I had no idea how passionate responses would be to Thursday’s post. There was a lot of loyalty and support that I was amazed by and truly appreciate. Thank you.
Among the messages of encouragement was one email that was unsigned. It said, simply, “Sorry about your troubles, E.J. But you should be glad that people love Mardi Gras enough to want to buy any card they can. Maybe you’ll appreciate your success more if you don’t make any money off it.”
Is this the “music should be free” argument? The “artists need to create for the people” position? I hear this a lot whenever I have a group of my peers (twentysomethings) over for a movie or a game. But here’s the problem: Who then supports the artists? How are their basic needs (food, home, etc) met? Or is the argument that artists (like athletes) are paid to much? $200 concert tickets. Million dollar advances.
Those numbers do seem big. Disproportionate to the work maybe. But here’s the rub: A musician tends not to have a career as long as your average Joe engineer or even school teacher (oh, there’s another blog right there). Public interests are changeable and fickle. The majority of musicians don’t have careers as long as, say, Madonna or Sting. The same is true for athletes but now we’re talking about physical burn out – injury, etc.
Now what about painters? This is a career path I know a little bit about. When was the last time you went to a gallery show? Did you see the prices? Four and five digits before the decimal, right? Why? Well, the two NYC galleries that did my only two shows took 65% of my asking price. Not quite as much coming to the painter, after all. Plus, canvas, paints, brushes (which I burn through), fix, etc. Oh, then there’s rent, food, and heat.
So let’s play. Now you say, “Too bad, so sad, E.J. Get a real job, baby! Go flip burgers to pay the rent, punk. Your art – your paintings, your game – should be free to the people. You capitalist pig. Get real. Where do you think the phrase ‘starving artist’ comes from?!”
That’s totally fair. It isn’t correct but it’s fair. I know very, very few artists who don’t have a “straight job” that they work 9 to 5. They do flip burgers or deliver packages or work construction. Some of them even have families. So they pay the bills. They don’t have a savings account. They’re thrifting it for school clothes and supplies. They’re strapped. Car breaks down? Rent goes up? Too bad. Living hand to mouth doesn’t really encourage creativity though. It doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for anything, actually.
So, just a little gentle request. The next time you lend that new novel to all twelve of your friends that are die-hard fans of the series, maybe encourage them to go buy a copy – even used at half.com or where ever, because someone, at one time, at least paid for those used copies. And as for downloading music via P2P... well, I don’t want to tell my “prime demo” to give a flying fig, but, you know, think about it, okay? Just make sure you aren’t downloading as opposed to buying used or on sale just because downloading is so much easier. Yeah, easier is always cheaper. But it’s not right.
E.J.
