By Chris Kay
In previous posts I’ve talked a lot about the intersection of art and entrepreneurship, and how artists and entrepreneurs do similar things as creators. I’ve said before artists and entrepreneurs both:
- Make something new based on internalizing their observation of the world around them;
- Push boundaries of what’s considered acceptable and possible, and
- Experiment with new media, technology, and materials.
On top of their similarities, artists and entrepreneurs also have a symbiotic relationship. For example without new technology platforms like YouTube, Etsy, Tugg, iTunes, Spotify, Kickstarter and Vimeo artists would lack low cost distribution methods for their content, but without artist’s content these platforms would have no purpose, like instagram with no pictures.
The symbiotic relationship goes one step further; artists and entrepreneurs have a quid pro quo opportunity: Businesses want an emotional connection with their customers. This is the basis for social media marketing, content marketing and using storytelling in marketing. According to Leo Tolstoy in his book What is Art?, art is when an spectator is infected by the feelings that the artist has experienced. In other words, by definition good art and good artists evoke emotions in their audience. On the other side, most artists want to develop sustainable business models for selling their art, or to be frank, they want to live off selling their art. The basis of entrepreneurship is developing profitable and sustainable business models selling a product or service.
OK, so if artists and entrepreneurs are sole-mates like I keep claiming, why aren’t they working together more, and how should they be working together? My first answer is, it has to do with attitudes on both sides; many artists are worried about working with businesses and selling out, and businesses have a hard time seeing the value in art. I’m here to try to fix this issue. My second answer: “I’m glad you asked, let me explain”.
I have defined four ways artists create art and/or interact with businesses:
On the far left brain side, corporate freelance creative projects are reasonably self explanatory. Examples would be an illustrator paying their bills by doing logo design, or an indie film-maker doing corporate video production. It’s a little soulless and not really high value-add for anyone involved.
On the far right side, autonomous art is exactly that, autonomous. This is art made from pure, inhabited creativity, and the artist’s only intention is to sell it to the end patron. This situation is the ultimate goal of most artists, and is where entrepreneurial sustainable business models come into play. I’ve raised this point in the past, but let’s face it, artists are entrepreneurs and their product is their art. This is also an art/tech opportunity as many of the new distribution platforms can also be used as customer analytics tools to reduce the risk in an artist’s business. Lastly, this is why Aleph X is partnering with Multiplicity to offer an entrepreneurial workshop series to the Toronto art community.
To the right of the centre, corporate supported art is when an artist creates an autonomous piece of art, but is backed by a corporation or sells the art to a corporation in some kind of mutual benefit. A great recent example of this is when in June 2013 Samsung purchased 1 million digital copies of Jay-Z’s new album Magna Carta Holy Grail for $20M and distributed them to their subscribers three days prior to the official release date. Jay-Z made his album autonomous of Samsung, and therefore his creativity was not compromised, but both Jay-Z and Samsung benefited from this deal.
To the left of the centre, experiential branding is authentic art which has entertainment and cultural value, but also obviously has a corporate branding purpose. The art is not autonomous, but is far more creative and interesting than a traditional sponsorship arrangement, or product placement strategy. My favourite example is the 2001 BMW “Star” short film directed by Guy Richie, starring Madonna and Clive Owen. This nine minute short film is a fantastic cinematic story, but is also a subtle nod to the BMW brand.
I’m obviously not a big fan of corporate freelance creative projects as I defined above, but I see them as an necessary evil, as the creative work (logo design) needs to get done. I’m a far bigger fan of artists adopting entrepreneurial methods to build sustainable art businesses, or brands and artists working together in an authentic creative ways, such as corporate supported art or experiential branding.
To progress this conversation further, Aleph X and Multiplicity are partnering on their next event. On Tuesday, May 27th Amy Miranda, Founder of Lunch, a creative production network of artists, will be speaking on how she has worked with independent artists to help some of the largest brands use authentic artistic content to make an emotional connection with their customers. Check it out and sign up here.
Let’s get this conversation going and make business more human and art more sustainable.
Chris Kay is a Financial Analyst, Co-founder of Multiplicity, and the Founder of Aleph X, a collective of Entrepreneurs, Technologists and Artists experimenting on creative projects at the intersection of entrepreneurship and art. Chris writes the blog Creative Convergence where he discusses the Intersection of Film, Music and Technology. Follow him on Twitter – @ChrisJKay
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