THE FUTURE — FOR SOME
Excellent work here, Daniel Brockman (see "The Problem with the Future of Music: Amanda Palmer and the rise of the music biz Super PAC," thePhoenix.com, May 3). I think Amanda Palmer missed the reason she has such a broad, wide, and fervent fan base is because she was on Roadrunner in the first place. There's no way someone such as I could raise the funds she has in such a short amount of time.
Palmer's a hard-working and talented individual who's earned everything she has, and the cream of the crop usually rises to the top, but Roadrunner had to have helped her get there. I can't believe they didn't expand her base exponentially with PR, touring, etc.
It's ironic that the only reason she was able to use the tool of Kickstarter so effectively is because she was on a major label in the first place. Radiohead could use Kickstarter tomorrow and lap her efforts a million times over, but again, that's because their labels of the past have given them their status of today. Not taking away from their talent or hard work, but ignoring what the labels do is insane.
I, or any other musician who hasn't "made it" in the traditional sense, don't have the luxury of using Kickstarter in the manner Palmer has. This isn't the future of music for me, that's for sure.
DEREK P. HIXON
CAMBRIDGE
STORY TIME
In general, I agree with your comment about Scott Brown's daughter and health insurance (see "Things I'm Having A Hard Time Caring About," David S. Bernstein, thePhoenix.com, May 1). Except Brown has campaigned on repealing the health-care law, not repealing just the parts he likes. He highlights things like the medical device tax, but he doesn't say only that needs to go. If his opposition were more nuanced and not just, "I hate the law, but I love this policy, let's have it in 50 separate laws," I think this story would be a non-story.
Now refusing to allow anybody to see his tax returns except in his office (and with no photocopies) while trying to pry Native American confessions out of Elizabeth Warren in a demand for openness, that's a story. And its called hypocrisy.
MATT SZAFRANSKI
FROM THE WEB
