Amanda Palmer divorces her record label

Amanda Palmer announced yesterday that after a two year fight she is now free from her record deal with Roadrunner Records.

For the past seven years, anything she has written and recorded (either solo or with her band, The Dresden Dolls) has technically been owned and under the ultimate control of the label.

She writes: "as many of you know, i’ve been a very vocal advocate of artists being fearless in asking their audience and supporters for direct financial help.
i come from a background of grassroots theater and street performance, and i think that artists should feel no shame while passing the hat around once they’ve entertained a crowd of people. it’s been a huge and obvious irony that i have been legally unable to ask for money for my music, since it’s been verboten by my contract with roadrunner."

Read more in her blog post FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST (DEAR ROADRUNNER RECORDS…)

To celebrate, she released a song that fans can download for free.

I've been fascinated with how Amanda has built a following with the Web as a strong component to involve fans in what she does. She has a very popular blog, over 400,000 followers at @amandapalmer on Twitter, MySpace and Facebook pages and more.

You can check out my video interview with Amanda where she told me how she made $11,000 on Twitter in two hours.

The news that she has divorced her label is fascinating. No longer do musicians need a label (although for some it is a great choice).

In my case, I publish lots of content – on my blog, on Huffington Post, in books and in free ebooks. I cannot imagine a world where everything I did having to go through one publisher but that seems to be the world of record labels relationships with artists.

Oh, and read the very kind letter she wrote to her friends at Roadrunner Records. It is at the end of her post.

Congratulations AFP. Keep up the good work.

Photo by Lenka Sindelarova

Comments

[Ted Page]

David, Amanda is awesome. I met her recently at one of my readings. Good for her. She need the freedom, and she deserves it.

Ted

[Dan Schawbel]

David, this is very timely for me. I just had an event called Music Branding 2.0 in Cambridge, MA, with people from the music industry (hip hop producer, licensing expert, promoter, etc). It gave me a reason to follow-up with the attendees ;). The main gist that I got was that labels (just like publishers) still have a lot of power, but it's fading fast with new technologies.

[Debralee]

Smart woman...great letter she wrote. never burn your bridges. She thanked the right people...I am glad the struggle is over for her in that respect. It continues to amaze me the power of organic growth when it is channeled in the right direction. Good for her! Nice article.

[David Meerman Scott]

Debralee, Dan, Ted. Thanks for jumping in.

I've been following Amanda for a few years know and she is on the forefront of how to embrace digital in the music world.

[Ralph Leon]

This really shows the power of social media and I am glad to see an artist like Amanda embrace it in this manner. Essentially record labels are just giant promoters. In a way it reminds me sort of how Lady Ga Ga users her social platforms to release music to her fans even before our label. Thanks for sharing her story and keep the music alive!

[David Gordon Schmidt]

I love following the quickly evolving music industry. There will be fewer record-company-ordained artists getting over-promoted and rich, and 1000s more hard-working self-promoted artists making a living (or partial living) by working the on-line channels themselves. As pointed out in a comment on Amanda's blog, it really is going back to the minstrel days of yesteryear. Then, it was geographically local...now it is "local" in a new way.

Ultimately, the market itself decides the best music.

[David Meerman Scott]

Ralph & David - you're both right. David, I especially like your comment that the market decides. No longer does some A&R guy at a label dictate who gets heard.

[steve garfield]

Hopefully you saw this:

Best Twitter story today! "My stranded-in-iceland adventure," http://bit.ly/blog041510b /via @amandapalmer

[Polatlı]

Good post. I like to read your posts. well written. thank you.

[kiralık devremülkler]

Very nice post. I'm waiting for new posts. again thank you