The archive · Business Models · Financial decision · 2012
Amanda Palmer funds Theatre Is Evil on Kickstarter — $1.2M from 24,883 fans in 30 days
With no label to fund her, Amanda Palmer presold Theatre Is Evil and a tour to fans as Kickstarter preorders — $1.2M in 30 days, then released it herself.
Amanda Palmer
What it had to solve
Palmer, formerly of the Dresden Dolls, had spent years trying to leave her deal at Roadrunner Records, and by 2012 she had no label advance to record her second solo album, Theatre Is Evil, with its companion art book and tour. She had a large, loyal fan base built through years of blogging, Twitter and house shows — and no way to get capital from the industry.
How it works
In April 2012, Amanda Palmer — formerly of the Dresden Dolls — launched a Kickstarter campaign with a $100,000 goal to fund her second solo album, Theatre Is Evil, plus a companion art book and a tour, all without a record label. She had spent years fighting her deal at Roadrunner Records, and she had something labels could not offer: a large fan base built through years of blogging, Twitter and intimate house shows.
The creative move was to treat the campaign as preorders, not donations. Pledge tiers ran from a digital download up to $5,000 private house concerts — 34 were sold — and $10,000 dinners with a portrait painted by Palmer, of which two sold. Within 30 days, 24,883 backers pledged $1,192,793, about twelve times the goal and a record for music projects on Kickstarter.
Because the pledges arrived before production, the project was fully paid for in advance. There was no label advance, no promoter fee and no agent commission on the house shows; Girlie Action handled US label services while Palmer kept her rights. Billboard framed the campaign as an inflection point for the music business comparable to Radiohead's In Rainbows, and the record was released in September 2012.
The numbers backed the rhetoric: Theatre Is Evil sold 85,000 copies globally in its first six months, 25,000 of them through Kickstarter presales, with additional pay-what-you-want sales on Palmer's own site.
Why it lands
- Preorders paid production costs upfront, so the record was profitable from day one rather than waiting on retail sales.
- The model removed the middlemen — no label advance, promoter fee or agent commission on the direct-to-fan shows.
- Pledge tiers priced scarcity and intimacy, from a $10,000 dinner to a $5,000 living-room concert.
- Backers became invested stakeholders with a reason to evangelize the album before release.
- Keeping ownership let Palmer choose distribution partners later on her own terms.
What it did
The campaign became the most lucrative music project ever funded on Kickstarter at the time. Theatre Is Evil was released in September 2012 and sold 85,000 copies globally in six months, 25,000 of them through the Kickstarter presales; Billboard called Palmer's campaign an inflection point for the music business on the scale of Radiohead's In Rainbows.
What you can take
Preselling the work to fans before you make it converts an audience into investors: it funds production, removes the risk of unsold inventory, and leaves the creator in control.
Since then
Theatre Is Evil shipped in September 2012 and sold 85,000 copies globally in six months, 25,000 of them through Kickstarter, with Palmer keeping her rights under artist-service deals with Girlie Action and Cooking Vinyl. Billboard called the campaign an inflection point on the scale of Radiohead's In Rainbows; music projects on Kickstarter drew $35 million in pledges during 2012. The campaign became the template cited whenever crowdfunding replaced label advances — though Palmer warned at SXSW that the model favors hyper-social artists and would not fit everyone.
Sources
- Amanda Palmer Changes the Way Albums are Funded Through Kickstarter
- Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra
- Amanda Palmer Talks New Business Models, Plays Ukulele at SXSW
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