Commercial Artistry is Dead

I’m announcing it here. I’m saying it now. While commercial artistry will continue to work for mainstream celebrities with built in audiences, gone are the days of the new artist being “discovered” and invested in by distribution companies. Commercial Distributors of artistic works are spending less and less on new risks and pouring more and more into established platforms and celebrity artists, hoping they can put off their eventual demise a few more years. The reality is that, like the music industry and the publishing industry, all of the rules are changing for artists everywhere. With so many artists navigating their own way and building their own audiences, while maintaining the rights to their work, the old way of doing business will NEVER return. Now is the age of the artist who is willing to invest in the business of their brand. It takes longer to build your own audience, but the rewards are immense. No longer do you have to share 90% of your profits with a distributor. No longer do you have to rely on them to market your work. In fact, if you do, you’ll end like most other artists, living off meager royalties/sales, working other jobs to keep afloat and not understanding why your work has not found a larger audience.

Being a successful artist requires more than talent and the discipline to create. You have to have the discipline to market and the curiosity to learn new skills and explore new territory in branding your work. The second half of the equation is completely different from the first. Consider yourself an inventor. Step one is creating the prototype. Step two is creating an awareness of the problem your art addresses in society and then demonstrating that you have the solution.

Consumers are still hungry. They are just listening differently. Their buying habits are less influenced by what advertisers tell them, and are more influenced by word of mouth. We’ve regressed back to the days prior to the media revolution. Imagine you have no TVs, no newspapers, no magazines to spread your message. Return to spreading it through impacting people one at a time and then add the internet back into the equation to tell everyone about the impact you're making. If you make a difference in people’s lives with your work, they’ll tell their networks about you and today their networks are no longer those who just live down the street.

Be courageous. Take responsibility. You have to rely on yourself…because the old model is DEAD.

Come join me, Corey Blake, for a conversation about your core values at the Illinois Arts Alliance Foundation's "One State: Together in the Arts" conference June 1st, 2009 at 3pm. We'll discuss how to infuse your core values into your marketing materials!