It’s so frustrating how Max has continuously taken advantage of his fan base and it seems like this was the first instance I really noticed a lot of backlash for it. But seriously, pay the artist. I don’t care if this is an opportunity a lot of them wouldn’t traditionally have- you’re profiting off of it, they should see money as well.
I paid 200 plus dollars for a personal phone call from Max along with a “limited print” from the new perma album designed by Sherri and Max on their kickstarter. I never received the print. I emailed them about it with no response. The phone call we had a date set up and he didn’t call me like he said he would. I had to reach out to people working for him to get a call. I have a say anything tattoo on my arm which I’m getting covered up in the near future. Max used to be my hero and favorite and he has broken my heart and made me see their whole family in a new light this past year. It’s hard for me to think about. Now this whole T-shirt thing and just profiting even more off your fanbase? It’s really sad.
I’m sure they pay plenty of artists who do their merchandise. This just seems like a harmless way to get fans involved, and to give out some tix??
It’s amazing how he’s managed to do something dumb that gets him dunked on pretty much once a month in the recent months. Funny how he thinks he can charge people for GarageBand demos, phone calls, and compilations of songs he made for other people (he can, no qualm with that), but isn’t interested in paying someone else for *their* art. He could have done exactly what he is doing and paid them their rate.
I may be biased because I am a photographer, but “work for exposure” is the biggest load of horseshit ever as far as creative work is concerned.
Wow this is a bummer to read and I can only imagine how infuriating it was to deal with this. I'm really done with Max, I wish he would go away.
Someone in the replies claims that max’s team sent out some emails about this and were told to get bent. I don’t know that I believe it, but if it is true I would LOVE to see those emails exposed.
To be clear I think his whole song shop/phone calls/shout out pay wall thing is realllll iffy, and shady. This though to me didn’t seem that harmful. Though now seeing how it could take advantage of the artist. Yeah it could be taken pretty poorly.
Yeah, somehow got dunked on worse than the transphobic fiasco. Between the “pay your artist” people, the “you haven’t delivered my song shop / Kickstarter” crowd, and the “you took 40k over the ask on Kickstarter” replies he really ought to just delete the tweet and his account I think besides the ridiculously unfair capitalist aspect of this (which is pushed on by a weird power dynamic), it is also a big deal because young creatives internalize this type of exchange. They begin to think that their work is not worth selling yet and that they must improve and keep giving out work until it is worth something. Plus it makes him a huge fucking hypocrite when it comes to the song shop and Kickstarter thing. When I interviewed him almost 10 years ago he was so emphatic about song shop being a way to empower him as an artist and give his art value. This goes directly against that.
I started being suspicious of some of the stuff Perma/Say Anything/Eisley did after Eisley tried to get fans to pay $100k for them to get a tour bus. Between the Song Shop scams, their home Kickstarter and this, they’re coming off off like that couple that always has a new grift.
I was going to go see the solo tour in October despite how much he has hurt me but reading all of these comments and seeing that I am not alone, I think it is time to just totally be done with Max and his family.