What if other professions were paid like artists?
- Thread starter Traxan
- Start date
Dead Winter
STAHP
Artists are just that: artists. While they most often get the shaft, it's their own choice. You can't start regulating your hobby-turned-profession and demand that you get equal compensation as a surgeon or a lawyer. That's like me demanding to be paid for playing Eve Online or my PS3. If there is no one who buys my album (or at least not enough people to support my making music as a career) then tough titty for me. I can either write songs for pop radio or become another Alter Bridge or Shinedown or some other generic rock band on the radio these days if I want to make a career that's paid like a surgeon.
There's no one stopping artists from releasing their stuff independently, you just have to have enough capital to promote and distribute it, and that's where record labels come in. However, in this day and age, you pretty much just have to get a good group of musicians together, write a decent album, and spam Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, etc. if you want exposure. Many labels offer tours to those who have the most Likes on FB, I shit you not. You can cut a distribution deal on your own with a distributor and end up keeping a much bigger slice while doing the very same job a label would do promoting you, while you save thousands.
A lot of people here complain that venues don't wanna pay local bands. This is a problem with artists when venues don't wanna pay if you're local, but you know what? I've never seen a good band not get paid here. If you're playing in a pub or a club and you can bring a hundred people with you, you'll get paid. Most of these people complaining are in bands who either suck or write music no one's interested in or wants to hear.
I think artists should be compensated for their work if people want to patronize them, but it's not a right. That's why modern art is so fucking stupid: if anything can be art, then nothing can also be art...and it often is. Just go to MOMA and watch the pseudo-intellectual hipster dumbasses walk around in a circle, stroking their chins in deep thought over nothing. It's the biggest farce in the history of the art world. There still has to be a litmus test for good art in music, and the only way to do that is to pay the ones who make good art and critique those who don't.
There's no one stopping artists from releasing their stuff independently, you just have to have enough capital to promote and distribute it, and that's where record labels come in. However, in this day and age, you pretty much just have to get a good group of musicians together, write a decent album, and spam Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, etc. if you want exposure. Many labels offer tours to those who have the most Likes on FB, I shit you not. You can cut a distribution deal on your own with a distributor and end up keeping a much bigger slice while doing the very same job a label would do promoting you, while you save thousands.
A lot of people here complain that venues don't wanna pay local bands. This is a problem with artists when venues don't wanna pay if you're local, but you know what? I've never seen a good band not get paid here. If you're playing in a pub or a club and you can bring a hundred people with you, you'll get paid. Most of these people complaining are in bands who either suck or write music no one's interested in or wants to hear.
I think artists should be compensated for their work if people want to patronize them, but it's not a right. That's why modern art is so fucking stupid: if anything can be art, then nothing can also be art...and it often is. Just go to MOMA and watch the pseudo-intellectual hipster dumbasses walk around in a circle, stroking their chins in deep thought over nothing. It's the biggest farce in the history of the art world. There still has to be a litmus test for good art in music, and the only way to do that is to pay the ones who make good art and critique those who don't.
~Lynn~
Bah...
The Merrow/Loomis dealie will have a healthy contribution on the way. Honestly, I think it's a great thing they are doing to go about it in that manner.
MOMA, LOL. I like to plod through a GOOD art gallery every now and again. It turned into the Wal-mart gallery of wannabe's over a decade ago.
MOMA, LOL. I like to plod through a GOOD art gallery every now and again. It turned into the Wal-mart gallery of wannabe's over a decade ago.
Dead Winter
STAHP
WhiteBeastofWotan
Apostitutes!
I'm a big believer that one should never try to make a living on their art. The act itself is contrary to artistic freedom. Amirite?
Dead Winter
STAHP
Morbides
Member
- Dec 8, 2007
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True...for some people I suppose. I could never do it, although I've had a few successful attempts which could count as a "start".
I think it all depends on your own vision and goal regarding your talent. Some people succeed because they see themselves doing this, and I've heard the sentence "this is what I'm meant to do" many a time. I've met some very fulfilled people who make a living from their art (music in this case). But not everyone is an entertainer. Other people, although immensely talented, just want to use it as a recreational fountain I suppose, so I think that's why making their talent the breadwinner would kill it for them(the fun).
I think it all depends on your own vision and goal regarding your talent. Some people succeed because they see themselves doing this, and I've heard the sentence "this is what I'm meant to do" many a time. I've met some very fulfilled people who make a living from their art (music in this case). But not everyone is an entertainer. Other people, although immensely talented, just want to use it as a recreational fountain I suppose, so I think that's why making their talent the breadwinner would kill it for them(the fun).
