Status Updates From How Artists Make Money and ...

'It's just that starting a journey requires big speeches and fresh resolve, whereas continuing one really just requires you to not give up, which in my experience has to do with not giving a lot of space or time to the reasons to give up.'

'Is my complete inability to support myself through standard capitalist means definitive proof of my unworthiness as an artist?'

'Whether you have too much of it or too little--there doesn't really seem to be a right amount--there is a pervasive hint in our culture that you should shut up about [money], downplay it, maybe outright lie about it, but anyway, certainly not open up your soul or your wallet and lay bare what exactly it means to you.'

Bomb the Music Industry! collective band transformed into by-donation record label, Quote Unquote Records
you couldn't purchase physical copies of their music, but if you brought a CD to their show they would burn their albums onto it!!!
sick

'One of the constants of the evolution of art is that people will end up where the money is.'

interesting discussion about youtube & 'creators'
less than 9% of YT accounts make $50 a month
here and in other similar realms (patreon, etc), it's an exponentially widening gap of disparity :/
and internet problem is that you're competing for an algorithm, not necessarily about making the best art. sigh.

'...implied, indirect competition remains at the root of nearly all of our artistic, literary, and performing prizes.'

modern tendencies can be traced back to the French Academy pre-&post revolution, especially in the Montyon Prizes, related to advancing the cause of humanity in general

judging all of this is so subjective and based on modern social tendencies...it's overall more so about marketing (of sponsor esp)

'For as long as we have had formalized arts, we have had competition around them.'

'There is absolutely no job that sustains artists like teaching.'

ai threatening the making of art, the art-adjacent side gigs that support artists, and ai-based algorithm determining what art to push/not

'Why should you make anything when this thing and that thing and this other thing are all expressing the same feeling? What is the point of words that seem lesser than the genius who inspired you to write them? And if your work cannot find its wider place, if it does seem unique in viewpoint or execution, does that mean that you're so far beyond the realm of sense or worth that no one else will ever...

has pretty much always been controversial to use your artistic skills for commercial use, also debate of art vs craft; and how being a critic is often a highly complimentary profession as an artist--i mean, who better to be qualified hm
'The earliest artist-critics we know about tend to come from outside Western traditions.'
Natyasastra piece; Xie Han painter, Abdallah ibn al-Mu'tazz prince & poet

philip glass worked as a taxi driver and plumber for the first 15 yrs of his career and literally continued for a while even after premiering his first opera einstein on the beach

most studies/data show that ~10-20% of artists are spending all of their time on their art/making full living off of their art, and performance-based artists are at the bottom of that 🙃

‘…we don’t need new technology to rip off artists (although it definitely helps).’

ppl above always trying to take advantage and exploit.
recording strike 1942-44. bc people not making money off recordings (talkies, now no more orchestra pit, for ex) wanted royalty structure. Columbia & RCA didn’t crack for 2 yrs bc of vocal recording loophole. singers not in unions. and so backing tracks by vocal groups and so singers used as scabs.
it’s rock that changed the game

‘The plight of musicians over the last century and a half is not much different than that of any worker thrown into an open market: the surplus of labor and concentration of capital will always make their position precarious and allow for exploitation.’

‘The market has always been set up to reward and increasingly small percentage of actual artists.’

regarding spotify CEO— ‘…you don’t make $345 million in one year by paying other people daily.’

sigh

while music industry shift. from live bands to restaurants to juke boxes and record players but the albums were making artists significant enough money, touring was just publicity. now no album sales bc streaming. worse and worse deals. always higher ups controlling. monopolies on touring venues using certain ticket platforms etc etc

discussion on canada art scene and how had to be purposefully funded bc most ppl avoided canadian labeled art within the country. wanted different HEATED RIVALRY WILL CHANGE THIS bahahaha

‘Indigenous arts get to be arts because they have now been deemed to fit within the identity Canada wants to project.’

most govts will maintain most of what was established before them. most museums and national support for arts were just for archiving and nation/culture building as the admin saw fit. museums not living spaces; competing against dead canon artists is hardly a far fight. served the nation not artists.
same w new deal, CEMA. about mythmaking, about cultural supremacy, about not letting certain people in the canon

‘there’s no better way to secure your legacy than to pay an artist to help
make it for you.’

Cennino Cennini treatise on painting 1400s. notion of artist as noble and deserving recognition, helped both sides cause patron was seeing as someone w ability to recognize this talent. two people honoring each other and validating their standing
patronage started to dwindle during enlightenment and w end of feudal system bc shared wealth so indvids had less to splurge
hosting salons&connecting people became new way