analogy

 Since I started painting last July, I’ve completed seventy five paintings. Fifteen of them are in oils. I began painting in oils just before Christmas. In the beginning I had given away many of my acrylic paintings to family and a couple of friends. They were so impressed with my new found talent, that they just had to have some to display in their homes. Naturally, I was humbled by their want to display my creations and their response, once they saw them. Acrylics dry quickly and putting on a finish coat to preserve them didn’t take too long. Oils, on the other hand can take up to a year to totally dry. Putting on a sealer is not recommended for at least six months. They are unfinished and in the mean time, I keep painting new ones.

I have sold several of my acrylics to neighbors and other friends. They approached me looking to acquire some of my paintings after seeing them displayed in my family and close friends’ homes. I knew then and there that my paintings were something that I didn’t just want to give away for free. Paint supplies aren’t cheap and the time and effort involved in creating them should have some value to the public. I already have some future orders for my oils once they are sealed and dry from folks other than family and friends. I could have given them away, but if I had there wouldn’t be any value to what I do. It would have been demeaning and my efforts worthless. They would have just wanted more free stuff at my expense.

When I began my journey with paints, the thought of selling my art, never crossed my mind. All I wanted to do is find out if I could do it and do it well. I was curious to see where this new thing might take me…nothing more. I really didn’t have any thoughts on what I was going to do with the finished paintings and the idea of an art burning party did cross my mind. I had no value to what I was doing except in trying something I’ve never done before. The value came as soon as folks began wanting my art. That’s when I had to set the price on art, to give it value.

Many artists/bands in this case, on  music sites such as Sound Click or Sound Cloud, simply give their music away as a free download. What they are telling the public is that they don’t value what they do nor about the music. I learned years ago that the only time someone comes back to my music page was when I uploaded a new tune and had a free download. Once they had It, there was no reason to come back until I posted a new tune. I don’t know about you, but it takes me several weeks to write and prepare one tune for a recording session. There is a lot of time and effort invested just with one tune and I’ll be damned if I’m going to give that away. One or two free samples/downloads is my limit for the most part. As for the rest, I have to set some value to what I do as a musician. I've even made a few bucks doing it this way and have plenty of listeners and followers stopping by my music page at Sound Click just to check out my music.

The music business has really gone down the toilet in the past years and it's getting more difficult for musicians, full time musicians that is, to make a living at it. The big problem I've noticed is that young bands are willing to play for free just for exposure not realizing that they have fucked it up for everyone else trying to make a living at it. Sure a club or a bar owner is going to want someone to play for free, after all they have nothing to lose and only to gain a few more customers. In the long run bands playing for free are screwing themselves at the same time for future gigs for money. Let's face it these bands are saying that they have no value for what they do and are making the club/bar owners a little richer at their own expense. Stupidity