Interesting... I'm not like that. If a particular creative person keeps creating stuff, I will keep buying it, year after year after year....
Scalzi's point was an interesting one, but I wonder about it. For instance: buying for other people is far more tempting than buying for myself. $8 for a book? I might pass. But if I'm getting it for someone I know will like it, I'll buy it without a second thought.
Paying artists this way hits the same mental trigger, particularly if I don't have to deal with physical media, and twice particularly if it makes things available to a community at large. I am buying "something" for someone else: in this case, groceries or living expenses for a creative person; and getting to give it to lots of other people (the community).
It's more like charity than it is the old model of supporting art, the difference between buying a copy of an artwork you're going to hang in your office and making an artwork available in a museum.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-13 05:28 pm (UTC)Scalzi's point was an interesting one, but I wonder about it. For instance: buying for other people is far more tempting than buying for myself. $8 for a book? I might pass. But if I'm getting it for someone I know will like it, I'll buy it without a second thought.
Paying artists this way hits the same mental trigger, particularly if I don't have to deal with physical media, and twice particularly if it makes things available to a community at large. I am buying "something" for someone else: in this case, groceries or living expenses for a creative person; and getting to give it to lots of other people (the community).
It's more like charity than it is the old model of supporting art, the difference between buying a copy of an artwork you're going to hang in your office and making an artwork available in a museum.