#artists need to know this

[the9mm]

This current environment is the worst environment for artists I've ever seen.

Redbubble has just announced that, like Society6, they are going to be implementing new fee structures onto accounts.

If you didn't already know:

Effective May 4, 2023 when you make a sale through Society6.com, or one of our third-party affiliates, a shipping fee ranging from $0.30 - $8USD will be deducted from your earnings. Shipping fees vary based on the product sold and the full list of fees can be found below. Your artist earnings will be calculated using the following formula: Artist Earnings = ((Base Price - Discount) x Markup) - Shipping Fee The implementation of these new fees was carefully considered by our team. Shipping costs have recently risen significantly and both Society6 and our customers have absorbed those increases. As customers become more price sensitive, this is a necessary step to ensure the viability of the platform. We remain dedicated to providing a platform that allows our artists to profit off of their creativity.

Source: Society6 Help Articles

And now, Redbubble will be charging people who make too few sales (but not if you don't make any sales or make just the right amount of sales!) fees:

On May 1st, Redbubble will be introducing a new tier structure for artist accounts, and an account fee for some accounts. We understand that this is a big change for the artist community, so we want to be transparent and clear about what’s happening. We are introducing an account fee for Redbubble Standard accounts. The account fee applies when an artist makes sales in a given payment period, and is a flat fee based on your earnings in that period. If you make no sales during the payment period, you will not be charged a fee, so artists are never out of pocket. The fee will be automatically deducted from your payments. The introduction of an account fee will enable us to invest in the service, support, platform features, and tools we provide for different artist tiers, plus improved support for your customers, and more marketing opportunities. As recognition for positive engagement with and investment in the Redbubble marketplace, Premium and Pro accounts will be exempt from the fee...

Source: RedBubble blog

RedBubble gives examples for the fees as follows:

Say you sold products worth a retail price of $300 in total, and made $75 (avg. 25% margin) during a payment period. Your account fee is based on the total earnings of $75 and is a flat rate of $28 (see the fee table below). This is deducted from your total earnings before your monthly payment is processed, so your payment amount is $47.

Source: RedBubble blog

I understand it. Users who upload content to the service and never sell anything are just hogging resources on a server and taking up space, but that's the tradeoff when your platform is not moderated in any way, and you need designs to fill your platform.

But it's a really bad time to do this to artists.

We've just started to get over having major sales events like conventions gutting our incomes due to pandemic shutdowns. We're entering into a recession and people are holding tight onto their money -- they don't want to buy original art.

We've just had "AI" steal all of our artwork and used everything it wants without any due credit or monetary offering in the way of royalties or otherwise for sampling our hard earned work. Any person can go type in a text prompt, spit out an image, and have it printed.

You can't mention your shop, your links, your products, or post any external links on social media without being downgraded in their algorithms. Playing "the game" on social is exhausting and you spin spin spin on a hamster's wheel trying to keep your existing followers without gaining any new ones.

Now, Reddit and Facebook groups are tightening their rules. Ask any artist, they'll tell you how toxic all of this is. Communities welcome your creations, but don't you dare mention that you made it, that it's for sale, or that people could follow you for more. Don't ever give yourself credit, because promotion is not allowed! I am watching a friend who can't even post her artwork with a watermark on it without Facebook group moderators declining it as self promotion. She can't even protect her artwork or claim it as her own in any way without it being deemed "self-promo" and getting rejected or deleted.

So what do you do as an artist trying to make money with your art when you can't afford to dump money into advertising, can't afford the fees to set up an ecommerce shop, can't afford to pre-print all of your work to sell, can't afford a major convention table, filling it with merch, and attending, can't get your art into anyone else's hands, and can't mention anything anywhere to try to make a buck or two or gather new admirers of your work?

You give up.

[sylvies-kablooie]

i do unironically think the best artists of our generation are posting to get 20 notes and 3 reblogs btw. that fanfic with like 45 kudos is some of the best stuff ever written. those OCs you carry around have some of the richest backstories and worldbuilding someone has ever seen. please do not think that reaching only a few people when you post means your art isn't worth celebrating.

[0sbrain]

alternatives for ai to design ocs

hero forge

picrew

the fucking sims 4

your local furry artist

bitmoji

shitty photoshoped collage

DeviantArt bases

zepeto

making edits of your favorite character

searching "dress up game" on the app store

learning how to draw

[cozylittleartblog]

"content creator" is a corporate word.

we are artists.

[transformers-earthspark]

IMPORTANT: TUMBLR HAS MADE A DEAL WITH MIDJOURNEY/OPENAI.

YOUR ART AND IMAGES ON TUMBLR ARE BEING USED TO TRAIN AI MODELS.

The opt-in is automatic, but you can turn it off in settings.

Go to "Blog Settings" -> "Visibility" -> "Third-Party Sharing" and turn on "Prevent third-party sharing for [blog]". (This post shows how to do it on browser and on mobile.) You need to do this with every sideblog. (Note: The option in settings might not appear if your app hasn't updated yet. You can still opt out via browser.)

Spread the word. Everyone on Tumblr needs to know about this.

[barghest-land]

drawings from paleo expedition to dagestan, done right on the trip. sometimes messy when it was cold and rainy, but i won't correct it. i think it's cool to leave it just the way it was done, and not retouch it after. there will be more drawings later, but those will be done from home

[soyochii]

Grown adults but also Highschool bullies fr

[gotchibam]

*offers you this doodle of happy trans pikachus for pride month* :) 💖💖💖

[saintforan]

Oh no, he's turning him into bread!

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

i vote that next year instead of reading Dracula we do a Jeeves & Wooster Book Club. those two never got the rabid tumblr shipping fandom they deserved (disqualified for the sheer technicality of being published a century too soon). we must correct this injustice

[inkskinned]

"the curtains weren't blue on purpose. why should we care?"

my love! let me ask you this - did you eat breakfast today? this tiny moment in your life. just think about it. did you?

for some of you, the answer is yes and for some of you it is technically and for some of you it is does coffee count. some of you reached for cereal or gmo-free overnight oats or frozen waffles or 3-day-old pizza. sometimes we eat the same thing, every day, for weeks. i get tired of eggs randomly, only to go back to craving them desperately. i'm cuban; i take my coffee like my father showed me, very milky and sweet.

some of us ate in a hurry. some of us hate eating breakfast but if we don't we will get nauseous later. some of us took our meds first or took our meds after. some of us have a kitchen 5 feet wide and sometimes it's the biggest room in the house. some of us are confident there will be food in the pantry and some of us flinch and say well, the paycheck is coming. some of us turn on a podcast while we eat or we scroll our phones or write in our diaries.

some of us are choosing, specifically, not to eat breakfast. some of us are too busy. some of us are pretending we "just forgot," but we are ignoring the warning signs that everything feels too-heavy. some of us are so consumed with anxiety or grief that we can't eat. some of us can't stand up long enough to make our coffee. some of us have no table to sit down and eat.

i cannot tell you what an artist "meant" by their choices. but they did have to make a choice, conscious or otherwise, to give you information. to give you a little bit more light. each of these choices are little stars of data; connecting speckles for you to weave through, drawing a line.

you cannot use a mirror in a dark room. for some of us; we will not care that the curtains are blue, because that will just be a data point and not enough light to see by. for some of us, the blue curtains will be the same as our childhood bedroom. it will make us seasick. for some of us, blue will be the color of frostbite. it might look like a pixel up close; but from a distance, oh! the picture blooms.

i cannot tell you what will stick out for you. what will carry meaning. some of you will read the sentence "i didn't have breakfast today" and say "this means nothing." some of you will read that and say "oh, me neither." some of you will say "this means the character is probably a little grouchy." some of you will say "oh, i wonder if they're okay. why didn't they eat anything?" ... art is a mirror. i am holding hands with you, over space and time, and asking you to feel something with me.

i want you to read my work and find a blue pair of curtains. i want you to read my work and find things in it that i never imagined placing. i have no way of knowing what will resonate with you, that's true. and maybe i just was hungry while i wrote this, and thinking about the eggs in my fridge. but if you found meaning, that meaning is yours. it cannot be erased just because i didn't "intend" it. you created a different world by interpreting my work. it's collaborative! that's beautiful! that's stunning!

just! imagine looking at the night sky and saying - it's stupid to have a favorite constellation or a favorite star. they're just there.

because here's the thing - across centuries and cultures, we look up. we still find meaning in the stars. these beautiful, lovely scattered accidents. are you looking? they call. and we look back and say oh! of course we are!

[originalartblog]

Apparently much-needed reminder that reposting artists' art (by saving the images or screenshotting them and reuploading them yourself) on other platforms without the artists' expressed permission and without credit is theft and an insult to their passion and craft. You are profiting (in views, in attention, in feedback) from someone else's work and ideas, who do not get that feedback for sharing their creation.

If you are an art reposter, you are a thief and I have no respect for you.

[arinmoss]

Elliott!! :3

[purble-sarah]

a stephanie brown sketch for the soul

[spartanlocke]

tumblr users all of a sudden: oh yeah this website is SO good for art hehehe it’s waaayyyy better than twitter it’s so supportive of artists we love art so much here uwu art for the win!! ✨ 😘 💕 😋✨ artists who have spent the last 4+ years on their hands and knees begging people to reblog their art just to be ignored every single time because half this website acts like their nuts will be ripped off with the claw end of a hammer if they reblog a single drawing:

[midnightcrows]

“We are allies today. Perhaps in the future we will be allies again.