Millions of us pay $$ for video games, phones, movies, tech - but ask someone to pay for a song on Spotify or bandcamp, and they slink away. Ask them to tip a blogger. Or subscribe to a news source.
ENTERTAINMENT -- the Hollywood celebrities get millions, but what about the screenwriter who writes the weekly episodes of shows like "Friends" and "Star Trek" - how well were they paid?
Traveling minstrels told stories - and earned their keep.
Court jesters. Clowns.
These days, we want free art and music but we pay billions (collectively) for the tech to listen to it.
Go figure.
It's pretty messed up.
We don't have cable/network TV anymore... but much of the time to rent a movie to stream is $10-$20, but where does that money actually go? Do the people who made the movie actually see much of it, or does it all in in Netflix and Amazon's coffers?
I see it in a very interesting first hand way these days. When my wife and I take our artwork to a fair, conference or crafts show we frequently come away from a weekend with $1500-$2000 in sales. Put the exact same items up for sale online, and people practically expect them to be free. I can't sell ANYthing online.
And yet, they pay $100s for an NFT of what is little more than the pixellated image of a Windows 3.1 era icon!