The Point of It All

I was just reminded of the brilliance of Amanda Palmer and her marketing team.

I had a great day today. Spent the day in Boston with Katie and the boys. The Poo Poo Platters had to check out the guitar collection at the Boston Hard Rock Cafe - their first time there (and actually the first time I'd stepped into a Hard Rock Cafe since the 1980s). Then we walked down Newbury Street, went to visit my sister Lori at her office, got some dessert at the Trident Bookstore/Cafe (another place I hadn't been to since the 1980s), and then some CD shopping at Newbury Comics. Off to Quincy Market for a light dinner, followed by a visit to the Institute of Contemporary Art to see the Shepard Fairey exhibit (hopefully more on that in a future post). Then the short drive back to Portsmouth - a wonderful vacation day since the boys have no school this week. Very cool.

So I arrive home to a ton a e-mail, and there in the middle is notification from Amanda that the Alternate Takes version of her latest CD is ready for me to download. For those who didn't read my posts on Amanda's latest album, look here. This is where the brilliant marketing comes in.

When I bought my advance copy of "Who Killed Amanda Palmer" last September, I paid a higher price than for just the CD. I paid for some cool bonus stuff - some of which came immediately, and some of which I had to wait for. The bonus items included a t-shirt (mailed with the CD), the ability to download the CD a week prior to its release, the actual CD with the case autographed by Amanda, some bonus tracks immediately with the early download, and finally, the promise of another CD, to be downloadable in the future. It was originally promised for November/December, but didn't arrive. I didn't give up, knowing that it is not unusual for these things to take more time than expected - especially with a small outfit, like Amanda's, considering she's been touring almost constantly since the fall.

Well, the bonus CD arrived today and it is an alternate version of the album released in September. Not a fully polished CD, but an interesting take on the material, with different versions of many of the songs, some songs that were never recorded for the CD, and even a song titled "Boyfriend in a Coma" which at first I thought was Smiths cover but turned out to be another original that didn't make the CD (the Smiths tune is actually "Girlfriend in a Coma"). I'd listened to "Who Killed Amanda Palmer" a lot last fall. Went to the Boston show. And have not been listening to it a lot lately, because I've moved on to other recordings. This new CD (I say CD, but really it is just a series of tracks I downloaded to my iPod - I'll most likely never own a hard copy of this one, truly bringing the media into the new age) is reaquainting me with the music, in a fresh and exciting way.

The music I know is different on this CD. Sometimes with different chord changes, sometimes with added sections. It's very cool for a fan to hear this - a snapshot of a particular moment in the music's evolution. As a composer, I love hearing this stuff. Not polished, but in many cases they are works in progress.

Amanda gets it. Why the labels don't, I can't figure out. I'm tired of hearing record producers refer to artists as "products" or "commodities". It's nice to be treated like a music fan, and not a consumer. Thanks, Amanda and friends for making that a reality. Again, very cool.