A worker is compensated in two ways: They get paid money, and they get the joy and fulfillment from doing their jobs.
A lot of artists are passionate about art [citation needed]. So the average individual with enough skill to make a career in an artistic field, faced with a choice between art and some other career -- accounting, say -- will almost always choose art if the salaries are equal; the joy and fulfillment tips the scale. But the scales balance over time; if artists are paid as well as accountants, there will be too many artists for economic demand and not enough accountants.
The pay for artists will go down and the pay for accountants will go up, until the average artist's joy and fulfillment gets balanced out by the lower pay.
This assumes art is fungible; the argument applies more to people working as artists for hire, and less to artists who cultivate a style, brand and unique audience.
IMO the best way to escape the "starving artist" trap is to embrace your individuality. There are a lot of ways for artists to connect directly to fans. Kickstarter. Patreon. Self-publishing with fulfillment-on-demand. Etsy. Anime conventions (if you're working in that art style).
For example, one artistic niche with very interesting economics is designing 3D printed miniatures for tabletop gaming [1].
As a consumer, be aware of the economics of the art you consume. Try to support artists directly instead of giving your entertainment dollars to giant megacorps.
I was deffs about to reply with "passion doesn't pay for dinner" until I read the whole thing.
You are right with individual kickstarters or Patreon, but that limits the scale at which something can operate at as a sole trader or small business.
There is another issue with market, these platforms don't have great discovery, while platforms that do get drowned out with free and mediocre content.
A worker is compensated in two ways: They get paid money, and they get the joy and fulfillment from doing their jobs.
A lot of artists are passionate about art [citation needed]. So the average individual with enough skill to make a career in an artistic field, faced with a choice between art and some other career -- accounting, say -- will almost always choose art if the salaries are equal; the joy and fulfillment tips the scale. But the scales balance over time; if artists are paid as well as accountants, there will be too many artists for economic demand and not enough accountants.
The pay for artists will go down and the pay for accountants will go up, until the average artist's joy and fulfillment gets balanced out by the lower pay.
This assumes art is fungible; the argument applies more to people working as artists for hire, and less to artists who cultivate a style, brand and unique audience.
IMO the best way to escape the "starving artist" trap is to embrace your individuality. There are a lot of ways for artists to connect directly to fans. Kickstarter. Patreon. Self-publishing with fulfillment-on-demand. Etsy. Anime conventions (if you're working in that art style).
For example, one artistic niche with very interesting economics is designing 3D printed miniatures for tabletop gaming [1].
As a consumer, be aware of the economics of the art you consume. Try to support artists directly instead of giving your entertainment dollars to giant megacorps.
[1] https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/payments-and-plastic-...
that makes a lot of sense.
I was deffs about to reply with "passion doesn't pay for dinner" until I read the whole thing.
You are right with individual kickstarters or Patreon, but that limits the scale at which something can operate at as a sole trader or small business.
There is another issue with market, these platforms don't have great discovery, while platforms that do get drowned out with free and mediocre content.
It's not impossible, just way harder
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Because most of them turned to software engineering and now there are lots of starving software engineers.
and one day these starving software engineers will be starving game devs or farmers