In wake of pandemic, new online platforms promise to pay artists what they deserve

Of all the people who suffered precarity in the last two years, artists and performers are near the top of the list. When galleries closed and live performances and film productions were halted, artists turned to online platforms as a source of revenue to replace what was lost in the pandemic.

"For a while, I just kind of sat in the absence of activity and just absorbed that, and kind of re-thought, you know, 'Where, where do I take my career from here?' Because my main source of income is touring and playing shows. And that was totally gone," said Cadence Weapon, a Toronto-based rapper, poet and author, and winner of the Polaris Music Prize.

While many of us made great use of streaming services and other forms of digital performance, most of the profits ended up in the pockets of tech companies rather than the artists themselves.

But a spate of new digital services are aiming to connect artists with their fans — and help artists get paid for it.

Now, with newsletter subscription services like Substack, payment platforms like Patreon, and interactive streaming services like Twitch, Cadence Weapon has been trying to make some of his revenue back while adding value for his audience.

"Substack has been really good for me. I think that one of the biggest discoveries for me over the pandemic was how to tie my writing in with my music in a way that would resonate with my audience," he told Spark host Nora Young. 

He also engaged with fans on Twitch.

"It's trying to get through the friction that these corporations have created for us. And it's like they've created static that we have to get through in order to actually communicate with our audience," he said.

Technology analyst and journalist Takara Small agreed.

"Because creatives, for so long, have really been beholden to the big tech companies, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. They had no agency, no control to decide how much money they received and how and when their work was promoted," she said.

She stressed the importance of transparency, and re-examining equity in the online entertainment space. A fair deal for artists, she said, "looks at who owns that content and looks at being transparent about how much the parent company is making off that content and reimbursing the artist for their time. When we don't do that we're not really supporting artists, we're just creating a new class of gig workers."

Cadence Weapon said he already sees himself as a gig worker.

"I can't do it all at the same time. I mean, obviously, I have a team that helps me with aspects of that. But it is a lot of work. And it's a full-time job. But I mean, that's that freelance lifestyle, really, for anyone," he said.

But he is disturbed by the commodification of art that many online platforms seem to urge.

"Anytime I talk to a tech person, the first thing they think of is how to turn what I'm doing into a commodity or into an asset. And it's the last thing I think about when I'm doing what I'm doing. I make art, I make music, I try to keep it as far away from that world of like, 'Oh, the songs are like investment nodes.'"

"I don't want to think of what I'm doing like that because I think it really poisons the entire process. And it's impossible to make anything good when you're thinking like that."

Small hopes that these smaller, more artist-focused platforms are an antidote to that.

"It's kind of the digital version [of] a co-op," she said.

"And that's because people are coming together and recognizing that we can't wait on the industry to do the right thing. So it's unfortunate, but I think creatives who are in this space need to start talking about how much money they make, and where the money is coming from. And then that's the only way you can have an honest discussion about pay."

Written by Adam Killick. Produced by Nora Young, Samraweet Yohannes, and Michelle Parise.