FUSE TV - Amanda Palmer Wants to Help Morrissey Crowdsource His Next Album

Plenty of musicians have a larger online audience than Amanda Palmer, but no other artist has successfully catapulted their career to financial independence using solely the Internet.

Now the Internet's divisive Kickstarter guru is turning her attention to Morrissey in an open letter on Salon addressed to the Smiths legend. She wants the indie icon to follow in her footsteps—she used crowdsourcing to raise $1 million for her last album—and turn to the Internet to fund his next album. 

In a recent interview Moz claimed he has enough songs to "record three studio albums immediately" but cannot do so since "none of the majors are interested." But Palmer points out that his fans are devoted enough that he needn't feel constrained to record and release only when the labels approve.

While Palmer haters are already jumping on her with a dozen trivial complaints (just check out the comments section on Salon.com), let's just acknowledge how much what she's saying makes sense. If he legitimately has three albums worth of material major labels won't release or promote, there's no reason not to turn it over to his scores of fans in the digital age. Even if he doesn't record any of the "modern silly electronic beats that everything has now" (that's why he thinks the labels aren't interested in him any more), he's a beloved and famous enough figure that crowdsourcing would work for him in a flash.

Then why is Palmer even getting involved in this, you ask? Well, for good reason: Morrissey isn't the most technology savvy dude. His verified Twitter hasn't peeped since 2009 and he doesn't even like cell phones. He could probably use a little Internet direction from someone who's gamed it to the tune of $1 million despite being nowhere near as famous as him.

So let's hope Moz eschews his tendency to dismiss all things modern and takes her up on this.