I just don't know why the onus on selling the posters has to be put on the artist, who may not even have a webstore. Couldn't Pearl Jam pay a nominal amount for the commissioned artwork, (like $500?), and then **also** sell those 100 "exclusive" versions of the poster for like $100 each (or whatever the artist wants them to charge) at the show or at pearljam.com where 100 percent of the money goes to the artist? This way the artists is guaranteed some money, and if its a desirable design they easily also get $10k. Seems like win win for all.
In this case the artist does have a webstore, and regardless, why should the band change the business model now when it's clearly one that has been working for them and plenty of other artists over the years? Maybe not 100% of artists are happy with it, but most seem to appreciate the opportunity (or at least the complaints have been few & far between from what I've seen).
As someone else mentioned, it's not as if there was a bait & switch at play. No one was tricked or deceived.
Are you a lawyer for Ticketmaster? Just because artists suck it up and go along with a policy does not mean that it is actually fair. This seems like it could be easily remedied without much loss to a big band like Pearl Jam. If we were talking about some punk band rehearsing in a garage then I could understand this policy.
Weird take.
I'm going to go out on a limb and assume the artists who keep coming back to work for Pearl Jam year in and year out have a better understanding of the policy than you do, and must be pretty happy with the arrangement if they keep coming back, but what do I know?
I don't think you need to be the artist or some genius to figure out the policy. It's pretty clear: the artist designs poster and only gets paid in posters of their own work that they must sell and ship on their own time. As an artist, my opinion is that is really uncool. These poster artists are in a tricky and vulnerable position, and the people hiring them know it. My guess is that if you talked to many of these artists off record, they would tell you the same. It was brave of this artist to tell her story, but the fact is that now she will probably face retribution which sucks. Artists should be paid.
I agree, artists should be paid; I also maintain that clearly this model works for the people who keep taking on the work. Why on earth would artists like Ames Bros & Brad Klausen & Emek & Steve Thomas et al keep 'sucking it up' if it didn't?
Johnson had her reservations, as would I - the prospect of having to export all those posters from NZ isn't appealing, but that's the gig. Take it or don't. She hesitated and Tsurt moved on. That's life.
Ames keeps coming back because they have a sweetheart deal and get like 300 APs, 150 of which are variants that they sell for 2-3 times the cost of a standard AP. Smacks of nepotism. It says a lot that most of the artists accepting the standard 100 AP deal are lesser known or wouldn't be considered top tier gig print artists. When's the last time Emek or Sperry did a PJ print? Look at all the prints that Emek did in 2023. Why no PJ? We may never see it again.
I’d expect to see an EMEK for Portland.
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I can totally see why TSURT pulled the plug quickly. She seems like a pain in the ass to work with. Also, I’m pretty certain based on their track record as decent humans that the guys in Pearl Jam are absolutely NOT trying to screw artists over.
Do you guys think TSurt was on a tight deadline so had to make a call? Or do you think they jumped the gun in canning it? I'm not sure how far they'd need a final submission from an article in advance of a gig. Brad Klausen definitely seems the best qualified to answer this stuff. Seems to me like both sides can be right and also ignorant of the other's perspective. Might be a great deal in comparison to the way she's used to doing so, but having such a different business model has obviously taken her aback and communication/breakdowns could have been better. It's a shame she won't get the chance to do it. But yeah again I'm just trying to be philosophical and think they're reaching out to NZ artists for NZ concerts. Roll on November (allegedly).
Was the original offer to do a New Zealand show? I read that this artist actually moved to New York. If this offer was for Madison Square Garden, does that change everything?
What surprises me or actually doesn't surprise me is that some of you won't even give Pearl Jam the benefit of the doubt? It's like they're evil and screwing over people. We've known these guys for over 30 years to be upstanding people. Are they perfect. No. But to just to side against them without knowing all the factors.
Agreed, and it happens a lot on these boards which I find impossibly weird for the Pearl Jam fan club.
There's a whole lot of middle ground between thinking this band can do no wrong and assuming the worst of them at every turn, but middle ground doesn't seem to be entertained that much any more.
This whole thing is likely simpler solved had TSurt just given the brand new artist that he has never worked with before and she likewise a few references to explain how the process worked and why it can work the way that bands do this.
It is irrelevant what the whole industry does or does not do, he could have just not assumed that this person he reached out to should have known all about how pearl jam fans are psychotic about posters.
Hard disagree..., I would argue it's not up to Tsurt to educate artists on how compensation in their chosen field works.
With that being said, she got an education regardless.
Her chosen field is NOT making posters for rock bands. He reached out to her, not the other way around.
This may be a shock to some pearl jam fans, but there are over 8 billion people on earth, I would venture to guess that roughly 7,999,990,000 give or take a few thousand don't have their lives revolve around pearl jam tour merchandise.
Pearl Jam is coming through and playing a 5k capacity theater. Their manager calls and says "we want your band to open!" We're not paying a fee but we'll give you 50 tickets to sell. We recommend $200 per.
Now, you personally may not feel like selling any tickets and that's fine. But those should be in high demand and many would see $10,000 and the chance to open for Pearl Jam. Not for everyone maybe but seems pretty good.
This is an excellent analogy and IMO illustrates why this isn't great for the artist. If I am that band I am stoked to open for Pearl Jam but also a little irked that I need to go do additional work besides playing the show. Sure, I might have a way of selling tickets for my puny shows, like Eventbrite or something, and I have a mailing list for my band. But maybe I am an avant garde band and my puny fan base doesn't even really typically like Pearl Jam, so now I have to figure out how to advertise to Pearl Jam fans to buy these tickets. Maybe it's not that hard but Pearl Jam has a massive infrastructure already set up to sell their tickets so why put the work on me? Add in the fact that even when I sell the tickets I have to distribute them too...
So it's still a great opportunity for the artist, and it's not all bad or all good, and it's not a bait and switch, but on Pearl Jam's part it's definitely a little tacky.
Agree 100% although it's funny we kinda land on different verdicts. But I really was trying to capture the funky components - on one hand you're being forced to schlep and that's kinda weird but on the other is an almost certainly great payout and really nice exposure.
Again, I'm assuming 7-10k for this assignment is good but would be interested to hear otherwise.
This whole thing is likely simpler solved had TSurt just given the brand new artist that he has never worked with before and she likewise a few references to explain how the process worked and why it can work the way that bands do this.
It is irrelevant what the whole industry does or does not do, he could have just not assumed that this person he reached out to should have known all about how pearl jam fans are psychotic about posters.
Hard disagree..., I would argue it's not up to Tsurt to educate artists on how compensation in their chosen field works.
With that being said, she got an education regardless.
Her chosen field is NOT making posters for rock bands. He reached out to her, not the other way around.
This may be a shock to some pearl jam fans, but there are over 8 billion people on earth, I would venture to guess that roughly 7,999,990,000 give or take a few thousand don't have their lives revolve around pearl jam tour merchandise.
Does anyone choose the field of making posters for rock bands, or do they fall into it? She decided to create art and sell it & they reached out to her about contracting her as an artist. I think you're splitting hairs with that.
It's not a shock at all that someone might not be aware of how this works, I don't fault her for that, but OTOH I don't see why Tsurt should have to spend time educating anyone on the process either. There's a lot of middle ground here.
This whole thing is likely simpler solved had TSurt just given the brand new artist that he has never worked with before and she likewise a few references to explain how the process worked and why it can work the way that bands do this.
It is irrelevant what the whole industry does or does not do, he could have just not assumed that this person he reached out to should have known all about how pearl jam fans are psychotic about posters.
Hard disagree..., I would argue it's not up to Tsurt to educate artists on how compensation in their chosen field works.
With that being said, she got an education regardless.
Her chosen field is NOT making posters for rock bands. He reached out to her, not the other way around.
This may be a shock to some pearl jam fans, but there are over 8 billion people on earth, I would venture to guess that roughly 7,999,990,000 give or take a few thousand don't have their lives revolve around pearl jam tour merchandise.
Does anyone choose the field of making posters for rock bands, or do they fall into it? She decided to create art and sell it & they reached out to her about contracting her as an artist. I think you're splitting hairs with that.
It's not a shock at all that someone might not be aware of how this works, I don't fault her for that, but OTOH I don't see why Tsurt should have to spend time educating anyone on the process either. There's a lot of middle ground here.
You literally wrote it is not up to him to educate artists on how the compensation in their chosen field works. Most artists do NOT work to hope to get paid off a side deal of what a rock band sells of their merchandise. So yeah, he should educate her better about the process instead of being dismissive. If she reached out to him saying I want in on this and then was like wait wait, that is on her. But barring a really bad retelling of this encounter that is not remotely what happened.
So why does Tsurt need to educate someone he reached out to that was confused about the process? Because it is literally what he does for a living is sell other peoples work for them. So it is pretty reasonable to expect that artists who do not do gig posters have no idea what is going on.
This whole thing is likely simpler solved had TSurt just given the brand new artist that he has never worked with before and she likewise a few references to explain how the process worked and why it can work the way that bands do this.
It is irrelevant what the whole industry does or does not do, he could have just not assumed that this person he reached out to should have known all about how pearl jam fans are psychotic about posters.
Hard disagree..., I would argue it's not up to Tsurt to educate artists on how compensation in their chosen field works.
With that being said, she got an education regardless.
Her chosen field is NOT making posters for rock bands. He reached out to her, not the other way around.
This may be a shock to some pearl jam fans, but there are over 8 billion people on earth, I would venture to guess that roughly 7,999,990,000 give or take a few thousand don't have their lives revolve around pearl jam tour merchandise.
Does anyone choose the field of making posters for rock bands, or do they fall into it? She decided to create art and sell it & they reached out to her about contracting her as an artist. I think you're splitting hairs with that.
It's not a shock at all that someone might not be aware of how this works, I don't fault her for that, but OTOH I don't see why Tsurt should have to spend time educating anyone on the process either. There's a lot of middle ground here.
You literally wrote it is not up to him to educate artists on how the compensation in their chosen field works. Most artists do NOT work to hope to get paid off a side deal of what a rock band sells of their merchandise. So yeah, he should educate her better about the process instead of being dismissive. If she reached out to him saying I want in on this and then was like wait wait, that is on her. But barring a really bad retelling of this encounter that is not remotely what happened.
So why does Tsurt need to educate someone he reached out to that was confused about the process? Because it is literally what he does for a living is sell other peoples work for them. So it is pretty reasonable to expect that artists who do not do gig posters have no idea what is going on.
In fairness, from the limited emails we saw, he did explain how it works. The artists is compensated w/ 100 APs. Johnson didn't seem too keen on the idea and it fell apart from there.
FWIW, this is taken directly from a guy who has done a few posters for Metallica.
Hmm. I don’t wanna get too into how the sausage gets made but yeah, this is pretty much the standard payment to create posters for bands. I’m always a little torn about whether it’s a fair method. It’s certainly a LOT of work outside of actually creating the posters themselves. Ordering tubes and shipping supplies, gathering addresses, mailing orders, etc. A lot of stress and effort. In the end, I just wanna draw things. In saying that, it more than evens out financially if you’re willing to put the effort in. It doesn’t mean I’ll be buying that private island anytime soon but it does end up paying out more than what this artist probably would have made via the flat fee she wanted. No doubt the writer of the article would have been snarkily outraged by that too. Also worth mentioning that for bands like PJ and Metallica, the fanbases are so passionate that these posters usually sell out pretty quickly and easily. Things get infinitely trickier when it’s a smaller band. Ultimately, it’s very difficult to make a living as an artist on your own terms. That’s the sad truth of it. It’s a lot of hard work outside of just creating and drawing so yeah, you have to set your boundaries as to what you’ll accept and what you won’t. (Personally, I’d drive over kittens to do a PJ poster!)
FWIW, this is taken directly from a guy who has done a few posters for Metallica.
Hmm. I don’t wanna get too into how the sausage gets made but yeah, this is pretty much the standard payment to create posters for bands. I’m always a little torn about whether it’s a fair method. It’s certainly a LOT of work outside of actually creating the posters themselves. Ordering tubes and shipping supplies, gathering addresses, mailing orders, etc. A lot of stress and effort. In the end, I just wanna draw things. In saying that, it more than evens out financially if you’re willing to put the effort in. It doesn’t mean I’ll be buying that private island anytime soon but it does end up paying out more than what this artist probably would have made via the flat fee she wanted. No doubt the writer of the article would have been snarkily outraged by that too. Also worth mentioning that for bands like PJ and Metallica, the fanbases are so passionate that these posters usually sell out pretty quickly and easily. Things get infinitely trickier when it’s a smaller band. Ultimately, it’s very difficult to make a living as an artist on your own terms. That’s the sad truth of it. It’s a lot of hard work outside of just creating and drawing so yeah, you have to set your boundaries as to what you’ll accept and what you won’t. (Personally, I’d drive over kittens to do a PJ poster!)
FWIW, this is taken directly from a guy who has done a few posters for Metallica.
Hmm. I don’t wanna get too into how the sausage gets made but yeah, this is pretty much the standard payment to create posters for bands. I’m always a little torn about whether it’s a fair method. It’s certainly a LOT of work outside of actually creating the posters themselves. Ordering tubes and shipping supplies, gathering addresses, mailing orders, etc. A lot of stress and effort. In the end, I just wanna draw things. In saying that, it more than evens out financially if you’re willing to put the effort in. It doesn’t mean I’ll be buying that private island anytime soon but it does end up paying out more than what this artist probably would have made via the flat fee she wanted. No doubt the writer of the article would have been snarkily outraged by that too. Also worth mentioning that for bands like PJ and Metallica, the fanbases are so passionate that these posters usually sell out pretty quickly and easily. Things get infinitely trickier when it’s a smaller band. Ultimately, it’s very difficult to make a living as an artist on your own terms. That’s the sad truth of it. It’s a lot of hard work outside of just creating and drawing so yeah, you have to set your boundaries as to what you’ll accept and what you won’t. (Personally, I’d drive over kittens to do a PJ poster!)
So... if you work harder and put more time in, you can achieve a much higher payday. That seems pretty consistent with, like, working and having a job..... Especially if you are self-employed
Post edited by Weston1283 on
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No doubt the writer of the article would have been snarkily outraged by that too.
This is a great point, and highlights an understated angle to this nonsense: the indignation of the person writing the newsletter, which I have zero doubt only hurt Johnson's position in all of this.
FWIW, this is taken directly from a guy who has done a few posters for Metallica.
Hmm. I don’t wanna get too into how the sausage gets made but yeah, this is pretty much the standard payment to create posters for bands. I’m always a little torn about whether it’s a fair method. It’s certainly a LOT of work outside of actually creating the posters themselves. Ordering tubes and shipping supplies, gathering addresses, mailing orders, etc. A lot of stress and effort. In the end, I just wanna draw things. In saying that, it more than evens out financially if you’re willing to put the effort in. It doesn’t mean I’ll be buying that private island anytime soon but it does end up paying out more than what this artist probably would have made via the flat fee she wanted. No doubt the writer of the article would have been snarkily outraged by that too. Also worth mentioning that for bands like PJ and Metallica, the fanbases are so passionate that these posters usually sell out pretty quickly and easily. Things get infinitely trickier when it’s a smaller band. Ultimately, it’s very difficult to make a living as an artist on your own terms. That’s the sad truth of it. It’s a lot of hard work outside of just creating and drawing so yeah, you have to set your boundaries as to what you’ll accept and what you won’t. (Personally, I’d drive over kittens to do a PJ poster!)
So... if you work harder and put more time in, you can achieve a much higher payday. That seems pretty consistent with, like, working and having a job..... Especially if you are self-employed
FWIW, this is taken directly from a guy who has done a few posters for Metallica.
Hmm. I don’t wanna get too into how the sausage gets made but yeah, this is pretty much the standard payment to create posters for bands. I’m always a little torn about whether it’s a fair method. It’s certainly a LOT of work outside of actually creating the posters themselves. Ordering tubes and shipping supplies, gathering addresses, mailing orders, etc. A lot of stress and effort. In the end, I just wanna draw things. In saying that, it more than evens out financially if you’re willing to put the effort in. It doesn’t mean I’ll be buying that private island anytime soon but it does end up paying out more than what this artist probably would have made via the flat fee she wanted. No doubt the writer of the article would have been snarkily outraged by that too. Also worth mentioning that for bands like PJ and Metallica, the fanbases are so passionate that these posters usually sell out pretty quickly and easily. Things get infinitely trickier when it’s a smaller band. Ultimately, it’s very difficult to make a living as an artist on your own terms. That’s the sad truth of it. It’s a lot of hard work outside of just creating and drawing so yeah, you have to set your boundaries as to what you’ll accept and what you won’t. (Personally, I’d drive over kittens to do a PJ poster!)
So... if you work harder and put more time in, you can achieve a much higher payday. That seems pretty consistent with, like, working and having a job..... Especially if you are self-employed
That wasn't really his point. With this model, the artist has to do a lot of administrative work to sell the APs or they wouldn't get paid at all. The time he spends buying tubes, packing up posters, making mailing labels, etc, is time that he's not drawing. So in a sense, having to work harder on that stuff causes him to lose money by preventing or delaying work on other projects. But he could probably outsource those tasks
FWIW, this is taken directly from a guy who has done a few posters for Metallica.
Hmm. I don’t wanna get too into how the sausage gets made but yeah, this is pretty much the standard payment to create posters for bands. I’m always a little torn about whether it’s a fair method. It’s certainly a LOT of work outside of actually creating the posters themselves. Ordering tubes and shipping supplies, gathering addresses, mailing orders, etc. A lot of stress and effort. In the end, I just wanna draw things. In saying that, it more than evens out financially if you’re willing to put the effort in. It doesn’t mean I’ll be buying that private island anytime soon but it does end up paying out more than what this artist probably would have made via the flat fee she wanted. No doubt the writer of the article would have been snarkily outraged by that too. Also worth mentioning that for bands like PJ and Metallica, the fanbases are so passionate that these posters usually sell out pretty quickly and easily. Things get infinitely trickier when it’s a smaller band. Ultimately, it’s very difficult to make a living as an artist on your own terms. That’s the sad truth of it. It’s a lot of hard work outside of just creating and drawing so yeah, you have to set your boundaries as to what you’ll accept and what you won’t. (Personally, I’d drive over kittens to do a PJ poster!)
So... if you work harder and put more time in, you can achieve a much higher payday. That seems pretty consistent with, like, working and having a job..... Especially if you are self-employed
That wasn't really his point. With this model, the artist has to do a lot of administrative work to sell the APs or they wouldn't get paid at all. The time he spends buying tubes, packing up posters, making mailing labels, etc, is time that he's not drawing. So in a sense, having to work harder on that stuff causes him to lose money by preventing or delaying work on other projects. But he could probably outsource those tasks
I assume people that buy the original art don’t pick up in person. A cost for sure with time and effort, but I am sure these artists would love to do a 100 print run and ship out to make $10k. This is no different, other than they can use the PJ name and show date.
FWIW, this is taken directly from a guy who has done a few posters for Metallica.
Hmm. I don’t wanna get too into how the sausage gets made but yeah, this is pretty much the standard payment to create posters for bands. I’m always a little torn about whether it’s a fair method. It’s certainly a LOT of work outside of actually creating the posters themselves. Ordering tubes and shipping supplies, gathering addresses, mailing orders, etc. A lot of stress and effort. In the end, I just wanna draw things. In saying that, it more than evens out financially if you’re willing to put the effort in. It doesn’t mean I’ll be buying that private island anytime soon but it does end up paying out more than what this artist probably would have made via the flat fee she wanted. No doubt the writer of the article would have been snarkily outraged by that too. Also worth mentioning that for bands like PJ and Metallica, the fanbases are so passionate that these posters usually sell out pretty quickly and easily. Things get infinitely trickier when it’s a smaller band. Ultimately, it’s very difficult to make a living as an artist on your own terms. That’s the sad truth of it. It’s a lot of hard work outside of just creating and drawing so yeah, you have to set your boundaries as to what you’ll accept and what you won’t. (Personally, I’d drive over kittens to do a PJ poster!)
So... if you work harder and put more time in, you can achieve a much higher payday. That seems pretty consistent with, like, working and having a job..... Especially if you are self-employed
That wasn't really his point. With this model, the artist has to do a lot of administrative work to sell the APs or they wouldn't get paid at all. The time he spends buying tubes, packing up posters, making mailing labels, etc, is time that he's not drawing. So in a sense, having to work harder on that stuff causes him to lose money by preventing or delaying work on other projects. But he could probably outsource those tasks
I get that. As a self employed or assumed to be solo artist, all of that is part of the job though. I spend about 80% of my day doing paperwork, admin work, or practice management stuff and only about 20% of my day seeing patients, the "drawing" equivalent for an artist.
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This article doesn't include enough information/data to have any idea about this process as a whole. All you can take from it is this one artist doesn't usually work that way and was confused. Instead of making a decision just kept communicating how weird it was. And then TShurt kinda seemed to just snap and moved on. It's a great example of....pick up the phone and talk it out instead of just continuing some weird email conversation that is getting no where.
Now - I would love to know what is the "normal practice". What other artists think about PJ practice. How much is normal if paid in cash for this service. How much do Pearl Jam artists get on average due of this process. What's the least amount of $ an artist earned from agreeing to this process for Pearl Jam. What's the highest?
And then I'd like to ask, was this process the band's idea?
I think one major point the article left out is mentioning, what the industry standard for doing a gig poster would be, if it the artist would be given a fee or flatrate for the design. And from what I have read (you can e.g. find Brad Klausen talking about the poster industry in several threads on this board) the standard would be something between 200- 500 Dollars. Not saying that this is to a good compensation for doing the work, just that you need to put this in perspective.
Ken Taylor also commented on David Farriers Facebook- page saying that this deal might look unusual for people not working in the poster industry, but that it is a great deal and gives some more insight why he thinks that.
Perhaps this is why the posters are USUALLY SUB STANDARD. The artists are getting a raw deal. Especially when they ask for clarification and are treated like they should be falling over to work for posters. If I was them, I’d do the best I could and then sell all 100 one by one to the highest bidder.
Ask Nicole Rifkin how her experience went. If you do decide to work for the big boys, be prepared to bring your A game in all aspects of your business. Maybe Jess wouldn’t have been up to par to begin with.
You think a 4 eyed cowboy and baby brain is anyone’s “A game”… more like half ass it because you’re getting paid like shit.
FWIW, this is taken directly from a guy who has done a few posters for Metallica.
Hmm. I don’t wanna get too into how the sausage gets made but yeah, this is pretty much the standard payment to create posters for bands. I’m always a little torn about whether it’s a fair method. It’s certainly a LOT of work outside of actually creating the posters themselves. Ordering tubes and shipping supplies, gathering addresses, mailing orders, etc. A lot of stress and effort. In the end, I just wanna draw things. In saying that, it more than evens out financially if you’re willing to put the effort in. It doesn’t mean I’ll be buying that private island anytime soon but it does end up paying out more than what this artist probably would have made via the flat fee she wanted. No doubt the writer of the article would have been snarkily outraged by that too. Also worth mentioning that for bands like PJ and Metallica, the fanbases are so passionate that these posters usually sell out pretty quickly and easily. Things get infinitely trickier when it’s a smaller band. Ultimately, it’s very difficult to make a living as an artist on your own terms. That’s the sad truth of it. It’s a lot of hard work outside of just creating and drawing so yeah, you have to set your boundaries as to what you’ll accept and what you won’t. (Personally, I’d drive over kittens to do a PJ poster!)
Somebody introduce this guy to Tsurt and save the kittens
Yes there was a certain slant to the article saying the artist was being screwed but I think (without a lot of data) that this is an industry standard for paying a poster artist for a concert. And the better the poster design ( and artist reputation) then the more and the quicker they are paid. I also wonder if the artist was paid directly would they make more than $10K per poster project. The artist gets exposure to new potential customers and when I buy a poster from an unknown artist it puts them on my radar and I may purchase more of their work and be attentive to future projects they do. My 2 cents.
It's additional hustle for sure, so getting compensated for artwork by creating it, selling it and shipping it has to be a significant portion of cost being put on the artist. I'd be curious how artists for cancelled shows fare in the process.
That being said, I've talked with TSURT about potential projects - not on the poster side - and he is a decent guy. Sometimes the most fun and amazing opportunities for artists come with caveats and less guarantees, but some also do well and become part of the merch roster. I'm guessing Ian Williams isn't getting paid 100x shirts and pins, and we see artists coming back for more rounds of posters, so it can't be a completely flawed system.
It's additional hustle for sure, so getting compensated for artwork by creating it, selling it and shipping it has to be a significant portion of cost being put on the artist. I'd be curious how artists for cancelled shows fare in the process.
This is what artists do with all of their own projects already, right? Jess Johnson has a store where she sells her prints.
So Jess is cool creating a print, selling it, and shipping it on her website for $170USD. So, all she needs to do is ask herself, am I fine doing what I'm already doing, stamping Pearl jam on the print, and selling 100 of them on my website for $100USD (and some may sit on my site just like my other ones).
The artist is really in the same spot, so I'm not sure why the artist should complain. If they can make more with their own stuff pass up the deal. Pearl Jam does win though. They get free art.
Comments
"Me knowing the truth, I can not concur."
1996: Toronto - 1998: Chicago, Montreal, Barrie - 2000: Montreal, Toronto - 2002: Seattle X2 (Key Arena) - 2003: Cleveland, Buffalo, Toronto, Montreal, Seattle (Benaroya Hall) - 2004: Reading, Toledo, Grand Rapids - 2005: Kitchener, London, Hamilton, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Quebec City - 2006: Toronto X2, Albany, Hartford, Grand Rapids, Cleveland - 2007: Chicago (Vic Theatre) - 2008: NYC X2, Hartford, Mansfield X2 - 2009: Toronto, Chicago X2, Seattle X2, Philadelphia X4 - 2010: Columbus, Noblesville, Cleveland, Buffalo, Hartford - 2011: Montreal, Toronto X2, Ottawa, Hamilton - 2012: Missoula - 2013: London, Chicago, Buffalo, Hartford - 2014: Detroit, Moline - 2015: NYC (Global Citizen Festival) - 2016: Greenville, Toronto X2, Chicago 1 - 2017: Brooklyn (RRHOF Induction) - 2018: Chicago 1, Boston 1 - 2022: Fresno, Ottawa, Hamilton, Toronto, NYC, Camden - 2023: St. Paul X2, Austin X2 - 2024: Vancouver X2, Portland, Sacramento, Missoula, Noblesville, Philadelphia X2, Baltimore
There's a whole lot of middle ground between thinking this band can do no wrong and assuming the worst of them at every turn, but middle ground doesn't seem to be entertained that much any more.
This may be a shock to some pearl jam fans, but there are over 8 billion people on earth, I would venture to guess that roughly 7,999,990,000 give or take a few thousand don't have their lives revolve around pearl jam tour merchandise.
http://www.hi5sports.org/ (Sports Program for Kids with Disabilities)
http://www.livefootsteps.org/user/?usr=3652
Again, I'm assuming 7-10k for this assignment is good but would be interested to hear otherwise.
It's not a shock at all that someone might not be aware of how this works, I don't fault her for that, but OTOH I don't see why Tsurt should have to spend time educating anyone on the process either. There's a lot of middle ground here.
So why does Tsurt need to educate someone he reached out to that was confused about the process? Because it is literally what he does for a living is sell other peoples work for them. So it is pretty reasonable to expect that artists who do not do gig posters have no idea what is going on.
http://www.hi5sports.org/ (Sports Program for Kids with Disabilities)
http://www.livefootsteps.org/user/?usr=3652
"No harm no foal", as they say.
"...I changed by not changing at all..."
In saying that, it more than evens out financially if you’re willing to put the effort in. It doesn’t mean I’ll be buying that private island anytime soon but it does end up paying out more than what this artist probably would have made via the flat fee she wanted. No doubt the writer of the article would have been snarkily outraged by that too.
Also worth mentioning that for bands like PJ and Metallica, the fanbases are so passionate that these posters usually sell out pretty quickly and easily. Things get infinitely trickier when it’s a smaller band.
Ultimately, it’s very difficult to make a living as an artist on your own terms. That’s the sad truth of it. It’s a lot of hard work outside of just creating and drawing so yeah, you have to set your boundaries as to what you’ll accept and what you won’t. (Personally, I’d drive over kittens to do a PJ poster!)
2012: Atlanta
2013: London ONT / Wrigley Field / Pittsburgh / Buffalo / San Diego / Los Angeles I / Los Angeles II
2014: Cincinnati / St. Louis / Tulsa / Lincoln / Detroit / Denver
2015: New York City
2016: Ft. Lauderdale / Miami / Jacksonville / Greenville / Hampton / Columbia / Lexington / Philly II / New York City II / Toronto II / Bonnaroo / Telluride / Fenway I / Wrigley I / Wrigley - II / TOTD - Philadelphia, San Francisco
2017: Ohana Fest (EV)
2018: Amsterdam I / Amsterdam II / Seattle I / Seattle II / Boston I / Boston II
2021: Asbury Park / Ohana Encore 1 / Ohana Encore 2
2022: Phoenix / LA I / LA II / Quebec City / Ottawa / New York City / Camden / Nashville / St. Louis / Denver
2023: St. Paul II
2024: Las Vegas I / Las Vegas II / New York City I / New York City II / Philly I / Philly II / Baltimore
Funny how that works, isn't it?
2012: Atlanta
2013: London ONT / Wrigley Field / Pittsburgh / Buffalo / San Diego / Los Angeles I / Los Angeles II
2014: Cincinnati / St. Louis / Tulsa / Lincoln / Detroit / Denver
2015: New York City
2016: Ft. Lauderdale / Miami / Jacksonville / Greenville / Hampton / Columbia / Lexington / Philly II / New York City II / Toronto II / Bonnaroo / Telluride / Fenway I / Wrigley I / Wrigley - II / TOTD - Philadelphia, San Francisco
2017: Ohana Fest (EV)
2018: Amsterdam I / Amsterdam II / Seattle I / Seattle II / Boston I / Boston II
2021: Asbury Park / Ohana Encore 1 / Ohana Encore 2
2022: Phoenix / LA I / LA II / Quebec City / Ottawa / New York City / Camden / Nashville / St. Louis / Denver
2023: St. Paul II
2024: Las Vegas I / Las Vegas II / New York City I / New York City II / Philly I / Philly II / Baltimore
Now - I would love to know what is the "normal practice". What other artists think about PJ practice. How much is normal if paid in cash for this service. How much do Pearl Jam artists get on average due of this process. What's the least amount of $ an artist earned from agreeing to this process for Pearl Jam. What's the highest?
And then I'd like to ask, was this process the band's idea?
Full investigation!
As silly as that sounds, and I meant it as a total joke, this is more useful than investigating Hunter Biden.
Ken Taylor also commented on David Farriers Facebook- page saying that this deal might look unusual for people not working in the poster industry, but that it is a great deal and gives some more insight why he thinks that.
That being said, I've talked with TSURT about potential projects - not on the poster side - and he is a decent guy. Sometimes the most fun and amazing opportunities for artists come with caveats and less guarantees, but some also do well and become part of the merch roster. I'm guessing Ian Williams isn't getting paid 100x shirts and pins, and we see artists coming back for more rounds of posters, so it can't be a completely flawed system.
So Jess is cool creating a print, selling it, and shipping it on her website for $170USD. So, all she needs to do is ask herself, am I fine doing what I'm already doing, stamping Pearl jam on the print, and selling 100 of them on my website for $100USD (and some may sit on my site just like my other ones).
The artist is really in the same spot, so I'm not sure why the artist should complain. If they can make more with their own stuff pass up the deal. Pearl Jam does win though. They get free art.