Bob Lefsetz published accusations about my integrity.
Bob Lefsetz, a music biz writer, recently published several of his readers’ emails insinuating that I was attempting to hide my affiliation with Patreon, and that my article on Pomplamoose’s tour budget was falsified. One of the emails even referred to a Pomplamoose “scandal.”
But Jack Conte is a cofounder of Patreon — and in fact — while he’s complaining about not making money on tour — his company Patreon has raised over 17 MILLION dollars from angel investors and other investors over the past year.
The email has lead to a series of angry social posts like this:
Some people even insinuated that I was lying about Pomplamoose’s numbers and had an ulterior motive:
Did they really take lights out with them….but no LD? Why didn’t they get a TM who also does FOH?!…
Way too many holes in the story.
Bob Lefsetz published those emails, too.
As for the preposterous accusation that I conceal my affiliation with Patreon, this is my original tweet about Pomplamoose’s tour budget. Notice the description in my Twitter profile:
Below is a music video I made. At the end I explain very clearly to my fans that I founded Patreon. It has over a million views:
This is a public video with 60k views of me telling the founding story of Patreon.
Here is a screen shot of a three-hour webcast that I did with my fans and the Patreon communities, announcing our $15 million round of financing. 29,000 people came to watch:
This is a vlog I made FOR MY PATRONS, explaining my balancing act of CEO and artist.
To say that I’m hiding my affiliation with Patreon or our fundraising is absolutely ridiculous.
The emails that Bob published also insinuated that I was not in fact living off of an artist income, but rather, I was living off the $15 million that Patreon raised in venture financing this year.
At the end of this music video I explain that I refused a salary as CEO in favor of making a living as a musician.
Here is an interview published in USA Today, in which I explain that I’m still not taking a salary as CEO even after our $15 million round in venture financing, but rather I’m living off of my income as an artist.
At the end of almost every video in my YouTube catalog since Patreon’s launch, I talk about my work at the company. I couldn’t possibly be any more open or public about my role as CEO at Patreon.
Bob, I don’t blame the person who wrote that email. They don’t know any better. But you do. Your “letter” has ventured into the realm of trolling. You are publishing unfounded and absurd statements. And I’m shocked that as a journalist, you knowingly disseminate false information.
I’ll be doing a public, live webcast to clear up any further questions. Come ask me anything you want. About Patreon, about our financing, about Pomplamoose’s tour budget, you name it.
Bob — I hope you join us for the webcast. I’ll add you as a webcaster so we can talk openly. If you actually have questions about my integrity, please ask me directly.
The webcast will be at 6pm, on December 1st, here:
http://www.spreecast.com/events/pomplamoose-tour-budget-discussion
There’s one rule for the webcast: if you disagree with anyone or any points made, then disagree respectfully. If you are being disrespectful or spammy, you get booted.
One lesson I learned with Pomplamoose is that there will always be haters. Part of achieving some level of success is learning to tune out the rage. My original post on Pomplamoose’s tour finances was read 150,000 times in the first two days:
With lots of exposure, there are bound to be some conspiracy theorists and haters.
Almost all of the comments, tweets, and emails I’ve received over the last few days have been incredibly appreciative and thankful.
So in conclusion: haters gonna hate hate hate… I’m just gonna shake shake shake…shake it off. Shake it off.
