Top ten ways the digital age has changed the game for artists

BY SELINA McCALLUM

A decade ago, I was 13 years old, and I was wandering around for hours in different worlds by reading books. Then, I would write short stories and poems using the words I collected from the stories I read. When I went to high school, I knew I wanted to follow my passion of being a journalist because of my love for writing. Writing is an art form that, to me, is the most powerful one of them all.

As the years have gone by, artists like myself have had to shift their traditional ways of creating art due to the demands of the digital age. For the past decade, the number of people online has accumulated to over 4 billion online users as of January 2019 according to We Are Social and Hootsuite. This article covers the ten ways I have seen the digital age change the rules for artists and producing artwork.

Ownership
The art we make no longer belongs to us. Once it is on the internet, it is swept into a vast sea of people who crop it, reword it, brighten it, and just all around edit it to land on your shore looking the exact opposite from its origin. If you’re a photographer reading this, you know exactly how this feels. Your watermark may still be on the photo, but it is not your photo. For people who make comics or drawings, the image may be stretched out or made smaller to fit  the standard on different social media sites. As an artist, we must know that if we decide to put it online, it will be in the people’s hands, literally.

Meeting an international demand
The more eyes on our artwork means the more we need to produce. We were not as connected to the rest of the world as we are today. Facebook was the first social media platform that allowed us to sell our art in the greater community and opened up possibilities to sell internationally. When Instagram launched in 2010, it became another option to connect with others, meaning we could reach more people around the world, who may want to buy our art. It’s a blessing, but we can also burn out.

Networking
Facebook and email newsletters have allowed artists to connect with each other to learn and work together. Through Instagram, artists can also see each other’s work and know right away if it’s someone they want to connect with.

Collaboration
Artists aren’t the only ones looking to work with other artists, but brands and corporations too. Due to the follower count an artist may have on their social media, brands and corporations want to partner with them to stand out and reach a new audience. For example, Absolute Vodka worked with artist, Quincy Morales, on an advertising campaign. They also featured other artists from the city of Toronto. What businesses have realized over the past decade is that people want to see people like them, and this is more prominent today than it was ten years ago.

Marketing
Singers, songwriters, poets, photographers and artists alike no longer need agents to represent them and their art. With the power of social media, artists have been able to do this themselves by posting their work and directly dealing with people who want to hire them or sign them to a contract. Alessia Cara, the famous singer from Brampton, was discovered on Instagram as she was posting videos of her singing in her bedroom. More and more artists are getting recognized online and able to market themselves to A&R’s of companies like Sony and Universal Music just through a Direct Message.

Publishing
In the beginning of this decade, publishing houses were still very much needed, but today authors can publish on their own. Authors can choose to publish for free or charge a small price to readers to receive a PDF version of their book. Apps like Wattpad has also made it easier for writers to gain popularity and a fan base by publishing chapters for online users to consume.

Clout
Is art made because the artist wanted to create it or because they wanted to go viral? Clout is a popular word of this decade which means having a lot of influence or power. Due to apps like Tik Tok and Thriller where you can post 30 second video clips, artists can become instantly famous by uploading a funny video of them singing or dancing. However, this isn’t always a good thing, because then the online world can put the artist in a box, not allowing them to branch out as anything or anyone else.

Copyright
Revisiting the topic of ownership, copyright has become very important for artists as it can be hard to keep track of who’s idea belongs to who. In a world where everyone is trying to imitate each other, owning your ideas legally has become detrimental to artists to survive.

Exposure
This year I have seen a number of artists fight back when it comes to exchanging their time, effort and art for exposure. Towards the end of this decade, artists have been supporting artists. More people are starting to realize that art is timeless and worthy. However, exposure now can sometimes be a good thing due to the number of followers someone may have. If a celebrity reposts a photo that a photographer took at their concert, the photographer may start to gain a lot of viewers on their Instagram, which could lead to potential clients.

Social Impact
The last decade has brought on a lot of pain and trauma for a lot of people. Issues of racism and homophobia may seem subtle to folks in Canada, but in America people have been shot by the police and transgender black women have been killed by homophobic men. Due to the injustices, artists have used their art as their voice to shout about these injustices online by posting videos, photos, sketches and paintings. I predict that for next decade, we will see more artists using their art more to make an impact and raise their voice.

These are the ten ways that the digital age has changed the game for artists, and as technology grows, artists will continue to adapt to produce their art.