Friday, February 12, 2010

In this new age

The amount of amazing art and music and creative-ness that I run across on the internet has me more attuned to how the biggest, bestest library in the world can help artists reach a larger audience. And what my role as a consumer of this art is. It reminds me of a post I read almost two years ago on a blog by writer/actor Wil Wheaton. He expands on a notion first written about by Kevin Kelly.
"A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author - in other words, anyone producing works of art - needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living...Assume conservatively that your True Fans will each spend one day's wages per year in support of what you do. That "one-day-wage" is an average, because of course your truest fans will spend a lot more than that. Let's peg that per diem each True Fan spends at $100 per year. If you have 1,000 fans that sums up to $100,000 per year, which minus some modest expenses, is a living for most folks."
Maybe it is because I'm a scientist at heart, but I often try to quantify the meaning of beautiful art or music in my life directly, and $100/year seems like a bargain. Something to think about in my quest to simplify life & material goods, and spend more time/effort/money of things that matter to me. Food. Art. Music. Family. Wine :)

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