Is this also a telling point though? "After years and years of giving his work away for free, Rich Burlew just raked in more than a million"
IE: You need to spend possibly years and years building your brand before you can expect any type of money like this. Everyone cites Louis CK as a way to raising tons of money online directly from fans, but a huge part of this is having fans in the first place. Isn't the hardest part of all of this struggling along for possibly years as just another small artist online trying to pay your bills before you make it big?
That is certainly the hard part, but technology like kickstarter is still helping to make it easier. I don't think it's really fair to judge by extremes- they show what is possible, but not what is typical- but there are artists who are happy to make a livable salary to continue making their art and growing their fanbase. The thing that's exciting about this new technology isn't it's potential for getting rich quick (which really isn't likely for most people) but how it cuts out middle men like publishers and record execs who have not been adding much value for their cost lately.
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Is this also a telling point though? "After years and years of giving his work away for free, Rich Burlew just raked in more than a million"
IE: You need to spend possibly years and years building your brand before you can expect any type of money like this. Everyone cites Louis CK as a way to raising tons of money online directly from fans, but a huge part of this is having fans in the first place. Isn't the hardest part of all of this struggling along for possibly years as just another small artist online trying to pay your bills before you make it big?
That is certainly the hard part, but technology like kickstarter is still helping to make it easier. I don't think it's really fair to judge by extremes- they show what is possible, but not what is typical- but there are artists who are happy to make a livable salary to continue making their art and growing their fanbase. The thing that's exciting about this new technology isn't it's potential for getting rich quick (which really isn't likely for most people) but how it cuts out middle men like publishers and record execs who have not been adding much value for their cost lately.