One of the worst things that’s happened to us as artists is commodification. We’ve been conditioned to see our work as products for marketing and consumption, but who could blame us?
Even though people enjoy art enough to spend money on it (how capitalism defines “value”), making a living from making art is difficult. Artists treat their art like a business because it helps then get their art out there and generate income from it, but it comes with a plethora of caveats that are reshaping how we think of, make and interact with art.
### Platforms That Take A Cut
There are a lot of platforms out there make online content creation easier for the non-tech-savvy, but at what cost (literally)? They often take a significant cut of profit generated from your work for having a nice interface and making the publishing process slightly more simple.
But an hour or two of googling will save you a lot of time and money in the long run when it comes to having total control over your labor. You’ll find that most the “complicated” options out there are not actually that complicated, and that they’re extremely affordable in comparison to the all-in-one platforms. The learning curve is slightly higher, but you gain valuable skills (it always helps to have a bit more tech competency), save/make money, and have a greater degree of control.
### Algorithms and Exposure
You rely on their algorithms for exposure, and the algorithm is meant to serve their financial interests, not yours.
If you want your work to appear in front of people, you’ll feel pressured to do what the algorithm deems popular. If the algorithm says posts titled with the pattern “i did x on/with y”, that’s the format youl’ll feel pressured to fit your work into.