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The problem is, no one will pay $500 to "hang out and enjoy you play." I pay for several musicians on Patreon and even $5/month seems excessive to me, all the

by xrd 6y ago

The problem is, no one will pay $500 to "hang out and enjoy you play." I pay for several musicians on Patreon and even $5/month seems excessive to me, all the while I think this is just not a living for the musician when I see their subscriber count. And I'm probably one of the few that pays for this. It's a bad model even though I wish it wasn't. But, there are a few people who will pay $500 to that musician for a personalized message. The math is better with the latter. You just need a few people to do that to make a living. There is just not a way, despite Kevin Kelly's great article about 1000 fans, to make it work. I bet most artists would argue that money in their bank account is worth much more than "respecting agency." Musicians have to be feeling a lot of pain right now with live venues shuttered indefinitely.

pbhjpbhj 6y ago
Sure, people have to eat. But that's kinda a base thing to build a cultured society around. Can't we do better than that yet, what progress has humanity made? Agency is what artists need to perform their cultural function in society. Sure there are demands for music and images that don't care for the cultural role of art; but most artists seem to want at least some agency, though the need to do bread-and-butter work (baseline earnings) is something that hits early in any artists career.
vorpalhex 6y ago
So I'm actually in a place much like you where I contribute $5 or so to a few different artists or personalities who I engage with. However, I feel it's very worthwhile for me: + Most of them have some kind of discord or community where you can interact both with them and other fans, and contributing gets you special status or a special channel + Usually you get a few extra things that don't get released to other people, whether it's sitting in on a practice session or some media that didn't make the final cut Admittedly, I am still ultimately paying for some kind of attention, though hopefully it's agency respecting attention and not treating an artist like a vending machine. And yeah a bottom line matters, everyone has to eat to survive and pay their bills, but as long as you can do that most people will quickly choose a happier life over a more profitable one. Sure, you can do worse work and make more money (or the same money faster) but I don't think that's the tradeoff the majority want to make. One of the personalities I contribute to has changed their thing a few times. They abandoned ASMR and switched to just videogame streaming, and they were pretty honest that it was going to be a part time thing because it wasn't paying the bills fully. Yet, they still kept their community, they still have the same fan base. and at this rate I've probably followed them for 3 or 4 years. They've gained the freedom to do the things they find interesting, instead of the things that make the community happy.

by xrd 6y ago

pbhjpbhj 6y ago

Sure, people have to eat. But that's kinda a base thing to build a cultured society around. Can't we do better than that yet, what progress has humanity made? Agency is what artists need to perform their cultural function in society. Sure there are demands for music and images that don't care for the cultural role of art; but most artists seem to want at least some agency, though the need to do bread-and-butter work (baseline earnings) is something that hits early in any artists career.

vorpalhex 6y ago

So I'm actually in a place much like you where I contribute $5 or so to a few different artists or personalities who I engage with. However, I feel it's very worthwhile for me: + Most of them have some kind of discord or community where you can interact both with them and other fans, and contributing gets you special status or a special channel + Usually you get a few extra things that don't get released to other people, whether it's sitting in on a practice session or some media that didn't make the final cut Admittedly, I am still ultimately paying for some kind of attention, though hopefully it's agency respecting attention and not treating an artist like a vending machine. And yeah a bottom line matters, everyone has to eat to survive and pay their bills, but as long as you can do that most people will quickly choose a happier life over a more profitable one. Sure, you can do worse work and make more money (or the same money faster) but I don't think that's the tradeoff the majority want to make. One of the personalities I contribute to has changed their thing a few times. They abandoned ASMR and switched to just videogame streaming, and they were pretty honest that it was going to be a part time thing because it wasn't paying the bills fully. Yet, they still kept their community, they still have the same fan base. and at this rate I've probably followed them for 3 or 4 years. They've gained the freedom to do the things they find interesting, instead of the things that make the community happy.