I gotta admit, when you've been doing this a long time, going out to the audience and asking for them to help out with crowdfunding, it's a gut check. You never know how that's gonna turn out. Luckily for us, it turned out well.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Most of the big money people don't know what would interest an audience if you did it. They only know what interested the audience last time.
If it doesn't feel organic to the audience, you gotta trust your gut.
When you're holding people's attention, I feel you must give them high-quality ingredients. They deserve nothing but your best. And if they need information, get it, cross-check it, and try to be right. Do not waste their time; do not enjoy the ego trip of being onstage.
You always try to work for your audience, to entertain them, but that being said, obviously, within the studio system you feel the sense of responsibility to the bank.
Now in a way, money is money, and if it's going to increase our audience, that's fine.
Audiences are very willing to be taken somewhere, and to ask an audience beforehand what it wants is probably, I think, a mistake. Much better you should tell them what you want and hope they agree with it.
You've got to keep your finger on the pulse of what your audience is thinking, and know what they'll accept from you.
Crowdfunding as an idea itself isn't new - bands have been doing it since the dawn of time.
The good and wonderful thing about my whole career is that I've always felt that the audience, if I do it well, will track wherever I go, whether it's President or a lawyer or bad guy or good. All I have to do is execute the material enough where they buy into it. I've had the great luxury of the audiences accepting that.
I never think about the audience. If someone gives me a marketing report, I throw it away.