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related
Guides:

Intellectual
Property

Taxation




related
Notes:

Begging

Droit de
Suite

Collectibles,
Prices,
Cultures

     overview

This page considers busking, claimed by some enthusiasts to provide a viable mechanism for rewarding creators and dismissed by critics as a simplistic response to intellectual property questions.

It covers -

• introduction
• issues
• points of reference

It supplements the discussion elsewhere on this site regarding the 'genius in the garret' rationale for copyright, literary best-sellers and begging.

     introduction

The 1990s saw recurrent announcement that in the 'age of the internet' both the nation state and copyright were dead ... or, like vaudeville, merely smelt that way.

It has thus become a truism that -

• copyright is dead (despatched by a vanguard of politically self-conscious consumers led by virtuous digerati in an inevitable victory over record companies and other "media dinosaurs" that rely on litigation and DRM technologies)
• all content industries are the same (or, in relation to copyright, should be)
• traditional models for financially rewarding creativity are no longer viable
• those models will not provide a living for lyricists, composers, authors, photographers and graphic artists.

Some pundits have welcomed that supposed demise and argued that creators will in future be able to support themselves using a 'busker' model of financial reward in the so-called 'experience economy', making money through -

• appearance fees (ie a share of the 'gate' at live events, including musical performances, lectures and workshops)
• product endorsement
• sale of collectibles (t-shirts, coffee mugs, autographed CDs and posters or texts)
• gifts from a physical or virtual audience

rather from selling/licensing their intellectual property.

Other pundits have gone a stage further, asserting that creators can or should be supported by patrons (ie philanthropists, encouraged or not by the tax system) or by the state, with post-industrial governments offering a comprehensive social welfare system that fosters artistic endeavour.

A contrary view is that reports of the death of copyright are premature, that not all content industries are the same and that not all creators have the same scope for making a living (or a fortune) through busking. Motion pictures, even with the help of Pixar, involve more than one or two stars - they are closer to industrial enterprises rather than a rock group operating out of a spare bedroom and hoping to hit the big time through a spot on Australian Idol or YouTube.

People who question the conventional wisdom note that copyright includes respect for attribution rather than purely for revenue (moral rights). Some also note that a struggling novelist or the local busker does not have the economic power of a Mick Jagger, a Rostropovitch or a Bruce Willis and that the pub, kerb or lecture circuit is a punishing way to make a living.

Their concerns are evident in the following pages of this note, which conclude that for some celebrities or superstars copyright as an income source has already been eclipsed by live performances and collectibles but note that many creators (in particular people who are not performers) will not be able to rely on busking or welfare.

     issues

In 2004 digital celebrity Howard Rheingold, author of digital pop culture hits such as Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution (New York: Perseus 2002) and The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier (London: Secker & Warburg 1994), announced that he would be visiting India in 2005 for a gig at the 'Doors of Perception' event in Bangalore. 

Rheingold indicated that  

I make a little money writing, and most of what pays my bills comes from speaking engagements. Sometimes, I do keynotes or panels, and sometimes organizations bring me in to brainstorm with them about smartmobby stuff in addition to a briefing or talk. I've been invited to speak in Bangalore in March, 2005. The inviting organization can pay my transportation costs, but not a fee. I'd like to spend at least a week in India, a country I've always wanted to visit, but have never had the opportunity. But I can't afford to lose a week or more of work. Are there organizations or businesses in Bangalore who would be able to pay me less than my usual speaking fee - and no travel expenses - to brief their people about Smart Mobs and my latest endeavor - The Cooperation Project?

Forecasts of the imminent 'death of copyright' (often with the same fervour as predictions of the 'death of capitalism') have sometimes been accompanied by assertions that although copyright lawyers and intermediaries such as record companies will disappear, creators will flourish in a new 'performance economy'.

Some ideologues dismiss problems of recognition and rewards by asserting that notions of originality are as outmoded and pernicious as books: in the digital millennium everyone can and indeed become a creator. Others, with a marginally better grip on reality, assert that creators will be rewarded with esteem and remuneration through 'busking', making a living on the lecture circuit, concert appearances, poetry readings, sale of t-shirts or product endorsements rather than from licensing intellectual property.

Such assertions are a form of faith-based economics. Few creators appear likely to make substantial income through appearances and endorsements. Just as importantly, many probably do not want emulate Dickens and Thackeray on the lecture circuit and do not have the requisite presentation skills.

     points of reference

Works on the income of contemporary creators include -

• The Write Stuff: Employment and Earnings of Authors, 1970 to 1990 (1994) by Neil Alper & Gregory Wassall (PDF)
• Don’t Give Up Your Day Job: an economic study of professional artists in Australia report (2003) by David Throsby & Virginia Hollister
• Empirical Evidence on Copyright Earnings (2006) by Martin Kretschmer (PDF)
• Authors' Earnings from Copyright and Non-Copyright Sources: A Survey of 25,000 British and German Writers (2007) by Martin Kretschmer & Philip Hardwick (PDF).

Droit de suite (a resale royalty for visual artists) is discussed here.

Indicators of the wealth of creators such as Charles Dickens and and Mark Twain - attributable to the lecture circuit and product endorsements rather than merely the pen - are provided here.

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