fek:
So, yesterday, Cody Chestnutt puts his first album in a decade on Kickstarter. Today, Dan Harmon and Charlie Kaufman announce a project. Which is great. This is the kind of democratization against studio systems and record labels that people have been waiting for forever to come along wanted, right? But is it naive to ask if these guys are going to crowd out the smaller users of Kickstarter without IMDB pages or rabid fan followings?
Good to see that people with long, fruitful histories of working for major studios are finally getting the attention and money they’re used to.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I totally agree with Vice. Here’s what I wrote on FEK’s post about this:
This stinks. These guys are worse than the studio system. If they have a project that they’re trying to raise $200,000 for, why don’t they go raise the $200,000 from people who generally invest in projects like this instead of gouging their fans? Say what you will about the evils of the Hollywood studio system —who, I should add, bankrolled all of the projects mentioned in the sizzle reel above— but at least Hollywood doesn’t have the audacity to charge their customers $15 to download a jpeg of their movie poster and 50 FREAKING DOLLARS for a DVD.
I kind of agree on Kaufman and Harmon, but was ChesnuTT ever really involved with a Major? I remember buying The Headphone masterpiece and it taking forever because it was basically a couple of his pals running things and they were mailing out the album themselves. Sure, The Roots covered his tune, and he was pals with Erykah Badu, but he was always more DIY. So in his case a Kickstarter project makes total sense, right?
Though this also brings up the question of Amanda Palmer? She had a long history of working with the Majors yet everyone applauded her for striking out on her own.
(Source: fek)
