Much of what Amanda Palmer spoke about during her Ted Talk really got me self-reflecting. Asking others to pay whatever amount they want seems rather daunting. You’re asking others how much they think you’re worth, and like she said it leaves you vulnerable. What if people don’t give you that much money? Does that mean you’re not worth much? Questions like that often pop up, and it brings up the question of who could actually use this kind of business model. We can look at live streamers as an example. Some of the big name streamers make a shit ton of money through donations from their fans and often times get sponsorships that also pay some big bucks. They can make a career out of streaming because they can make enough money to sustain themselves. However, smaller streamers don’t have the same luxuries. Smaller streamers usually live stream as a second source of income and can’t make a stable enough income simply asking for donations. The same goes for artists. Established artists have a higher chance of being able to ask their audience for money or a place to crash. Although it seems like a fairly sustainable income for established artists, how much effort must you take to maintain the same amount of attention and love from your fans? Your income is based off how much you please your fans, so what happens when fans start losing interest? I think a lot of influencers have gone through the evolution in their content in which the content they start out with and what fans have come to enjoy is the content fans expect. Often the influencer will continue to make that content even though they don’t enjoy it, decreasing the overall quality of the content. Fans get mad that content is worse and the influencer turns to things that they actually enjoy, which pisses some people off but satisfying the masses.
Asking also comes with some moral and ethics questions. Are you asking for too much? Are you taking advantage of your audience by asking? I feel like often times asking can be taken a little to the extreme. In certain cases, asking may come with a sense of entitlement, assuming that it’s ok to ask for certain things and expecting something in return. Sometimes it seems that celebrities take advantage of their fame and the adoration of their fans for their personal gain. But if the fans are willing, then is there a problem? As much as it seems fair for fans to pay their fan object as much as they want, an artist shouldn’t encourage their audience to offer more than they can.