🎨 It’s A Lie To Think An Artist Can’t Make Money

Artists bankin’ coin 🎨, AI creatin’ studios 🎬, Reddit’s big AI hustle 🤖.

Created by the people at Beazy.

Welcome, creative friends!

Eat Your Heart Out, Starving Artist: Art Pays. And We've Got Receipts! So, stick around, van Gogh-getters!

In today's rundown:

  • 🎨 Art = No Money? False!

  • 🎬 Meet Open AI's Sora

  • 🤖 Reddit's Big AI Cash-Out

  • 🔥 Press Worthy Stories

  • 📚 Learn & Grow

Read time: 3 minutes

VISUAL CREATORS

Artists can aim for the big bucks without selling out. Artists should separate their personal creations from those made for an audience, says Sasha Patpatia, an artist, writer, and coach.

She argues that artists can find a balance between creative fulfillment and market viability: creating soul-deep pieces for themselves and more collaborative, commercially viable work for a broader market.
While artwork made for personal expression may not always generate substantial monetary returns, that doesn’t devalue it.

Determining the value of art is complex and goes beyond just audience reception, taking into account factors like technology shifts and creative control. The key is for artists to define their own value and success, whether through traditional structures like record labels or alternative paths.

Patpatia cites Chance the Rapper as an example of an artist who chose creative control over signing with a label and still achieved financial success. In the end, it’s about creating meaningful art that resonates, regardless of the financial outcome.

Should artists separate personal and commercial work?

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Sora's text-to-video is:
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🎥 Pure magic
🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 😰 Scary and dangerous
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🛑 AI, know your limits

“The entire industry of film and tv technicians’ work is at risk ”

“This is moving very fast and we must continue to nurture our own human capacity for creating and recognise the inhuman attributes of AI - it can create wonderful imagery, but does it lack the soul that a creative project needs?”

🔥 Press Worthy

  1. Laowa unveils its 1st autofocus lens on its 10th bday—a 10mm wide-angle for mirrorless cams. It’s a zero-distortion marvel at a super-wide 10mm.

  2. New cameras, minimal gains: photographers need to learn that upgrading gear isn't a creative shortcut. It's a pixel peeper's paradox: the latest tech tantalizes, but true talent trumps the tool.

  3. Mr. Ding drops a 35mm f/1.8 lens for Leica M-mount. Classic design, lanthanide glass, and a copper hood if you're quick on the pre-order draw.

  4. OpenAI unveils Sora: a text-to-video tool that’s democratizing visual storytelling. From dreamscapes to documentaries, imagination’s the limit. Good or bad? Only time will tell.

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📚 Learn & Grow

TOGETHER WITH BEEHIIV

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PRODUCTION MASTERY

OpenAI's Sora is rewriting the script on video creation, turning text into visuals that'll make your eyes pop. We're not just talking cartoons here; Sora's cooking up scenes so real you'll need a jacket for that virtual snow.

It’s cutting the clutter in stock footage by giving you custom clips on demand. And the best part? You don't need a Hollywood budget or a team of animators to play Spielberg.

Sound too good to be true? While it's still in beta Sora’s a star in the making, but let's not roll the credits on traditional VFX just yet.

It’s a fine tool for testing looks and home experiments, but in the trenches of the high-end stuff, we need to be able to direct the AI’s every move. Imagine tweaking that Mammoth trip or a key emotional beat. That level of control isn’t easy to automate. Still, for swapping stock shots, Sora’s a scene stealer.

We’re watching its progress, but still waiting for that next leap in AI visual wizardry. Think of it more as a breathtaking concept art generator for now.

As Sora learns to hit its marks and the AI stage curtains rise, we're glimpsing a future where every storyteller is a visual virtuoso. Just cue up the text, and Sora will show you the picture.

Will Sora steal the show from VFX pros?

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Will you tune in to "Photographer"?
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 📺 Nat Geo at 8
🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🍿 Disney+ on Thursday
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤷‍♂️ I'm more of a sitcom person

🔥 Press Worthy

  1. Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese swap tales on Killers of the Flower Moon and the director's true bane: poor musicality. A meeting of maestros.

  2. Blackmagic’s 6K cinema cam pleases indie filmmakers with RAW shooting and DaVinci synergy, but watch the battery bar.

  3. Short stories are the new Hollywood hot potatoes, spicing up Tinseltown with their ready-made narratives. The novel's not dead, but the short story's stealing the scene.

  4. "Oppenheimer" dominated the BAFTAs, snagging Best Film, Director (Christopher Nolan), and Actor (Cillian Murphy). A royal night indeed.

📚 Learn & Grow

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CREATOR ECONOMY

The Verge

Reddit scores a $60m licensing deal, letting an AI firm feast on its user data.

Context: AI needs real-world data to learn, and up ‘til now, most companies kinda just took it. But as the legalities of data-scraping get dicier, firms are now cutting formal licensing agreements. OpenAI reportedly offered publishers like NYT and Axios $5m per year to use their content, while Apple's been sniffing around with at least $50m in its mouth.

Reddit's been flirting with data deals for a hot minute; in Oct. it threatened to cut off Google and Bing unless AI firms paid up.
No word on whether this new deal is with OpenAI or someone else.

Oh, and Reddit’s heading to IPO-ville soon. It’s expected to seek a $5B valuation when it starts trading.

Takeaway: Reddit’s making major money moves. For years it’s been seen as an unpredictable, community-first internet oddity. But with a near $1B revenue goal last year (it hit $800m), it's trying to prove it can be a reliable business (or at least one that can grow its revenue reliably).

Is Reddit selling out or just buying in?

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Will YouTube Shorts dethrone TikTok?
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤳 There can be only one
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🍿 It's a long battle
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📺 YouTube who?

🔥 Press Worthy

  1. Influencers and followers: Friends or just transactional? Trust crumbles when brand partnerships lack authenticity. Long-term collabs rule.

  2. Livestreaming reshapes creator-audience ties, fostering real-time rapport and unscripted moments. As the creator economy grows, livestreaming is set to become even more important.

  3. Tech giants sign accord to combat AI interference in elections, acknowledging the risk of deepfakes swaying voter perception.

  4. Google disputes IAB Tech Lab's criticism of its Privacy Sandbox as "misunderstandings." Tech players remain skeptical about the viability of Google's proposed cookie alternatives.

📚 Learn & Grow

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