Well said. This has sadly been the truth for some time now, but it feels like we are in the 11th hour with AI in the mix. I was contacted by a recent grad last week. She was so excited and optimistic to get started in this industry. I immediately felt pity and heartbreak for her. She will never know the industry I started in, just 15 years ago, one where you could be supported for your creative endeavors. I hope a new appreciation for art emerges, but I see very little hope for that. It would require people thinking for themselves, rather than relying on the algorithm to tell them what is valuable. The most ridiculous view I’ve found lately, usually from intellectuals I respect, is that AI will give us more time to produce art and create. I find this laughable. There is less and less desire to create because our society does not reward the creator. We are community creatures. We want the validation of our peers, but our peers who are able to discern the difference between real thoughtful art and cheap quick content are rapidly dwindling. It certainly feels like a race to the bottom.
I look forward to this newsletter because it has substance, rather than a clickbait agenda, unlike most content out there. So there’s some hope! Thank you for that.
Amazing. Thanks so much for your comments. I feel seen!
I remain hopeful and optimistic about people's appreciation for art and quality on an individual level, but it sure seems to me like the business models are leaving that in the past.
I like the grasp of content and the relative need for quality. Been fighting this for years:"That much? My admin has a camera; I'll just have her do it." Or. "Can't you just leave some steps out and charge me less?"
Wow, Bill. Very well written and you are so correct on these points. After 43 years making money with the camera, i cannot help but wonder where its all going and what’s left. Landscape photographers are now mostly tour guides. Product photographers might lose out to AI. Portraits and weddings will probably be around a bit longer. It might not be long before qualified Photoshoppers will be using a slider and prompts for perfection. But beyond that, who knows. Thanks!
I work in music, trained classical and have branched into jazz and folk. The observations you make here mostly map onto music scenes and their proportional industry relevance.
Local scenes have become restricted and their audiences alienated from them due to the centralization of listening experiences and access to remote streaming services / digitization. There’s often no infrastructure for live scenes to thrive beyond local sustenance or side gigs at bars or small venues, and breaking into a scene and gaining traction with audience building is a steep startup cost that includes curating a performance library and album production, not to mention rehearsals and practice.
The reality of many pros is that you simply need a main career to pay bills until (if and when) performance opportunities can supplant your main income. Hopefully you can find non-performance in-industry work, but even that can be few and far between.
The classical cats got scared and retreated into academia and non-profit patronage, competing in their own niche social circles with themselves at the expense of even attempting to deliver socially relevant music that wasn’t canonized before the 1960s (Barring some modernist successes like minimalism). Composer and performer specialists often don’t know how to cultivate a competitive genre-scene and end up exploiting each other to premier disposable works.
Jazz and folk cats at least know that you gotta be a troubadour and remain flexible with fusion opportunities. The work is nice if you can get it. They still struggle against big media industry conglomerates and labels/publishers/producers that kowtow to popular styles and trends. At least rock and others have had some staying power, not to mention fusion, but even they’re facing down the barrel of growth within the culture industry and have yet to ascend the ivory tower of “academically legit” music.
Thanks very much for your comment, Niles. I really appreciate hearing the perspective of someone in a related industry. I really do think these challenges are shared across the arts, and with each passing year I feel more kinship with poets and musicians and designers even though I know nothing about their specific businesses. I hope you'll stick around and keep reading!
Well said. This has sadly been the truth for some time now, but it feels like we are in the 11th hour with AI in the mix. I was contacted by a recent grad last week. She was so excited and optimistic to get started in this industry. I immediately felt pity and heartbreak for her. She will never know the industry I started in, just 15 years ago, one where you could be supported for your creative endeavors. I hope a new appreciation for art emerges, but I see very little hope for that. It would require people thinking for themselves, rather than relying on the algorithm to tell them what is valuable. The most ridiculous view I’ve found lately, usually from intellectuals I respect, is that AI will give us more time to produce art and create. I find this laughable. There is less and less desire to create because our society does not reward the creator. We are community creatures. We want the validation of our peers, but our peers who are able to discern the difference between real thoughtful art and cheap quick content are rapidly dwindling. It certainly feels like a race to the bottom.
I look forward to this newsletter because it has substance, rather than a clickbait agenda, unlike most content out there. So there’s some hope! Thank you for that.
Amazing. Thanks so much for your comments. I feel seen!
I remain hopeful and optimistic about people's appreciation for art and quality on an individual level, but it sure seems to me like the business models are leaving that in the past.
I like the grasp of content and the relative need for quality. Been fighting this for years:"That much? My admin has a camera; I'll just have her do it." Or. "Can't you just leave some steps out and charge me less?"
Wow, Bill. Very well written and you are so correct on these points. After 43 years making money with the camera, i cannot help but wonder where its all going and what’s left. Landscape photographers are now mostly tour guides. Product photographers might lose out to AI. Portraits and weddings will probably be around a bit longer. It might not be long before qualified Photoshoppers will be using a slider and prompts for perfection. But beyond that, who knows. Thanks!
I work in music, trained classical and have branched into jazz and folk. The observations you make here mostly map onto music scenes and their proportional industry relevance.
Local scenes have become restricted and their audiences alienated from them due to the centralization of listening experiences and access to remote streaming services / digitization. There’s often no infrastructure for live scenes to thrive beyond local sustenance or side gigs at bars or small venues, and breaking into a scene and gaining traction with audience building is a steep startup cost that includes curating a performance library and album production, not to mention rehearsals and practice.
The reality of many pros is that you simply need a main career to pay bills until (if and when) performance opportunities can supplant your main income. Hopefully you can find non-performance in-industry work, but even that can be few and far between.
The classical cats got scared and retreated into academia and non-profit patronage, competing in their own niche social circles with themselves at the expense of even attempting to deliver socially relevant music that wasn’t canonized before the 1960s (Barring some modernist successes like minimalism). Composer and performer specialists often don’t know how to cultivate a competitive genre-scene and end up exploiting each other to premier disposable works.
Jazz and folk cats at least know that you gotta be a troubadour and remain flexible with fusion opportunities. The work is nice if you can get it. They still struggle against big media industry conglomerates and labels/publishers/producers that kowtow to popular styles and trends. At least rock and others have had some staying power, not to mention fusion, but even they’re facing down the barrel of growth within the culture industry and have yet to ascend the ivory tower of “academically legit” music.
Thanks very much for your comment, Niles. I really appreciate hearing the perspective of someone in a related industry. I really do think these challenges are shared across the arts, and with each passing year I feel more kinship with poets and musicians and designers even though I know nothing about their specific businesses. I hope you'll stick around and keep reading!