April 5, 2015

Paying creatives

Filed under: bloggery,things I read on the internet — Rhiannon Lassiter @ 8:00 pm

I read this story today about Garbage (the band) requesting the use of a photo in a planned book and while I’m not qualified to comment on the legal issues (the band say they already own the rights so asking is a courtesy), I’m not impressed with the overall assumption that creative artists should be willing to donate their work for free to a “for profit” venture, or that artists should be always willing to help another artist out. This is the same week in which Madonna, Jay-Z and various other artists launched Tidal, again with the idea that creative artists should want to pay over the odds for other people’s creative art out of a general spirit of support.

So here’s my manifesto, as a creative artist, as a consumer of media and as an employer (via my own employer) of interns and other staff.

  1. All creative artists should be paid for their work if that work is considered valuable.
  2. If you sell your work via a buy-out agreement and it subsequently makes millions for someone else then sue for royalties.
  3. Any creative artist ought to be free to use someone else’s work but if that derivative work goes on to make millions the original creator deserves a cut of those profits.
  4. Don’t hire anyone to do for free a service that is generally regarded as professional.
  5. If you’re trading favours, establish an hourly value of your work so you know what you’re trading.
  6. When considering an internship role, look for detailed training programme and a clear understanding of what skills you are expected to gain.
  7. Remember that other people don’t have your skills and price them accordingly.
  8. Also remember that people expect work available on the internet to be free
  9. Make it easy for people to pay you and provide free samples of your work
  10. If you are perceived as successful then people won’t see you as a needy cause, so don’t launch a kickstarter if you’re already seen as having made it.
  11. Return on investment is key to most projects – but you get to add a category for self growth

to be continued

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