'traditional' album sales, it's pathetic by old-school standards," she writes. "My old major label would have rolled their eyes at that number. But say I only wind up with 20,000 backers on Kickstarter, who've spent $1,000,000 to buy the record from me directly... it's a way better deal, even it means I don't chart in Billboard against heavyweights like Gaga and Adele."

And the new structure means a new lifeblood.

"If I'd released my record on a major, and only sold 20,000 copies, I'd make exactly zero dollars, instead of netting a few hundred thousand," Palmer notes. "So who fucking cares about the charts? I have music, love and support... which is everything I, or any true musicians, need. The music industry as we knew it -- where musicians were beholden to the big media machine -- is officially dead. I hope my kickstarter helps shine a flashlight on its sinking coffin."