How to Make $55,000 by Giving Away Your Work
New York artist Nina Paley’s frustrating efforts to contribute to Wikipedia were chronicled in an
article in Monday’s Wall Street Journal.
Just as interesting are her efforts to make a living giving away her art for free. Ms. Paley, a cartoonist, has created a movie called “Sita Sings the Blues” that she is distributing under a Creative Commons Share-Alike license.
A self-described “information radical,” Ms. Paley argues that content should be free, while “containers” for content — such as DVDs — should be paid for. To bolster her argument, she disclosed how much she has made from her “free” film in a recent talk at Power to the Pixel’s Cross-Media Film Forum in October.
Here are the cold hard numbers:
- Total donations from people who appreciate her giving out free content: $23,000
- Profits from her online store which sells merchandise and DVDs: $19,000
- Theatrical distribution revenues: $3,000 (out of total box office tally of $22,350)
- Additional DVD distribution: $3,000
- Broadcast television distribution: $3,000
- Revenue from Central Cinema in Seattle which showed the film: $4,000
- Grand total: $55,000
She says she has not paid a penny for promotion or advertising, since the freely distributable film is its own form of promotion. All in all, she says, “It’s a sweet little living.”
Of course, this calculation doesn’t take into account how much it cost her to create the film. Even so, it’s an interesting glimpse at how an artist can try to use the free software model for their work.
Readers, what do you think? Is this a workable business model for artists?
