THE WEB COMPETITION

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A LONG TIME AGO:
What many young beginner artists do not know is that not too long ago artists made a much better living. The market was not saturated and a single job was enough. It is in this context that artists became successful. You would not imagine a doctor who would also be a hairdresser every other day… Now, you understand why living 100% from performing allowed artists to strive for excellence. They improved themselves by training and even more in front of the audience. The good quality of shows was thus preserved.

YESTERDAY:
Yesterday, the Internet was invented and amateur artists came in droves offering their work. But the market can not feed all this volume. Many artists work at very low salaries. Consequences: wages fall and artists have to survive. To survive, some work in several trades. They are artists during the weekend and something else during the week. Others must create several acts at the expense of quality (there was a time a single act of 8 min was enough to live well throughout a career, this context created exceptional artists). As you can see, the market is saturated. It has turned into a jungle and the artists are fighting to work.

TODAY, the web competition:
Worse, the artists were in the wrong fight! The Internet, YouTube, Facebook and competitions like America’s Got Talent have created what I call “THE WEB COMPETITION“. In the absence of a strategy, the artists have thrown themselves into this vicious circle. They exhaust themselves in an endless competition while they have no more money, and feed on “Likes”. Impoverished but blinded by the need for social recognition, they continue to post online and they forget that the competition on the web is not an end in itself. Artists don’t need one more competition, they need to work! They need artistic advices and to learn how to successfully approach employers.

COVID-19:
A survey was made with some circus performers and magicians on their money saving situation (survey of March 15 and 18, 2020 from the social network TSOPEN). It emerged that the majority of artists have little savings aside and that the COVID-19 will be experienced as a storm!

TOMORROW:
In the nature, when a storm comes, the most fragile or sick trees fall. The strongest trees are nourished by all the nutrients in the soil. This natural selection preserves the survival and quality of each species through the selection of the best specimens. The good quality of the species is thus preserved, and nature grows again. Can the Covid-19 crisis play the same role as a storm in the saturated artist market?

If you think so, you are forgetting a very important fact: the ecosystem is different from the past! Why? Because all the knowledge in the world is in your pocket “and yes, in your smartphone”. In the past, many artists quit their career because ACCESS TO INFORMATION WAS THE MAIN OBSTACLE for anyone who started from scratch and had no one to guide them. AS A RESULT, PROFESSIONALS WILL SUFFER MORE THAN NON-PROFESSIONALS!

Before the Internet: to learn your art or to create your show portfolio, you had to be imaginative because documentation was difficult to find. Now, via videos online, Internet users around the world can observe, copy or inspire each other. There are even tutorials.

Before the Internet: to make a video promotion, you had to access specific devices and request the services of a company for editing. To create promotional paperwork, photos had to be developed and then the text and photos sent to a printer. Next, the videotapes and printed documents had to be sent via a post office. Today, all your promotion can be done at home, with a computer an Internet connection and the famous address book.

Before the Internet: to find contacts, when you started from scratch and you didn’t know anyone, it was like being in a desert. You had no name or address to go to. Just finding the name of an agent, producer, or director was like finding a treasure. It sounds crazy today! It was the same with addresses. Finding the address of a new venue was like finding a gold nugget.

Before the Internet: whoever started out came back to a desert, today thanks to the Internet, he has a compass.
You understand, access to information is no longer an obstacle. And the mass arrival of amateurs on the job market will not stop tomorrow!

THE FUTURE AWAY:
Today, the market cannot feed all the artists. Are there any solutions? Should employers only hire professionals? Unfortunately, many employers will not be able to. They will always have budget constraints and will do as they can. Will an artist diploma be required to work? Diplomas make graduates, not artists. Being an “Artist” cannot be learned in schools, only a “life process” can create an Artist! In a way, an artist’s diploma does not make sense. In short, you understand that in the future, the problem will remain complex.

MY ANALYSIS:
Just before COVID-19, the market was saturated and it will certainly remain so in the future. Why? Because we are not going to stop the Internet! Consequence: more than ever artists have to fight.

Still they must not be mistaken in a fight: the web competition exhausts the artists in a race for technical demonstration. Winning a competition on the web doesn’t mean being prepared to work. Having good technique doesn’t mean being a good artist. The artist is like wine. Not all wines are good and to be good, wine needs time, maturity and character. Artistic maturity cannot be won with “Likes”.

But the problem is not really there. Indeed, because if we give time to time, it will end well; thanks to the Internet by having excellent artists (and there are already). The real problem is the large volume of artists created by the Internet. The more artists there are, the more the wages fall, and the more the artists have to survive.

In return, the Internet gives everyone a chance. Because information is no longer an obstacle and whoever wants to learn, can learn everything!

Victories are won by those who know!

Tom Shanon