The very idea that "true art" cannot be made for hire is largely (though not exclusively) a product of 19th century romanticism. This isn't limited to music. Pick any famous piece by Raphael, Michelangelo, Bernini, Rembrandt... Chances are it was made for hire. Literature has more exceptions, like Shakespeare writing for a playing company of which he was part owner.
It would be really interesting to explore how making art for hire, which used to be the norm for centuries, came to be looked down upon in the last century and a half. Probably a lot of economic factors worked together to produce that effect.
Interesting. I feel like I am always an outsider in this thought process, but I believe that if you are not being paid for your art (regardless of type), you are not producing anything of real value to a large enough group.
The concept of "true art" not being made for hire seems like an excuse for someone to imagine they are successful without actually being so. One of the factors I think is driving this is that everyone in today’s (US) culture needs to be a winner and there are no losers. While it isn’t bad in and of itself, if you truly look at 2 artists as an outsider and one is being paid and the other is not, it seems clear to me who is producing better art for the masses and therefore generating the most economic value.
This same concept can be applied to startups. I read people making excuses for not having VC funding that typically include things like, VCs only like big market sizes which is dumb or VCs only fund businesses with XYZ type of cofounder which is not fair etc. Normally when I read these statements it is obvious to me that the person writing them just doesn’t understand the reality of the game they are involved in.
Similarly, an artist producing music that only .001% of the population will listen to will make excuses about why they don’t have a record deal bc record execs have no taste in good music. That is obviously ridiculous.
Well, "making art for hire" is not exactly the same as "being paid for your art".
The former is when you already have a buyer lined up before you start working. For example, a rich man in the Renaissance era might ask an artist to make him a sculpture of Bacchus fucking Ariadne. (You'd be surprised how many renowned artists were paid to make porn for rich folks.) In that case, the buyer might pay for the block of marble and cover the artist's expenses while he sculpts, in addition to paying him a handsome fee for his work. But then the buyer also has a direct influence on every aspect of the end product. If the buyer wants the girl in the sculpture to look like his underage mistress, it's going to happen even if the artist thinks it's a bad idea.
The latter is a broader concept, and it includes the case where you produce something first and then look for buyers. Novelists often work in this way, spending years to perfect their works without any buyer lined up. Some people who have no problem with this broader concept might still be uncomfortable about the narrower case of "making for hire", because of the direct influence that the buyer's spec has on the product. If you build it first and then look for buyers, at least you have a chance to show people that they might want to do things in a way they never even thought of before.
It would be really interesting to explore how making art for hire, which used to be the norm for centuries, came to be looked down upon in the last century and a half. Probably a lot of economic factors worked together to produce that effect.