The art of asking | Amanda Palmer

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast

Translator: Amets Jordan Arrieta Reviewer: Jone Aliri Lazcano

(Breathes in)

(Arnasa hartu eta botatzen du)

(Breathes out)

Ez dut beti bizitzeko dirua musikari esker lortu.

So, I didn't always make my living from music.

Bost urtez, punta-puntako Arte Unibertsitate batean

For about the five years after graduating

graduatu ondoren,

from an upstanding liberal arts university,

this was my day job.

hau zen nire eguneroko lana:

(Laughter)

I was a self-employed living statue called the Eight-Foot Bride,

"2,5 metroko ezkongaia" izeneko estatua biziduna nintzen,

and I love telling people I did this for a job,

eta mundu guztiari esaten nion hau zela nire lana,

because everybody always wants to know,

mundu guztiak nahi duelako jakin

who are these freaks in real life.

nortzuk diren "freaky" hauek eguneroko bizitzan.

(Laughter)

Hello.

Kaixo.

I painted myself white one day, stood on a box,

Nire burua zuriz margotu nuen behin, kaxa baten gainean jarri,

put a hat or a can at my feet,

txano edo lata bat jarri nire oinen parean,

and when someone came by and dropped in money,

eta norbaitek txanpon bat botatzen zidanean,

lore bat ematen nion, baita begirada bizi bat.

I handed them a flower --

and some intense eye contact.

Eta ez bazuen lorea hartzen,

And if they didn't take the flower,

I threw in a gesture of sadness and longing --

tristurazko keinu bat itzuli ohi nion

joaten zen bitartean.

as they walked away.

(barreak)

(Laughter)

So I had the most profound encounters with people,

Esan daiteke topaketa sakonak izan ohi nituela jendearekin,

especially lonely people

batez ere, pertsona bakartiekin,

who looked like they hadn't talked to anyone in weeks,

inorrekin asteetan hitz egin ez zutela zirudienak

and we would get this beautiful moment of prolonged eye contact

eta momentu berezi bat izan ohi genuen

begirada truke bizi bat, hiri kale batean,

being allowed in a city street,

and we would sort of fall in love a little bit.

eta elkarrekiko maitasun apur bat sentitu ohi genuen.

And my eyes would say --

Nire begiek esan ohi zuten, "Mila esker. Ikusi zaitut"

"Thank you.

I see you."

And their eyes would say --

Eta beren begiek zioten,

"Inork ez nau inoiz ikusten. Mila esker"

"Nobody ever sees me.

Thank you."

Batzuetan gogaitu egin ohi ninduten.

I would get harassed sometimes.

People would yell at me from their cars.

Kotxeetan zebilen jendeak oihu egiten zidan:

"Get a job!"

"Lortu lanen bat!"

(Laughing) And I'd be, like,

Eta nik pentsatzen nuen: "hau da nire lana"

"This is my job."

But it hurt, because it made me fear

Baina, min egiten zidan, beldurra ematen zidalako pentsatzeak

that I was somehow doing something un-joblike

lan izena merezi ez zuen zerbait egiten ari nintzela

zerbait ez bidezkoa, lotsagarria.

and unfair, shameful.

I had no idea how perfect a real education I was getting

Ez nekien zeinen hezkuntza ona eskuratzen ari nintzen

for the music business on this box.

musika industriarako, kaxa honen gainean.

And for the economists out there,

Eta entzuten dauden ekonomialarientzat,

you may be interested to know I actually made a pretty predictable income,

agian interesaturik zaudete jakiten diru sarrera erregular bat nuela,

which was shocking to me, given I had no regular customers,

eta harrigarria zen niretzat,

bezero ezberdinak nituelako beti.

but pretty much 60 bucks on a Tuesday, 90 bucks on a Friday.

60 bat dolar asteartero, 90 bat dolar ostiralero lortu ohi nuen.

It was consistent.

Egonkorra zen.

And meanwhile, I was touring locally and playing in nightclubs

Eta bitartean, musika bira bat ematen nenbilen inguruan

tabernatan jotzen gauetan, "Dresden Dolls" izeneko nire taldearekin

with my band, the Dresden Dolls.

Hau ni naiz pianoa jotzen, hau bateria jole aparta

This was me on piano, a genius drummer.

I wrote the songs, and eventually

Nik idazten nituen kantak, eta denborarekin

we started making enough money that I could quit being a statue,

nahikoa diru irabazten hasi ginen, beraz nik estatua lana uztea erabaki nuen,

and as we started touring,

Baina, musika bira hasten ari ginela

Ez nuen jendearekiko konexio zuzena galdu nahi,

I really didn't want to lose this sense

asko gustatzen zitzaidalako.

of direct connection with people, because I loved it.

So after all of our shows, we would sign autographs

Beraz, gure ikuskizunen ondoren, autografoak sinatu ohi genituen

zaleak besarkatu, jendearekin hitz egin eta denbora pasa,

and hug fans and hang out and talk to people,

and we made an art out of asking people to help us and join us,

Arte bat sortu genuen: jendeari laguntza eskatzearena eta gurekin batzea proposatzearena.

Tokian tokiko musikalariak bilatu ohi nituen

and I would track down local musicians and artists

eta gure ikuskizunen aurretik jo ohi zuten,

and they would set up outside of our shows,

and they would pass the hat,

txapela pasa,

and then they would come in and join us onstage,

eta ondoren etorri eta gurekin batu ohi ziren eszenatokian.

Beraz, zirkuko artista arraro eta kasualen bisitak izan ohi genituen.

so we had this rotating smorgasbord of weird, random circus guests.

And then Twitter came along,

Gero, Twitter azaldu zen,

and made things even more magic,

eta gauzak are magikoago egin zituen, instantean eskatu nezakeelako

because I could ask instantly for anything anywhere.

nahi nuena, nonahi.

So I would need a piano to practice on,

Piano bat beharrez gero praktikatzeko,

and an hour later I would be at a fan's house.

ordubete beranduago zale baten etxean nengoen. Hau Londonen da.

This is in London.

Mundu guztitik, jendeak etxean egindako janaria bidaltzen zigun

People would bring home-cooked food to us

all over the world backstage and feed us and eat with us.

eta elikatu egiten gintuzten, baita gurekin jan ere. Hau Seattlen da.

This is in Seattle.

Museo eta dendetan, nahiz edozein espazio publikotan

Fans who worked in museums and stores

and any kind of public space would wave their hands

lan egiten zuten zaleek, beren besoak astindu ohi zituzten

doako kontzertu espontaneoren bat egitea erabakitzen banuen.

if I would decide to do a last-minute, spontaneous, free gig.

This is a library in Auckland.

Hau Aucklandeko liburutegi bat da.

On Saturday I tweeted for this crate and hat,

Larunbatean, txano eta kaxa hauengatik tuiteatu nuen

because I did not want to schlep them from the East Coast,

ez nituelako Ekialdeko Kostatik ekarri nahi

eta tipo honen interesa azaldu zuten, Chris

and they showed up care of this dude, Chris, from Newport Beach,

Newport Beachetik, "Kaixo" dio.

who says hello.

I once tweeted, "Where in Melbourne can I buy a neti pot?"

Behin tuiteatu nuen: "non erosi dezaket Melbournen sudurra garbitzeko pitxer bat?"

And a nurse from a hospital drove one

Eta ospitale bateko erizain batek bat ekarri zidan

right at that moment to the cafe I was in,

momentuan aurkitzen nintzen kafetegira.

and I bought her a smoothie

Edari bat erosi nion

and we sat there talking about nursing and death.

eta bertan egon ginen erizaintza eta heriotzaren inguruan hitz egiten.

And I love this kind of random closeness,

Ikaragarri gustoko dut zorizko gertutasun hau,

which is lucky, because I do a lot of couchsurfing.

eta zortea da, sofan nabigatzea gustatzen zaidalako.

Etxetzar batean taldekideko bakoitzak gela bat badugu,

In mansions where everyone in my crew gets their own room

but there's no wireless,

baina ez badago WiFi-rik, nahiago dut okupatutako punk etxe bat,

and in punk squats,

denak lurrean eta komunik gabe egonda ere,

everyone on the floor in one room with no toilets

but with wireless, clearly making it the better option.

WiFi-a baldin badugu.

(Laughter)

(Barreak)

Behin, nire taldeak gure furgoneta

My crew once pulled our van up to a really poor Miami neighborhood

Miamiko auzo oso pobre batera eraman zuen,

and we found out that our couchsurfing host for the night

eta internet bidez topatu genuen gau hartako gure ostalaria

18 urteko neska bat zela aurkitu genuen. Oraindik etxean bizi zela

was an 18-year-old girl, still living at home,

and her family were all undocumented immigrants from Honduras.

eta bere familiakoak Hondurasko agiririk gabeko imigranteak zirela.

And that night, her whole family

Eta gau horretan, bere familiako guztiak

sofatan egin zuten lo, eta neskak bere amarekin

took the couches and she slept together with her mom

so that we could take their beds.

guk beren oheak erabili ahal izateko.

Han etzan nintzen, pentsatuz:

And I lay there thinking,

"pertsona hauek oso gutxi dute"

these people have so little.

Is this fair?

"hau justua al da?"

And in the morning,

Eta hurrengo goizean, bere amak

her mom taught us how to try to make tortillas

tortillak egiten erakutsi zigun, eta Biblia bat eman nahi zidan,

and wanted to give me a Bible,

and she took me aside and she said to me in her broken English,

eta taldetik baztertu eta bere ingeles traketsean esan zidan:

"Your music has helped my daughter so much.

"Zure musikak nire alaba izugarri lagundu du"

Thank you for staying here. We're all so grateful."

"Eskerrik asko hemen izateagatik. Oso eskerturik gaude."

And I thought, this is fair.

Eta pentsatu nuen: "hau justua da".

Hau, hau da.

This is this.

A couple of months later, I was in Manhattan,

Bi hilabete ondoren, Manhattanen nintzen,

and I tweeted for a crash pad, and at midnight,

koltxoi baten bila tuiteatu nuen, eta gauerdian,

I'm on the Lower East Side,

ate baten txirrina jo nuen "Lower East Side" auzoan

and it occurs to me I've never actually done this alone.

eta ohartu nintzen ez nuela behin ere horrelakorik egin bakarka.

I've always been with my band or my crew.

Beti egin izan nuen nire taldearekin edo lagunekin.

"Hau da jende tentelak egiten duena?" (Barreak)

Is this what stupid people do?

(Laughter)

Is this how stupid people die?

"Horrela hilko ote da jende tentela?"

And before I can change my mind, the door busts open.

Eta nire erabakia aldatzeko aukera izan baino lehen, atea irekitzen da.

Emakumea artista da. Gizona blogerra da, Reuters-entzat finantza bloggerra,

She's an artist.

He's a financial blogger for Reuters,

and they're pouring me a glass of red wine

ardo beltz baso bat eman zidaten,

and offering me a bath,

baita bainu bat eskaini ere.

and I have had thousands of nights like that and like that.

Eta horrelako eta bestelako gauak izan ditut.

Beraz, sofa nabigazio asko egiten dut, baita jende nabigazioa ere.

So I couchsurf a lot. I also crowdsurf a lot.

"Sofa nabigazioa" eta "jende nabigazioa"

I maintain couchsurfing and crowdsurfing

are basically the same thing.

oinarrian berdina direla uste dut.

You're falling into the audience

Jendartera jauzi egiten duzu

and you're trusting each other.

eta elkarrekin fidatu behar duzue.

I once asked an opening band of mine

Behin, gonbidatutako talde bati galdetu nion

if they wanted to go out into the crowd and pass the hat

ea ikusleen artean txapela pasa nahi zuten

to get some extra money, something that I did a lot.

diru extra bat lor zezaten, neronek askotan egin izan nuena.

Eta, beti gertatzen zen bezala, taldea irrikaturik zegoen.

And as usual, the band was psyched,

Baina, taldeko mutil batek esan zidan

but there was this one guy in the band

ezin zuela horrelakorik egin.

who told me he just couldn't bring himself to go out there.

It felt too much like begging to stand there with the hat.

Bere burua eskale bezala ikusiko zuela hori egitean.

Bere beldurrak zeintzuk ziren antzeman nuen: "hau justua da?" eta "Lortu lanen bat!".

And I recognized his fear

of "Is this fair?"

and "Get a job."

Bien bitartean, nire taldea gero eta handiago egiten ari zen.

And meanwhile, my band is becoming bigger and bigger.

We sign with a major label.

Diskoetxe handiago batekin sinatu genuen.

And our music is a cross between punk and cabaret.

Gure musika cabaret eta punk arteko nahasketa bat da.

It's not for everybody.

Ez da edonoren gustukoa.

Well, maybe it's for you.

Beno, agian zure gustukoa bada.

(Laughter)

Sinatu genuen, eta arreta handia zegoen gure hurrengo diskaren inguruan.

We sign, and there's all this hype leading up to our next record.

And it comes out and it sells about 25,000 copies

Kaleratzean, 25.000 kopia inguru saldu ziren lehen asteetan

in the first few weeks,

and the label considers this a failure.

eta diskoetxeak porrota zela kontsideratu zuen.

I was like, "25,000, isn't that a lot?"

Nik pentsatu nuen "25.000 ez al da zifra handia?"

They said, "No, the sales are going down.

Haiek zioten: "Ez, salmentak behera doaz. Porrota da."

It's a failure."

And they walk off.

Eta joan egin ziren.

Right at this same time, I'm signing and hugging after a gig,

Garai honetan, kontzertu batean kantatzen eta besarkadak ematen nenbilela,

tipo bat hurbildu zen niregana

and a guy comes up to me

and hands me a $10 bill,

eta 10 dolarreko billetea luzatu zidan.

and he says,

Zera esan zidan:

"I'm sorry, I burned your CD from a friend."

"Barkatu, zure CDa lagun bati kopiatu nion."

(Laughter)

(Barreak)

"Baina zure bloga irakurtzen dut eta badakit zure diskoetxea gorroto duzula."

"But I read your blog, I know you hate your label.

I just want you to have this money."

"Diru hau har dezazun nahi dut, besterik ez."

And this starts happening all the time.

Eta hau ikuskizun guztietan gertatzen hasiko da.

I become the hat after my own gigs,

Nire kontzertuen ondorengo txapela bihurtzen naiz,

but I have to physically stand there and take the help from people,

fisikoki egon behar naiz bertan eta laguntza jendeari eskatu,

and unlike the guy in the opening band,

eta, gonbidatu genuen taldeko mutilak ez bezala,

I've actually had a lot of practice standing there.

nik praktika handia nuen hori egiten.

Eskerrik asko.

Thank you.

And this is the moment I decide

Eta momentu horretan erabaki nuen

I'm just going to give away my music for free

nire musika dohainik emango nuela sarean

online whenever possible,

ahal bezain laster,

so it's like Metallica over here, Napster, bad;

beraz, horrela da: Metallica hemen, Napster, txarra;

Amanda Palmer over here,

Amanda Palmer hemen. Eta jendea animatuko dut

and I'm going to encourage torrenting, downloading, sharing,

torrent erabiltzera, deskargatzera, partekatzera... baina aldi berean laguntza eskatuko dut,

but I'm going to ask for help,

because I saw it work on the street.

kalean horrek funtzionatzen zuela ikusi bainuen.

So I fought my way off my label, and for my next project

Diskoetxetik joatea erabaki nuen nire hurrengo proiekturako

with my new band, the Grand Theft Orchestra,

nire talde berriarekin, "the Grand Theft Orchestra",

I turned to crowdfunding.

Crowdfunding-a erabili nuen

And I fell into those thousands of connections that I'd made,

eta jauzi egin nuen interneteko milaka konexio horietara,

and I asked my crowd to catch me.

eta nire jendeari ni heltzeko eskatu nion.

Helburua 100.000 dolar lortzea zen.

And the goal was 100,000 dollars.

My fans backed me at nearly 1.2 million,

Nire zaleek ia 1,2 milioi batu zituzten,

which was the biggest music crowdfunding project to date.

gaur arte izan den musikako crowfunding proiektu handiena.

(Applause)

(Txaloak)

And you can see how many people it is.

Eta ikus dezakezue zenbat jende izan zen.

25.000 pertsona eskas.

It's about 25,000 people.

And the media asked,

Eta komunikabideek galdetu zidaten: "Amanda,

"Amanda, the music business is tanking and you encourage piracy.

musika industria hondoratzen ari da eta zuk pirateria bultzatzen duzu.

How did you make all these people pay for music?"

Nola lortu duzu jende guzti honek musikagatik ordaintzea?"

And the real answer is, I didn't make them.

Eta erantzun zintzoena da, nik ez niela ordaindu arazi. Eskatu egin nien.

I asked them.

And through the very act of asking people,

Eta jendeari eskatzearen ekintza hutsetik,

konexio bat sortzen nuen haiekin,

I'd connected with them,

and when you connect with them, people want to help you.

eta konekatzen duzunean, jendeak lagundu nahi zaitu.

It's kind of counterintuitive for a lot of artists.

Intuizioaren aurkakoa da artista askorentzat.

Ez dute gauzarik eskatu nahi.

They don't want to ask for things.

But it's not easy.

Ez da erraza. Ez da erraza eskatzea.

It's not easy to ask.

And a lot of artists have a problem with this.

Eta artista askok dute arazo bat horrekin.

Asking makes you vulnerable.

Eskatzeak kaltebera (vulnerable) uzten zaituelako.

And I got a lot of criticism online,

Eta kritika asko jaso nuen sarean

after my Kickstarter went big,

behin nire Kickstarterra handi egin zenean

for continuing my crazy crowdsourcing practices,

jendeari sarean laguntza eskatzen jarraitzeagatik,

batez ere gure zale diren musikariei eskatzeagatik

specifically for asking musicians

who are fans if they wanted to join us on stage

gurekin eszenatokian batzeko, kanta batzuk jotzeko

for a few songs in exchange for love and tickets and beer,

maitasunaren, sarreren eta zerbezaren truke.

hau photoshop bidez eginiko argazki bat da

and this was a doctored image that went up of me on a website.

nire inguruan igo zuten web orri batean.

And this hurt in a really familiar way.

Eta min egin zidan oso modu familiar batean.

And people saying,

Jendeak zioenean "ez daukazu eskubiderik jada

"You're not allowed anymore to ask for that kind of help,"

horrelako laguntza eskatzeko"

really reminded me of the people in their cars yelling, "Get a job."

beren kotxeetatik "Lortu lanen bat!" oihu egiten zuten pertsonen antza hartzen nien

Ez zeudelako gurekin espaloian,

Because they weren't with us on the sidewalk,

eta ezin zuten ikusi

and they couldn't see the exchange

that was happening between me and my crowd,

nire eta nire jendearen artean ematen zen trukea,

an exchange that was very fair to us but alien to them.

oso truke justua guretzat, baina arrotza haientzat.

So this is slightly not safe for work.

Hau ez da lanean egiteko oso segurua.

Hau nire Kickstarter laguntza festa da, Berlinen.

This is my Kickstarter backer party in Berlin.

At the end of the night, I stripped and let everyone draw on me.

Gau amaieran, biluztu egin nintzen eta mundu guztiak nire gorputzean margo zezan utzi nuen

Now let me tell you, if you want to experience

Esan behar dizuet, benetan bizi nahi baduzue

the visceral feeling of trusting strangers --

jende ezezagunaz fidatzeko sentimentu bizia,

(Laughter)

hau gomendatzen dizuet,

I recommend this,

especially if those strangers are drunk German people.

batez ere ezezagun horiek alemaniar mozkor batzuk badira.

(Laughter)

Hau ninja goi-mailako fan konexio bat izan zen,

This was a ninja master-level fan connection,

hemen esaten nuena zera baitzen:

because what I was really saying here was,

I trust you this much.

"Maila honetaraino fidatzen naiz zuetaz"

Should I?

"Fidatu behar nuke? Froga iezadazue"

Show me.

For most of human history,

Giza historian zehar,

musicians, artists, they've been part of the community.

musikalariak, artistak, komunitatearen parte izan dira,

Connectors and openers, not untouchable stars.

elkartu eta zabaldu edo ireki egiten zutenak, ez izar ukiezinak.

Celebrity is about a lot of people loving you from a distance,

Ospea, jende askok distantziatik maitatzen zaituela esan nahi du

but the Internet

baina internetek

and the content that we're freely able to share on it

eta bertan partekatu ditzakegun edukiek

are taking us back.

lehengora eramaten ari gaituzte.

It's about a few people loving you up close

Jende gutxi batek zu hurbiletik maitatzea,

and about those people being enough.

eta jende hori nahikoa izatea.

So a lot of people are confused by the idea

Jende asko galdu egiten da

of no hard sticker price.

prezio finkorik gabeko ideiarekin.

They see it as an unpredictable risk, but the things I've done,

Arrisku aurreikusezin bat bezala ikusten dute, baina nik egin ditudan gauzek,

the Kickstarter, the street, the doorbell,

Kickstarter-a, kalea, etxeetako tinbreak,

I don't see these things as risk.

ez ditut horiek arrisku bezala ikusten.

I see them as trust.

Konfidantza bezala ikusten ditut.

Now, the online tools

Orain, sareko tresnek egiten dute trukea

to make the exchange as easy and as instinctive as the street,

kalea bezain erraza eta instintiboa,

horra iristen ari dira

they're getting there.

But the perfect tools aren't going to help us

Baina tresna perfektuek ez gaituzte lagunduko

if we can't face each other

ezin bagara elkarren aurrean jarri

and give and receive fearlessly,

eta beldurrik gabe eman eta jaso,

but, more important --

eta, are gehiago,

to ask without shame.

lotsarik gabe eskatu.

My music career has been spent

Nire musika karrera igaro dut

trying to encounter people on the Internet the way I could on the box.

interneten jendearekin aurkitzen saiatzen

kutxa gainean egiten nuen bezala,

So blogging and tweeting not just about my tour dates

hau da, bloga eta twitterra ez erabiltzen bakarrik biraren datak plazaratzeko

and my new video but about our work and our art

edo nire bideo berriaren inguruan hitz egiteko; baizik, gure lana eta artea

and our fears and our hangovers,

gure beldur eta ajeak, gure akatsak... trukatzeko,

our mistakes,

and we see each other.

eta nortzuk garen ikusten dugu.

eta, uste dut, benetan elkarri begiratzen diogunean

And I think when we really see each other,

we want to help each other.

elkarri lagundu nahi diogula.

Uste dut jendea obsesionaturik dabilela galdera okerrarekin:

I think people have been obsessed with the wrong question,

which is, "How do we make people pay for music?"

"Nola EGINGO dugu jendeak musikagatik ordain dezan?"

Zergatik ez dugu galdetzen:

What if we started asking,

"How do we let people pay for music?"

"Nola UTZI jendeari musikagatik ordaintzen?"

Eskerrik asko.

Thank you.

(Applause)

(txaloak)