I'm writing this down for later pasta, because my stance on paywalls is nuanced and complicated, and being strawmanned over it frustrates the hell out of me. The problem is that so many people resort to strawmanning my position that I literally don't have the time to personally type up a unique response to each of them, on the off chance they might actually be open to challenging their own positions with a different perspective. Wishful thinking? Maybe, but at least if I lay it all out here there are no excuses.
1. "I gotta make money somehow"
Here's my first SHOCKING opinion. I think artists deserve be able to make enough money to live from their art alone. (oooooh be shocked at that revelation) I don't agree with the sentiment of "get a real job". At least here in the US, we live in a society that demands we do ever-increasing hours of unfulfilling work for what amounts to crumbs and be thankful we're allowed the "honor" of giving our labor to corporate oligarchs for as close to nothing as legally possible. "Work ethic" is celebrated, up until someone demands substantial pay for it. Though making money through art is much the same most of the time, one would at least be doing it on their own terms, and setting their own price for their labor, with at least the possibility of income matching productivity, as is not the case AT ALL in most lines of work.
So yeah. You gotta make money somehow. However, every business has potential for good practices and bad ones. Bad ones often make more money than good ones at the expense of the vulnerable. I'll explain in the point below how subscription-based paywalls in particular are one of these bad practices. To be up-front about my bias, I don't personally like paywalls of any kind, but if you think "I don't like it" is the same as me saying "I'm entitled to the opposite", that's about as sensible as not liking a particular kink implying an entitlement for artists to only draw the kinks you personally like and no-one else's.
2. "If you don't like it, don't buy it"
A simple concept which applies truly to most goods. However when it comes to the common modern process of buying and selling furry art, there are some caveats to this concept.
Firstly, when you're buying content "sight unseen", you can't exactly apply this concept. I have in the past bought art packs sight unseen. (I paid for paywalls despite not liking them. Is your mind blown yet?) There was one I was happy with, but all but that one I was sorely disappointed. It didn't meet the expectations set by the advertisement. In particular, when the part of the image I care about the most is pixelated or hidden, or the entire image is only sold on a description, I'm not exactly making an informed purchase. So indeed, I've decided not to make such purchases. Yes, you could chalk that up to a valid personal decision on my part that has nothing to do with the practice of paywalling art as a whole. However, when it comes to subscription-based paywalls, there are many elements of control that are taken away from the buyer.
Subscription services are popular for a reason. It seems everyone who once had a channel on cable television now has a subscription service of their own. There are subscription services for every aspect of life. All you gotta do is push that "take my money" button, and you get a bunch of TV shows exclusive to one of 100 services. You can get groceries delivered to you weekly. You can get boxes of random garbage on the hope that you'll find something valuable. You can get access to recipes and the ingredients to make them. Sometimes the services seem worth it, others they're far inferior to the goods you could have purchased individually... until those goods are no longer available by any other avenue but a subscription service. They're popping up everywhere for a reason. They're lucrative. And I tend to avoid them like the plague because they're lucrative to the point of exploitation.
Now I KNOW it is not ANY artist's intent to exploit me. (Well it is some, but still...) And indeed, there are a ton of great artists out there I would love to just toss a little bit of money to on occasion, just to support them, and I COULD. My income is very small, but I spend a lot of money on furry art through commissions and I occasionally toss a little money to someone in need. It's not much, but I'm good at saving, and I only do so when I can comfortably afford it. However, I have not, and will not, EVER, even CREATE a Patreon or Subscribestar account.
Why not? All the artists are only asking anywhere from $1 to $5 to support them, or see paywalled art. It's a tiny amount of money compared to art packs, right? Here's the difference. If I don't have the money for that commission, or art pack, or YCH, etc, do you know what I have to do to not spend money on it? I have to... not... spend money on it. If I take no action, my money stays put. With subscriptions, this isn't the case.
If you're ever flooded with "free trial" offers for subscription services, you know why they're doing this. Once you sign up, yeah, you'll get the service for free for awhile, but after that, taking no action accomplishes exactly the opposite of not buying that movie on Blu Ray. These companies love to bank on inaction. Your money is given passively, not actively. So why do I not have a Subscribestar or Patreon account? Because I know for a fact that I can and WILL be charged for inaction for something I might not even want any more. Not only that, but with a "take my money" button right at my fingertips, I am more at risk of racking up a ton of future charges that I have to take deliberate action to prevent from taking my money. You can see how for someone who sometimes might impulsively buy a commission if an artist I really love is suddenly open, that even just choosing to support an artist with regular tips, or getting that resolution upgrade, my spending could very easily get out of hand and leave me hurting. BADLY. In order to counter this, I would have to deliberately and individually unsubscribe from enough of these to get my spending back under control, and that's assuming I even catch it before the charges go through.
This isn't speculation. It's happened to me before. Further, one of my closest friends (who makes a 6-figure salary btw) had been in a position where every few months he would find himself with far less money than he expected, and in 90% of those cases, the money sink was Patreon. It was too late, the money was gone, but still he would have to take time out of his day to go through his subscriptions one by one, and decide which ones to unsubscribe from to get his spending back under control. This is a real problem.
When someone walls their art off in this way it FEELS personal to me, though I know logically it's not intended. Worse when I object, and the person gets angry, maybe blocks me, puts up an unfair journal about how I'm trying to take advantage of THEM, and followers jump in to strawman me as an "entitled freeloader". Which brings me to...
3. "ENTITLED, ENTITLED, ENTITLED"
What does that even mean? That I want artists to work for me for free? If you look 2 seconds at my gallery, you'll find this is absolutely not the case. With two or three possible exceptions, every piece in this gallery was paid for in full without complaint. Commission prices are going up! It means I can get fewer commissions, but I'm HAPPY to pay the increased prices as artists are demanding a living wage for the hours put into their art. I LOVE THAT! It's a win-win for me and the artists! I do get however, that it can be soulless work doing only commissions, and not having a chance to draw what one wants to draw, and I REALLY want to see more artists drawing what they want and getting a little money off of it. Unfortunately, options to support them on this are limited. A subscription is a bad option that would leave me broke. Bottom line is...
I WOULD RATHER WE EXPLORE OTHER OPTIONS!
All I'm saying here, on the subject of subscription paywalls, is that there HAS to be a better way. Yes, setting up a subscription service is easier (so long as you don't offend the puritans running the pay sites, that is), but so is taking someone's wallet when they leave it in the open. I know of a few alternative options, but as a potential buyer and non-artist, I've only got half of the big picture. Without assistance from artists to this end, I can only go by what other artists have already done successfully.
Resolution upgrades and timed exclusives: The big downside to this one is, as I pointed out above, I and many others can't safely participate in this. I have on occasion sent a payment to Diegoandfriends, for example, to get ahold of some of their high-resolution art. An impulse buy on occasion, but not a charge for inaction. The positive of course is that there are many perfectly willing to subscribe to these without issue, which supports the artist without pressuring people like me, who are vulnerable to over-subscribing, into participating given the absence of other options.
YCHs: I can't speak as an artist of course, but from the outside, I see potential in this as a means for an artist to have more creative control over the art they do for money. The artist chooses a pose, a quality, maybe a story, background, any number of other details, and the buyer gets to have their own character fulfill a set role. Auctions can bring in some quick cash. I wouldn't be able to win one, myself, but I have participated in clones and fixed price ones. Of course one major benefit is that the buyer is fully and visually informed of what they're buying.
Adopts: I've acquired one of these, but unfortunately I never found a use for it. For someone like me who has some measure of creativity when thinking up new characters, and the ability to describe said character to an artist for a commission, I already have many of my own characters I'm struggling to find ways to include in my projects, so adopts have limited use for me, but for someone without the ability to think up and describe a character with enough vividity (is that a real word?), this is a legitimate means for some people to end up with a new character AND get reference for future art of that character.
I know some people don't like to see artists doing a lot of adopts and YCHs, but this is one issue where I would FIRMLY stand behind the artist on. After all, this IS a simple "Don't like it, don't buy it" situation.
So there you have it. Long-winded, I know, but hopefully the effort I've gone to to attempt to fully communicate my position on this will cut down on the full dismissal of my position via strawman. I have no illusions this will stop all of those who refuse to engage my actual opinion in good faith over beating up that strawman, but it beats wallowing in the depression and hopelessness I feel sometimes when so many would rather VILIFY me for simply saying "There's gotta be another way."
