Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
That's a very nice idea in theory, but if the "only pay if you liked it" business model actually worked as well as the "pay in advance" model, don't you think we'd have cinemas where you made a donation on leaving if you liked the film, or supermarkets where you only gave whatever you felt that the food was worth?
|
I guess the source of much of the disagreement on this topic is captured by this comment. If you conceive as literature - and art more generally - as a commodity like any other, the sort of thing you might buy from a supermarket, then it follows that the economics of art are just like the economics of any other commodity.
But why does art have to function like a market? There are other ways of funding art - public funding, subscription - which doesn't necessarily make people rich but which does enable them to practice and produce.
Of course, these alternatives might not be appropriate if what is produced is simply a commodity produced with the primary aim of making money.