The ONE IDEA All Successful Creators Must Master to Build Their Business, Create Great Content, and Grow an Audience!

Art matters. But art you can't sell will never be seen by anybody. So how do you strike the right balance?

Photo by Casey P. O’Neill

When I was coming up in the music business over 20 years ago, a mentor taught me an important idea.

“You can’t run a successful business in the arts without balancing commerce.”

While this might seem trivial to most people, anyone working in the arts or on art will understand what I mean. Making art is hard. Selling art requires a different way of thinking. And success comes from balancing the two.

This idea has stuck with me. It also applies to writing when you are building a newsletter from your essays. Or painting a new world of color. Or any and all other creative endeavors. And who would have thought how hard it would be to balance the two. Understanding this balance means taking a deep look at both ends of the extremes.

On one side you have the pure artist. The pure artist lives for art and only art. Money making doesn’t matter. All that matters is making art. Picasso lives on this side of the balance. Poets prowl this landscape. Many bands and music artists do too.

On the other side lives the driven business mind. Art is a means to an end; the end being money. These are people like David Geffen in music or Larry Gagosian in the art market. Both used art to make themselves wealthy.

Striking a balance is fine-line between both sides. Steven Spielberg comes to mind as an artist driven by commerce. He makes movies that pull in a bundle of money. They also become generational hits.

Another is Jeff Koons, who worked as a commodities trader before becoming an artist. He’s known for having a shrewd business mind. To him, you create art to sell it.

Finally, Stephen King exemplifies this balance with writing. King would be writing whether he became as successful as he has or not. To him, writing is the end goal. Making money is a by product.

Art and commerce is a hits driven business. You hear about the hits over and over again. But never about those who never came close. This also makes it difficult to navigate. The difference between the haves and have nots is extreme. Without a hit, commerce doesn’t happen. The biggest artists on the major labels pay for themselves through ROI. And they also the paid for the thousands of signed artists no one would ever hear.

How many times have you become a fan of a bands debut album only to feel dissatisfaction towards their follow up? The debut is often a long term creative process. Songs written and perfected over years. If there is success, sudden fame happens. The band needs to tour, interview, promote. On rare occasions the follow up exceeds the debut. When it doesn’t, the band or artist will retreat to obscurity again.

Why does this matter? Because art matters. And because making a living matters too. Making a living from your art is a balancing act. Because if you don’t sell it, no one will ever hear it; see it; read it. You’re balancing passion with reality. And it’s harder than it sounds.

This is the push and pull of art vs commerce. And it will never end.