NON CONTRARIAN ARTS & CULTURE OP-ED: THINGS THAT CAN HELP ARTISTS & MUSICIANS RIGHT NOW. PART 1. WEBSITE CHALLENGES
INTRODUCTION
There’s art everywhere. We’re surrounded by design every day. There’s music throughout popular culture. Yet artists & musicians are described as “starving;” as if that were a pre defined condition of being an Artist or a Musician. The people of the world sleep on beds that were designed. Eat with utensils that are designed. Wear clothes that were designed. We move about on a world surrounded by art, design, & music; and Artists and Musicians should starve for that?
Then people come home from work, working all day on computers or tools that were designed. Then, what do a lot of people do? We watch movies, tv, or listen to music.
Has the world resigned itself to a profession that’s part of our daily life where the Artists and Musicians that provide Art and Music starve in poverty? Seems weird, or at least a little unfair.
When the Coronavirus pandemic shut everything down, it ended a lot of life long careers in Art and Music. Those who weren’t making money from Art or Music before that? Well…both employed before the pandemic and still unemployed Artists and Musicians are having trouble redefining careers that are barely seen as work, or a job, by popular culture, in 2021.
We decided to take a look at the tools available to Artists and Musicians to do more than just provide Art and Music for free. In order for Artists and Musicians to get paid? They need the ability to do that. An Artist or Musician without a website is like an Electrician without electricity.
We started there. We found very few free or affordable services for anyone trying to make money from Art or Music as a business because it is work, like any other job- we don’t say “starving dishwasher” or “starving stockbroker.”
You couldn’t say an Artist or Musician needs a dish, let alone someone to wash it. Stocks weren’t needed to paint the caves at Lascaux. However? Dishes are functional, designed, utilitarian Art. All those companies with stock have logos, designed by Artists. Their presentations have Music.
Many of those artistic and musical properties and were acquired at low rates or free from freelance Artists, Designers, or Musicians because they are so desperate to feed their families? They take what they are offered or someone else that’s out of work will take the job.
We decided to start with websites because there are a lot of services that will charge money that most Artists and Musicians don’t have when they are getting started.
It takes time to build any business. Without affordable tools and understanding in popular culture about how difficult that is? The problem can be nearly insurmountable without time to research this.
There are a lot of blogs selling things. This isn’t that. We gave ourselves challenges that are the same as Artists or Musicians just getting started. There aren’t sponsors or services we talked to. No favors from friends who are expert web designers or have server space. No help. And to make it real? No computer. All iPhone. 7. Not new.
We looked for actual services so people have a place to actually start. Apps with 3 plans: basic for free, an affordable next step, and an expert option at or below a 1 time $20. payment. Selling a subscription to an app for a non working Artist or Musician? Their family or spouse who gets paid paying for that isn’t marketing to Artists & Musicians: it’s marketing to their families and spouses. Pretty heavy marketing pipeline towards a group referred to as “starving.”
This is a report of what we found. It’s not our preferred route. It’s the only route we have found as of the writing of this. We will say: once we found this? It got pretty fun. No kidding. Fun.
WEBSITES.
[Unpaid without referral links. If, for any reason that changes, the nomenclature will reflect that precisely.]
PROBLEM:
Asking Artists & Musicians to have nicer websites than banks, without advertising on them, is unreasonable.
1 REASON THAT’S A PROBLEM:
Of all the people on the planet? Artists and Musicians have among the least real encouragement to commercialize their career. When Artists and Musicians say that’s their job? Most people laugh. Art and Music aren’t seen as jobs.
There are many jobs that don’t pay regularly, many jobs that don’t pay well, & many people who aren’t good with money.
Why are artists and musicians asked to train for their profession, as well as succeed financially from their first major projects or they are a failure? And while that’s happening? While they train? We think they should manage their money like a trained accountant? In addition to that? Artists and Musicians are expected to deal with the public, large groups of them, and have to stay friendly.
What other career requires learning that many specialties? There’s no PhD in art or music technique. Art or Music History? Sure. But to ask Artists and Musicians to learn 4-6 specific and different specialties the deal with the public without having a paying 9-5 job, health benefits, and the chance to attain a PhD? The world speaks of inequality? Artists and Musicians get to give everything for free, they aren’t offered a say in the conversation. Complaining is not an option, it would eliminate what little paying work they have. It’s an issue of survival.
So asking an artist to go into debt to make an expensive website for a career that isn’t making money yet? Almost cruel, if we say we like Art and Music. This makes the lives of family and friends stressful being worried about the artists or musicians they know. There’s no minimum wage for an Artist or Musician, they’re paid (hopefully) by the project and replaced quickly for any reason. Even when they finish the job successfully.
1 POSSIBLE SOLUTION RIGHT NOW, HELP MUSICIANS AND ARTISTS FOR FREE, AS FANS, FRIENDS, AND FAMILY. HOW?:
• Ignore ads on websites of Artists and Musicians like we do on all major platforms.
• Allow Artists and Musicians benefit of doubt in their presentation.
• Invest our time in helping them build up to be able to afford overhead based on sales and income, not unreasonable expectations.
• Musicians and Artists have no organization, no lobby, no possible outside intervention, and they are excluded from public assistance. Only people with “jobs” get help. Being an Artist or Musician isn’t considered a job in most places in the world. That means they get no welfare or public assistance. That probably won’t change for hundreds of years. But we can start changing that now: Everyone who likes Art or Music and the people who create them.
OUR OBSERVATIONS:
We made our new websites on the free WordPress platform to show that’s possible for an Artist or Musician or their friends or family with a smartphone and the WordPress app to make a polished, effective website that can build with them over time. Bonus from a business standpoint, it can be upgraded when they have sales.
COMPLICATIONS WE ENCOUNTERED THAT HELPED WITH OUR RESEARCH:
There are very few templates that make it possible to present Art or Music as a business. Solutions are expensive & rare. We began with free templates, then started customizing them from the ground up. The html can be exported and it loads into other templates on WordPress sites.
We had a lot of fun designing & making these new free WordPress sites. They’re fast.
We do our proofs for clients in the free WordPress app now, for the simple reason that it’s fast: we can work and do a meeting at the same time. Live revisions of proofs.
Pages were designed quickly and the revisions the team needed happened fast.
LIMITATIONS?
There are limitations. We worked with the limited functions. We found html 1 solutions and combined technology from other trusted sites. Free templates on the basic site usually only have 1-2 plugins they choose. So we built the functions we needed in WordPress. There were 2 musician sites for presentation at the building stage a month ago. We customized and figured out how to get sound files in there. That was the most difficult part. We went with private links from a free SoundCloud account. So website and music presentation for free. With an ability to update both, in stages, as business grows.
MAKING THE SITE INTERACTIVE:
Email and interactivity require money and bandwidth. Ok. The next stage was implementing html 1 code into a free template written by hand to do old school “mailto” links. We love them. Had to brush up after 16 years of plugins handling it. Note: forms are a weakness without dedicated security.
We leaned on our gmail and html 1.
It’s way faster than our workflow for private sites.
PRIVATE SITES VS. FREE WORDPRESS SITES?
Private sites are expensive and take a lot of bandwidth. Web designers that work on private sites well are rare and very busy; they’re an added cost. Then? Web Servers? They’re a nightmare for Musicians and Artists. We helped or consulted on moving sites to new servers many times this year. When a site slows down? It might as well not be there. It can repulse and leave people feeling blank.
For the first part of the series, we started with websites. We’ll keep you updated on this to let you know anything else we find.
FINAL NOTES
POSSIBLE WAYS TO HELP:
If you know how to do this kind of technical computer and technology design and you have some free time? Make a free WordPress website for a friend who’s an Artist or Musician. Their gratitude will be tremendous.
POSSIBLE WAYS TO FIND PAYING WORK HELPING:
If you’re looking for work? The labor department lists “artist” income at $24. (+ change) per hour. The free WordPress platform gives you a place to start with clients who can’t afford a private site, yet. Then you can grow with them. If you’re going to become a professional web designer for Artists and Musicians? We’ll help. Click here or on the “Questions” button below.
IMAGES & VIDEO?
When we can’t get out to get the right photo or video? We love the Pexels service for royalty free photos to help clients just getting started with a low budget. Sounds snappy, and? We aren’t affiliated and we promote them as often as possible. Additionally? We encourage clients to pay for the pictures when the business commercializes. It helps Art and Music and the amazing Artists on Pexels.
THANK YOU 🙏 !!
Thank you 🙏 for taking the time to read this. It means you might like Artists and Musicians! We Thank You for that as well!!
We hope you have a safe and creative week!
If you have any questions? Please click here or below. If you’re an Artist or Musician? Check my personal Twitter account, @ StefanBell, my music account, @ The_Stefan_ or Metacouture™…you may find what you need for free. If you get stuck? Please ask us for help. If you’re not making money? Please tell us. We’ll either show you a free way, or you can pay after we have helped make you money.
Ad Disclaimer:
Other than services we offer on all our sites? Or links to team accounts? There is no intentional marketing in this op-ed. There are no referral links to other companies. No affiliate programs. If that changes we will tell you. Any ads you see or hear on any sites we mention are the sole property of that company.
There is an ad at the top and a mention of WordPress, they are there because we are grateful they let us start this new stage of our business for free. We will upgrade when we can. And we will still mention that the site is on their platform. If the site becomes private? We will still say we started here because what they are doing is very kind.
Jellyfish RESEARCH and DESIGN 