Artists United writings have been produced for the purpose of educating people on problems within the arts and with global aesthetics — and to inspire action. At the base of select writings, we have provided a link to our Calls To Action page, where we have detailed the action we feel will be most effective in resolving the issue.

Writing #1
The Crisis of The Digitizable Arts
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Crisis Within / Crisis Between

For what profit a man the entire world if he shall lose his own soul.

— Anonymous

For decades now, the vast majority of artists whose work can be digitized, have — by their own hand — vanished.  Though art starts with them, most artists have disappeared from any meaningful discussion about their own present and future; disappeared from any meaningful discussion as to how their art is acquired, accessed and used by the public.  And in their absence a spokesman has stepped in to speak for them: The Average.  And what The Average has said in their place — and continues to say — is this: "I the artist will work without protest to provide you, my audience, a never ending supply of art at no cost."

Today, the voice of The Average serves as the voice of the artist worldwide.  For we artists whose work can be digitized and downloaded through the internet, it is now considered completely normal that we be indefensible; that our life's work be stolen from us in seconds and rebranded as "sharing"; that we accept whatever more-than-nothing option offered to us by tech companies as an alternative to absolutely nothing dictated to us by The Average; that we tour ceaselessly like a shark that can't stop swimming or it'll die; and that our art have no value in and of itself other than as bait for ads, data harvesting, or some other good or service that can't be stolen.  It is a system of force masquerading as a system of choice, and it is now considered completely — unquestionably — normal.

But we artists have, in large part, brought this upon ourselves.  There is a saying that you teach others how to treat you.  If you show others that you respect yourself, you will be respected — or you maximize your chances of such.  If you stand silently by while you are abused, you will be abused — and you will be so until you protest.  For many years now, essentially all of us have taught our audience and the world at large that we do not respect ourselves.  We have taught the world, in our silent acceptance of abuse, that we desire absolutely no say in how we are treated — that we don't exist.

Only one artist of global recognition declared his existence in a meaningful way at the onset of the crisis.  Only one artist declared — publicly and directly to his audience — that those stealing his music are wrong, that their behaviour does not qualify them as fans, and they do not have his respect.  His name is Lars Ulrich, a songwriter and drummer for the band Metallica.  Rather than support Lars and tell their audience the same however, his fellow artists of the time remained silent.  Without support, Lars was singled out as a greedy extremist, his albums were burned in protest, and his voice — a voice in defence of basic morality — was quickly lost in the noise of the average person's self deception; in their virtually unchallenged belief that taking an artist's work and offering nothing in return is just.  

This was a pivotal point.  The world's music audience, and the audience of all the arts, were waiting to hear what the artist — the only party they truly cared about — had to say on the matter.  “How do they feel about us stealing their creations?  Do they still respect us?”.  Their audience waited.  But the artists of the time said nothing.  And as the years passed in silence, the monetary value of the artist's work fell and fell until it matched the volume of their voice and was too valued at nothing.  It now didn't matter how many years they spent training, or how many dollars they and their partners invested in their art.  It didn't matter that they needed money simply to live.  When finally presented with the option to pay ninety-nine cents for a song that would last forever — less than the price of a cup of coffee that lasts fifteen minutes — the majority of those who proudly proclaimed themselves "fans" and "lovers of art", said "No".

There are many ways one can characterize the damage caused by artists remaining silent; the damage caused by refusing to address The Average directly in their immorality.  However, it is most accurate, most core to the matter, to say that what the artist did was eviscerate themselves; render themselves — and their relationship with their audience — without depth. 

As human beings, we express our depth in three primary ways: in Goodness, in Truth and in Beauty.  Our Goodness is our morality: how we treat one another.  Our Truth is our science: our reason and logic.  And our Beauty is our art: our personal expression, taste and aesthetics.  When combined — when each of these values is expressed fully and in alignment with the others — we are whole.  

For many years now there has been a great disparity in the arts.  Rather than answer the Beauty of the artist with Goodness and Truth of the same depth, The Average has answered with shallowness.  Instead of paying for their art as most artists wish, they've stolen it, and in doing so have divided themselves.  The artist, in failing to defend depth, and in stealing art themselves in many cases, has too grown disparate.  And so, today, rather than two deep beings united, we have two shallow beings — divided within and between — pretending to be one.  

Take Action: please click here to see Call To Action #1 — the first steps to fixing the problem.