Selling out without selling out
The poptimist ideology succeeded because it made compelling points about why it was unfair to castigate selling out:
- Artists deserve to make a livelihood : With music sales down after Napster, musicians needed to supplement their income with commercial sponsorship
- Artists from marginalized communities tend to work in commercially-oriented genres: I
Culture: An Owner's Manual • The Age of the Double Sell-Out
What was the point of selling the company only to hit a payday and lose what we loved doing? Bands sold albums, not their bands. We were in it for the long haul.
Brett Leve • Make No Small Plans: Lessons on Thinking Big, Chasing Dreams, and Building Community
Though we yearn for clarity, the universe whispers caution. If you listen closely to those who’ve made it, you’ll find what many of them want most is to return to the unknown. Kurt Cobain said he wished he could’ve stayed forever in the moment right before Nirvana got big. Virgil Abloh believed no piece mattered more than having the freedom to make... See more
Yancey Strickler • What we lose when we start with the ending
I think all of this feels more natural to people who are immersed in the fine art market, or the market for rare limited-edition sneakers, etc. (I am not!) These are markets in which scarcity by design is a huge part of the fun, and that’s not true for all, or even most, markets for creative work. (I’m thinking of the market for, say, streaming TV ... See more