In some cases I've offered to pay with the same outcome. Sometimes the offer to pay came after the initial email, other times it was in the form of cryptocurren

In some cases I've offered to pay with the same outcome. Sometimes the offer to pay came after the initial email, other times it was in the form of cryptocurrency and others, I'm pretty sure, it was offered initially but, regardless, all of these cases might have had the framing of the offer poison the interaction from the outset. My next experiment is to frame it in terms of a purely business transaction with the condition that the work released under a libre/free license, making sure not to use any of the passive language I've used before, etc. The issue is always understanding what a fair price is and, for my own personal standards, make sure the artist understands what kind of terms they're agreeing to (the equivalent of "informed consent").