Morrissey has spoken out against musicians looking towards crowdfunding in order to finance their records, describing it as “a desperate measure” and “insulting to your audience”.
Though the former Smiths frontman spoke candidly of his troubles with finding a new record label following his split with Harvest Records, he has said that he will not pursue a Kickstarter campaign, as had been suggested by his new tour companion and former Dresden Dolls singer Amanda Palmer.
In an interview with Spanish magazine El Pais (and translated by NME), Morrissey said: “I recently contacted some labels and all have rejected me. Pop music lives in the era of marketing which just leads to people with very low levels of competition, it is much easier to get rid of them once six months of fame have evaporated.”
It’s not difficult to see why Morrissey would be against the idea of crowdfunding. A relatively new concept, famous musicians and other assorted creative types who have used it have been accused of asking their fans to open up their wallets when they could quite easily do so themselves. However, perhaps Morrissey shouldn’t so keenly dismiss the idea.
Morrissey spoke out against Harvest Records insistence on his last album ‘World Peace is None of Your Business’ being promoted using spoken word videos.
In many instances, crowdfunding has proven to be an excellent way of getting your material out there without having to deal with the mess of business execs interrupting the creative process. Considering he criticised Harvest Records’ alleged refusal to direct “proper” music videos for him, with the label instead insisting he produce spoken word pieces, the extra bit of cash he would inevitably drive in outside of funding the recording of the album could go into producing his own accompanying videos.
Morrissey stated in the interview that his income is now generated through live performances, saying: “[Touring is] the only option left for me but fortunately it’s very good and exciting.
“The only unpleasant part of this is that, whenever a concert is cancelled the story captures attention, but if the concert takes place it will hardly be mentioned. Many people enjoy writing negative things about me. Which is fine with me. Let them, if it makes them happy.”
While a crowdfunding campaign could quickly put an end to that and rectify a number of problems Morrissey experienced with his times spent attached to a record label, it’s good to see an artist in this day and age, where the act of creating and selling music is far less lucrative than it used to be, putting their fans before their finances, even if their reasoning for doing so is a little misinformed.
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