I think this works well for the funding of music, but visual arts is much more of a one-on-one patron-artist relationship. If physical works of art could be distributed as easily as CD-quality music on the Internet, would a more decentralized model be possible? Maybe! There is something unique to the visual arts where individual patrons can form lifelong friendships with artists and be the primary sponsor for decades. I think of the relationship between Calouste Gulbenkian and Rene Lalique. I find it hard to believe that that level of patronage could be replicated today using a decentralized model, because the costs would have been enormous and possibly there wouldn’t be enough people who would be interested in helping.
Discussion
One medium that gets closer to the MP3 model of distribution would be the casting of bronzes or precious metals and making a limited run by hand or even 3D scanning / 3D printing those at scale. That’s one niche that could work, but it doesn’t really apply to other mediums that I can think of.
Interesting. I'm, frankly, not knowledgable about funding for artists in present day. Is there more corporate funding of art now rather than say funding from individuals?
I don’t have the best vantage point, but it seems to me that corporations are doing 1000x or 100x more than individual patrons. Artists that I really like are being supported this way in Canada, but I can’t speak to other countries. But that’s very diluted, like out of $100,000,000, maybe $5,000 finds it’s way to an artist that I like as a one-time grant! So it’s relatively easy for an individual patron who really cares to “outspend” the corporations when it comes to supporting a particular artist, who are doing more of a shotgun approach. You could say both are helpful in their own way, but I think individual patrons are really an endangered species that needs to come back in the form of Bitcoin maximalists.
Well, I think that is something that can develop now, as bitcoiners become more connected through protocols such as Nostr. It's probably fair to say that bitcoin's potential can, and should, spread into as many areas of culture, arts, science and society as possible.
For sure, and maybe a lot of these causes can receive a surprising amount of support through Zaps by being active on Nostr. The social aspect of promoting your cause on Nostr is very important. It’s challenging because it’s not like most people are desperate to leave their network effects on Instagram or YouTube. Those are still very much seen as essential platforms for distribution and discovery.
Yea, hopefully as nostr continues to grow it will attract the more "discerning" artists rather than the lowest common denominator type creators seen in those algorithm based social media platforms. I'm not suggesting all artists who use those older platforms are "LCD" but that genuinely talented artists might find it simpler and more beneficial to interact with their followers on something like nostr. The ethos of proof of work seems to be quite effective at sorting the wheat from the chaff.😊