Artists have always had a unique relationship with money. On one hand, the lack of it can be what holds them back from realizing their full creative potential. If art doesn’t pay the rent, a part-time job becomes a necessity. Before you know it, the part-time job becomes a full-time job, leaving little to no time for art. Sound familiar?

On the other hand lies the internal struggle of capitalizing on your creativity. For most artists, money isn’t the driving force behind creation ― it’s expression. But you know you have to eat, so you accept the “art as commerce” reality and just pray you don’t end up like KISS. Artists know they need money, but have a hard time accepting it, for fear that it will become the force that drives them. read more

[…] One of the more interesting bits of data presented during the panel had nothing to do with startups but should be looked at and analyzed more in depth. Kristin Thomson, an Artist Revenue Expert at the national nonprofit Future of Music Coalition, presented those in attendance with a new study that showed most artists earning over 100k a year counted their accountant, lawyer and webmaster as their three most important team members. This needs to be looked into further because as Thomson pointed out, there is no way of currently knowing if these artists have that level of success because of the accountant, or if they have an accountant because they have reached that level of success.