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Artists have been poor forever. There's a reason the expression is "starving artist" and not "well-fed artist." It's also easier than ever now for an independe
by mjr00 4y ago
Artists have been poor forever. There's a reason the expression is "starving artist" and not "well-fed artist."
It's also easier than ever now for an independent artist to make money. Patreon, Fanbox, Skeb have vastly simplified the logistics of getting money for your work. Promotion through social media is free, though time-consuming.
The problem is the same as it always was: artists want to focus on creating art, and not running a business. If I told you I was going to make a software company, with the expectation of a livable salary, but spend $0 on sales, marketing, or customer support, you'd call me an idiot, because there's a lot more to a software business than churning out code. Similarly, there's a lot more to making a living as an artist than drawing pictures or creating music.
Ironically, NFTs were most successful with people who already understood all this. Unscrupulous people like Steve Aoki aggressively marketed their own NFTs using their existing brand power and made a hefty sum, while your dime-a-dozen 10k Twitter follower artist got nothing.
- grugagag 4y agoIn an ideal world you’d do what you are best at. If that was churning useful code then be it. If that was selling that code without needing to churn code yourself then be it. It’s unfortunate we can’t collaborate with eachother without stealing eachother’s livelyhood.
- mjr00 4y agoAren't you just describing a business? Maybe even a startup specifically, with a CTO who's great at building things and a CEO who's great at selling them? I don't really see how that's stealing each other's livelihood; neither of those people can be successful without the other.
- flockonus 4y ago> while your dime-a-dozen 10k Twitter follower artist got nothing Very condescending and, at the same time, not true at all. Many existing artists did much better in revenue than ever in the way of getting paid for their craft during the rise of NFTs, there were many spaces where artists would brag about their success and help onboard others into the space, often paying their transaction fees. For many of the small audience artists it's very sad the momentum faded, and the spring of generative AI doesn't help them either.