What if Other Businesses Operated Like an Art Business?
In an art business, the Artist is the person in-charge. This goes for any Artistic endeavor whether one is a visual artist, author, poet, performing artist, etc. The salesmen are not in-charge of the owner of the company. Salesmen in the art industry can take the form of agents, websites that help an artist, contests and more – none of which are the people that are in-charge telling the artist what to do.
If you take a look at other companies, each one works that way. Corporations are more complex with their stock holders, investors, etc. In this article, the subject is companies and how the artist is the one in charge of the direction the company is going to take. Included here are examples of the types of situations that an artist run company may run into by comparing it with another type of company.
Unfortunately, I have spoken to artists that have encountered the following situations.
Here’s some examples using a different type of company than an artist business. The examples are done this way to show how ridiculous it would be to have the same deals applied.
Example #1: For instance, a company that makes jars of all sizes wins a prize for being the most sustainable jar maker in the country. However, once the company wins that prize, the owners find out that they just lost all their rights and the company running the contest is now owner.
Example #2: Or, a company approaches the jar making company to make a deal to help sell their jars. The deal presented is that the jar making company has to pay a fee which is several hundred dollars and then, once the sales are made, the company will receive 75% of the sale, leaving the jar making company with 25% of the sales made which isn’t enough to cover the expenses or employees.
Example #3: Perhaps a deal that goes like this is offered: the jar making company will need to agree to hire on a marketing company. First the jar making company will need to pay a monthly fee to retain the service. Once sales are made, the marketing company collects the money, keeps the identity of the purchaser and will eventually pay 10-20% of the sale to the jar company.
Sounds ridiculous, right? This occurs constantly in the art world. Some, not all, art businesses that “help” artists are looking to help themselves first. An artist has to read the fine print and ensure that all is good before jumping into a “deal,” no matter how good the deal sounds.
The very first question to ask about the company offering their services is: Who is making the money? If you find that the company offering a service to an artist is taking a much larger percentage than the artist is, that company is making the money.
Being the in-charge of your own company, people helping you are your juniors, not your seniors. The advice you receive is for you to take a look at and decide if it’s correct for you. Here’s a list that was created by surveying many artists worldwide, which is now named “Artists Rights.”
Know your Artists Rights!
Here’s some guidelines on what to look for when considering a company to work with:
1. Does the artist get paid directly?
Or, does the company you are working with collect the money, take out their share (which could be up to 75% or more) before ever sending you what you earned. The artist should get paid directly. Then the artists “pays its bills.”
Sometimes a company will act as the go-between for the artist and the buyer. It would especially make sense if the sale was made because of the website being used. This would make sense also to ensure that the sale occurred with both parties happy.
2. Does the artist retain all rights, licenses, sub-licenses, etc? Does the artist keep the copyright?
Be sure to check the fine print – even if it takes clicking through three or four pages to get something clarified. Sometimes an art contest or website will give the wonderful features on the first few pages but when you continue to click through you find the fine print when you continue to click through on the Terms & Conditions and FAQs. It’s vital to do this upfront because you don’t want any surprises once you start using the service or enter the contest. Such surprises have included an artist losing all his rights and licenses to the piece of art entered into a contest.
You can find out more about Copyrights here:
>> Human Rights Article 27: Right to take part in cultural life
1. Everyone has the right to participate freely in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to participate in and benefit from scientific progress.
2. Everyone has the right to the protection of moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he or she is the author.
3. Does the artist know who purchased? Does the artist have the email and contact information?
The money is in the list. If a company keeps the information of the buyer, then the company is able to make more money off of the person. The artist, on the other hand, does not know who the person is and can’t contact or email or send a newsletter to that person. It is forever a mystery.
Be sure to look before jumping into that “wonderful deal.”
Best,
ILIA
More Information
>> Reading the Fine Print is Vital