$146.5 million.
This was the amount paid at auction for Vincent Van Gogh's "Portrait of Dr. Gachet".
400 Francs
This was the amount of money Vincent Van Gogh reputedly earned from painting during his entire lifetime (from the sale of one painting, I might add - he painted thousands). Back in those days, you could live very frugally on about 150 francs per month.
Luckily for Vincent, his brother Theo, a successful art dealer, paid all of his brother's basic living and work expenses during his career as a painter. Even with his connections in the Art Business, however, Theo was unable to interest anyone in Vincent's work.
Vincent Van Gogh died due to complications from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. He was 37.
Certainly, Van Gogh would not be the first or the last case of an artist receiving precious little compensation for his work during his lifetime.
There was recently a lot of online press given to an open letter from David Lowery, Lecturer at Georgia College of Business, to Emily White, an NPR intern. Lowery's letter, as you might know, is in response to White's claim that she has over 11,000 songs on her iPod but she has paid for little more than a dozen CDs in her lifetime. Lowry suggests that the those who have built the technology that allows easy piracy of music have worked to change listeners' moral codes so that music theft is treated as a victimless crime. Somehow, its convenience to acquire keeps its acquisition from feeling criminal to the thief. He equates online music piracy with looting, and implores listeners to re-set their moral compasses - if at least to allow musicians income enough to survive.
Perhaps the problem here is, like global warming, not immediately tangible enough for the average non-thinking person to take seriously. If I'm making good money in the oil patch, I can indulge my creature comforts and I'm keeping up with the Joneses, why should I care if we lose a few polar bears when the ice melts, or a few third-world countries get flooded due to rising sea levels? I'm alright, Jack. Such abstract worries are worthy of ridicule to Mr. Oil Patch Worker. The idea of massive refugee issues, famine, dangers of triggering lethal oceanic acidity or even a new ice age are far too removed from the here-and-now to imagine for the average joe focused on making a living - especially if there are massive corporations controlling the media who reinforce the 'don't worry be happy' mantra.
Likewise, why should the average music listener care if the music he enjoys is stolen? The artist can find other ways of making money, and even if he can't - so what? One can always find another artist to listen to, and it's not 'real' work anyway. If the composer has to start selling shoes for a living instead, the world will go on.
There's been a funny phenomenon lately, though. Do you ever see teenagers wearing Beatles T-shirts? Pink Floyd? Zeppelin? Sure you do. I'm a teacher when I'm not working on music, and I see those old band names all over the place in schools.
Why are kids wearing logos from bands that had their heyday 40 years ago? I can certainly tell you that I never saw any Glenn Miller Orchestra t-shirts in my school when I was growing up in the 70's and 80's. Not even Charlie Parker or Louis Armstrong. What T-shirts did I see? Beatles, Floyd, Zep, among the other popular bands of the day.
If there's no living to be had in writing, recording or performing music, and record labels have grown too chintzy and corporatized to develop an artist, we're missing out on vast volumes of great music. History doesn't repeat itself, as Mark Twain said, but it does tend to rhyme. There will never be another Beatles, but there should have been a 90's or a 'noughties' equivalent. Where is this decade's 'Dark Side of the Moon'? Its composer is out selling shoes or real estate or junk bonds somewhere...and likely, in his or her scarce spare time, still writing and recording music that nobody hears or will hear...
I have a friend who writes novels in what little spare time she has. Her most recent novel is the most widely-read work of hers to date - and also the poorest performer in actual sales. Think she's inclined to keep setting aside the time to write? Not much lately...
If you pay for your music, I salute and thank you. If not - pay the damned dollar, if only in your own self-interest. Just imagine if Jimmy Page were selling shoes today instead.
This was the amount paid at auction for Vincent Van Gogh's "Portrait of Dr. Gachet".
400 Francs
This was the amount of money Vincent Van Gogh reputedly earned from painting during his entire lifetime (from the sale of one painting, I might add - he painted thousands). Back in those days, you could live very frugally on about 150 francs per month.
Luckily for Vincent, his brother Theo, a successful art dealer, paid all of his brother's basic living and work expenses during his career as a painter. Even with his connections in the Art Business, however, Theo was unable to interest anyone in Vincent's work.
Vincent Van Gogh died due to complications from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. He was 37.
Certainly, Van Gogh would not be the first or the last case of an artist receiving precious little compensation for his work during his lifetime.
There was recently a lot of online press given to an open letter from David Lowery, Lecturer at Georgia College of Business, to Emily White, an NPR intern. Lowery's letter, as you might know, is in response to White's claim that she has over 11,000 songs on her iPod but she has paid for little more than a dozen CDs in her lifetime. Lowry suggests that the those who have built the technology that allows easy piracy of music have worked to change listeners' moral codes so that music theft is treated as a victimless crime. Somehow, its convenience to acquire keeps its acquisition from feeling criminal to the thief. He equates online music piracy with looting, and implores listeners to re-set their moral compasses - if at least to allow musicians income enough to survive.
Perhaps the problem here is, like global warming, not immediately tangible enough for the average non-thinking person to take seriously. If I'm making good money in the oil patch, I can indulge my creature comforts and I'm keeping up with the Joneses, why should I care if we lose a few polar bears when the ice melts, or a few third-world countries get flooded due to rising sea levels? I'm alright, Jack. Such abstract worries are worthy of ridicule to Mr. Oil Patch Worker. The idea of massive refugee issues, famine, dangers of triggering lethal oceanic acidity or even a new ice age are far too removed from the here-and-now to imagine for the average joe focused on making a living - especially if there are massive corporations controlling the media who reinforce the 'don't worry be happy' mantra.
Likewise, why should the average music listener care if the music he enjoys is stolen? The artist can find other ways of making money, and even if he can't - so what? One can always find another artist to listen to, and it's not 'real' work anyway. If the composer has to start selling shoes for a living instead, the world will go on.
There's been a funny phenomenon lately, though. Do you ever see teenagers wearing Beatles T-shirts? Pink Floyd? Zeppelin? Sure you do. I'm a teacher when I'm not working on music, and I see those old band names all over the place in schools.
Why are kids wearing logos from bands that had their heyday 40 years ago? I can certainly tell you that I never saw any Glenn Miller Orchestra t-shirts in my school when I was growing up in the 70's and 80's. Not even Charlie Parker or Louis Armstrong. What T-shirts did I see? Beatles, Floyd, Zep, among the other popular bands of the day.
If there's no living to be had in writing, recording or performing music, and record labels have grown too chintzy and corporatized to develop an artist, we're missing out on vast volumes of great music. History doesn't repeat itself, as Mark Twain said, but it does tend to rhyme. There will never be another Beatles, but there should have been a 90's or a 'noughties' equivalent. Where is this decade's 'Dark Side of the Moon'? Its composer is out selling shoes or real estate or junk bonds somewhere...and likely, in his or her scarce spare time, still writing and recording music that nobody hears or will hear...
I have a friend who writes novels in what little spare time she has. Her most recent novel is the most widely-read work of hers to date - and also the poorest performer in actual sales. Think she's inclined to keep setting aside the time to write? Not much lately...
If you pay for your music, I salute and thank you. If not - pay the damned dollar, if only in your own self-interest. Just imagine if Jimmy Page were selling shoes today instead.