burneddownhouse:

It’s kind of ridiculous to think that a visual artist might sell a piece or even prints of a piece for hundreds of dollars but a band/musician will sell you their album for a profit margin of a few bucks, if that
(this is in no way a devaluation of visual arts just an observation of a huge difference here)

The reason is because an artist will aim to sell a far larger volume of the same work. So when I record something and print 1000 copies I aim to sell the full quota of 1000 whereas an artist sells 1 - maybe they will sell 100 of certain prints but it’s never quite on the scale of say, a triple platinum record. Recording artists sell things with a small profit margin so that people will actually buy it, and by selling enough copies they make money. Artists don’t have that luxury - they put x amount of hours (usually a lot) into one solitary work so the price for that work must be much higher. That’s all it is.