Mick P. said:
When we are talking about art, the art supplies are paid for, if they are not free: there are so man free digital alternatives nowadays.
LOL. And there it is. Kiddo, maybe you can get away with using freeware and synthesized instruments when making some cool beats to post on Facebook or YouTube, but professional musicians still use real instruments and sound studios just like everyone else. Everything from bands to solo artists use real instruments. They may in some cases use pre-packaged instrument software, but they still know to use the real thing, just as the person who knows how to use a digital drawing tablet knows how to draw on paper. Maybe you can get away with the pre-packaged instruments in Audacity and Garage Band, but
professional musicians still make and mix their music just like they always have. With real instruments, recording studios, and PROFESSIONAL grade mixing equipment.
And by the way, no, that isn't "free." Your entitlement is showing again here. Computers cost money. Keyboard attachments cost money. Digital drawing tablets cost A LOT OF money. Software to create and mix costs money. And no, you can't just pirate that either. When you're a professional you need to own those programs. Pirating the Adobe suite to make pretty DeviantArt pictures may be okay in your book, but if you're going to be making music for clients then that shit better be legit, or else nobody will touch you or your work again because you're profiting from stolen goods. To the law, it's no different from building a house with a stolen hammer.
As for the rest, I don't know where you ever got the idea I was saying artists deserve to get paid for "creating." If you go to a gallery, you should pay. If you like a sample of a song on Bandcamp, you should pay to buy it for yourself. But if somebody makes an oil painting and then never sells it, then no, they don't deserve money. I'm talking about a simple exchange of money for goods and services. Whether the good or service is a song or time in a gallery, money should be exchanged.
This will be my last post to you on this subject, since you seem to be determined to proceed with your current ideas even though you really have no idea what you're talking about. Here's the thing: You may not think that art is a business, but it is. You can go on your merry way thinking that the only "real artists" are the one with the disposable income to spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours without asking for payment, and just throw out their work from the rooftops or something, but in the meantime there are more than a dozen galleries in my city who are hosting hundreds of artists on a regular basis. These galleries charge a small fee to come in, and then viewers are given opportunities to make extra donations directly to the artists themselves.
And at the same time, there are tens of thousands of professional artists around the work, making art and selling them in various situation. There are people in DeviantArt who charge money to give people high-res copies and prints of their works. There are hundreds of artists on web sites like Bandcamp.com who publish them and their bands works online, asking for a minimum donation to download. There are painters and sketch artists working on commission, charging per-hour for however long it takes to complete the work plus the cost of supplies[footnote]Which is the universally accepted method of charging for professional commission work.[/footnote] There are architects designing buildings, there are graphic designers laying out magazines, there are craftsmen making fine furniture and vases and houses and barns. There are bands going on tours and doing gigs in random pubs and bars. There are comic-book artists drawing, writing, laying out, inking, and printing. There are novelists writing books and short stories and either seeking major publishers, or self-publishing on Amazon and the iBookstore. There are potters throwing clay on the wheel, jewelers cutting diamonds, and metallurgists pounding out everything from letter openers to fine copper bowls. And then there are the thousands upon thousands of people peddling their trinkets on streets and at random craft festivals.
While you're stuck in your head thinking that art is all fluffy and thrives on disposable income, the rest of the world will be participating in the multi-billion dollar industry that is the exchange of money for creative and created goods. You can join, if you like.
