I recently became part of another very interesting online artist community. There was a thread of discussion where my fellow artists were basically saying their souls are not for sale. They started talking about the evils of commercials and selling ads and having their art used to sell cars – one posted that people would sell ad space on their forehead.
I am an artist who needs money to survive, live my life, and continue to create more music. I do what I love, but am dependent on the few outlets available to me to bring in enough money to keep a roof over my head, food on the table and allow me to spend time developing and growing as an artist. On the web, these are our options:
– sell access to the content (recording – people pay for the download or viewing)
– merch, where I sell my fan base memorabilia of shows, items with logos, pictures, etc
– ads, I generate traffic (eyeballs) and someone pays to have their ads shown to those eyeballs
– license my music to someone who pays to use my work as part of their work (e.g. video games, movies, tv shows etc). The latter 2 seem to strike an unpleasant chord with some of my new friends and also posters here. I don’t write my music to sell cars or promote sports events. I HAVE submitted some of my work for licensing opportunities and of course post my work on sites that make money from ads. I also don’t disregard artists who are able to write jingles, tv theme songs, or other commercial uses. Some of these folks are extremely talented and their work is no less important or impactful than my friend’s who is touring Eastern Europe writing traditional composition, improvisations and teaching modern techniques to classical music enthusiasts.
I empathize with those who struggle for purity in their art and disdain commercial pressures and cultural ideas of success. I admire you if you’re able to create in a way that is not influenced by such energy. Me, I just cut out a solo and shortened an interlude to get my recent recording down to under 5 minutes so I can promote on more popular outlets and have a better chance for radio play. I hope I haven’t disappointed you, but I won’t apologize. And I do wish you the best. Be well.
Ciao’
Bill C
