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The Art of Asking

It's time to stop treating "our people" like tools.

Punk-cabaret musician and incorrigible creative Amanda Palmer shared a powerful talk at this year's TED conference on "The Art of Asking." In her speech, Palmer talks about how simply asking fans for things that she needs has revolutionized her creative life. It's overhauled how she makes and profits from her music.

By replacing a hard transactional model of exchange (I give you an album, you give me 14.99) with a soft, participatory one (I give you all my albums, you give me whatever it's worth to you), she's recaptured the old, community-oriented dynamic of music. Like a street busker, a pub performer, a local act at open mike night, you give Amanda what her music is worth to you.

Though she's certainly not the first to implement a pay-what-you-want model (I think that was Radiohead's In Rainbows, and heck, now it's the entire point of Noisetrade), Palmer takes the strategy way farther than the checkout page. She asks for a piano to practice ...

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March
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