An article on the banality of most reality TV? led me to muse on the role of the true artist in the society. One of the aspects of the commons and the digital distribution of content that we have not really settled revolves around the ability of the true artist to sustain a career in a world where everyone thinks they are talented. Just because You Tube exists does not mean that the percentage of any given age group with true artistic talent has risen magically. In fact the true artist now has to shout just to be heard over the din of bad music, dumb TV shows and noisy comic book movies.
We can parrot that “information wants to be free”, but we are going to have to figure out ways for artists to get paid in the digital world. When ever I hear some knucklehead say that bands should give their music away free on the web and make their money touring, I think about B.B. King or Aretha Franklin: two artists at the time of their lives where they should no longer have to be on the road. But their old catalog is all out there on the net for free, so they are not earning the royalties they used to and they are not living on easy street. We need to rethink DRM and its role in preserving artistic livelihoods.