A friend once described being in the music business to me using this analogy.
The person in the music business is a big fat seal on a rock, happily basking in the sun. Sometimes they can stay in the sun all day and be warm and content. Other times, they know they have to jump into that icy cold water and find a fish to eat because, to put it simply, they'll starve if they don't. They dread jumping in, and when they finally do, it's definitely awful. It's icy cold and numbing to the body - ultimately the opposite of that warm roost on the rock's surface. But sooner rather than later, their body adjusts. They acclimate to the water, and it stings less. They swim around in it for a while until they get what they need. Then they can come back up on the rock and bask a bit longer. The surface of the rock is the joy of making music - the blithe naiveté from our youth that allows us to stay eternally in love. The icy cold water is the business of making music. The reality is that we are the seals, and we can't live without either.
ART IS WORK.
Society must stop treating artists like lazy beggars who always ask for handouts. We are again back in the classical period, except the marketplace is online. Like Mozart, we are trudging uphill and having to sell ourselves, angling from whichever way we can to literally be able to eat and have a roof over our heads. Patronage, exclusive record deals, and blanket publishing contracts no longer exist. For artists to make videos, tracks, and other content that then get freely streamed on social media (often with little or no proper compensation for the creators), it takes time and learned skills. It takes practice. They don't just snap their fingers and produce that work. They have to continue playing the game while doing creative work simultaneously. They often face intense public scrutiny and sometimes disapproval of what comes from their minds and hearts. Artists are punished more for their openness and benevolence to society than any other profession. Their personal lives are constantly in the limelight. They are the eternal proverbial "stepchild."
Remember that the next time you're consuming art:
Watching YouTube
Listening to Spotify
Dancing at the club with your friends
Watching a movie
Humming the theme song from your favorite podcast because it's stuck in your ear
Then do something simple:
Reach out to any artist in your life and tell them you love them and you'd like to understand more about what they do and what their life is like.
If you want some more reading about what real musicians go through in terms of their work, being compensated, and their lives in the public consumer’s eye…
read about the cellist Zoe Keating and read about Audium's reporting on musician earnings from music streaming.
She started speaking out a while ago, but not much has changed since then. If anything, it’s only gotten worse.
#appreciativeinquiry
#listeningisgrace
#honorwithyourears
#lookthemintheface
#artiswork