Let’s get smart about paying artists

As an artist, I often hear about the huge success story of the UK’s creative industries: it boosts the economy, provides jobs and skills, and creative output is globally recognised and loved. I am so happy to be a part of this, but working as an independent creator comes with challenges.  

A third of creatives are self-employed or freelance, including the majority of artists, which means we go without many of the protections and securities that a salaried job in other industries would provide. 

A report released by the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee earlier this month, highlights what many artists and creatives already know – it’s getting much more difficult to sustain our careers despite growing demand for our work. 

Royalty payments are often overlooked as a supplementary source of income but, in reality, they are fundamental to an artist’s survival. We need to update how we think about royalties, to future-proof our creative industries.

Zero financial reward

I assumed there was a fair system in place for paying for the use of an artist’s work, even as digital engagement grows, but unfortunately this is not the case. 

In 2012, I created an artwork and placed the only photographs of the work on eBay. That image has been viewed, copied and edited by millions all over the world. That’s how a taxidermy fox sitting on a chair that I made became one of the first internet memes. He was jokingly named ‘stoned fox’. 

To put it in context, if you search ‘stoned fox’ on the world’s leading search engine you’ll get close to 8 million results – and this figure does not include the many more social media shares which dwarf that figure.
 
In the last six years, many more of my works have also gone viral, amassing millions of views without my permission or crediting me as the artist and with zero financial reward, despite being used for others’ financial gain. My work is also often used commercially – for adverts and products – without permission. I spend much time seeking legal help.  

Fair recognition required

For the most part, however, my work is shared by everyday people on their social media and between friends. I’ve had thousands of people from all walks of life – from doctors, patients and people dealing with hard times to my close friends – message me to say my images have helped them. 

I am grateful to have made work that so many people can relate to. I don’t want that to stop but I feel an obligation to help protect the next generation of artists from the negative experiences I’ve had. Having so many people know my work with no association to me and without fair recognition or pay is a struggle, but it doesn’t have to be.

I joked that if I had a penny for every time my work was shared, I would be rich – it’s not an exaggeration. A payment as small as 1p per use could change my life. But my career is increasingly uncertain. As a woman from a working-class background, when there are so few of us in this sector, I fear the lack of payment will make future generations less likely to become artists. Without serious reform in how creatives are paid, the quality and diversity of work will decline.

The good news is we don’t have to pave the way, a path has already been set by more than 40 countries who’ve found a simple solution to this complex problem – in the UK this solution is known as the Smart Fund. 

Smart Fund model

Research commissioned by DACS (Design and Artists Copyright Society) shows that employing the Smart Fund model could generate over £250m per year. This would benefit a huge number of UK creators – writers, artists and illustrators – at zero cost to the government or the taxpayer. 

France, Germany, Japan and others already use the Smart Fund model to ensure their copyright holders are entitled to small payments when their works are stored and copied across digital devices.

The companies selling the technology that relies on our content to be shared and stored on their consumers' devices pay the creatives so that the users don’t have to. This form of royalty payment is already happening in other sectors

The report published last week recommends the government implement a statutory system like the Smart Fund not only to bring revenue to creatives like me, but also to secure existing payments from similar schemes abroad.

Call for new legal frameworks

With an arts industry worth nearly £50bn a year, in a country that holds some of the most valuable creative IP in the world, why is the UK lagging behind in protecting and paying those who create all this?  Why continue to strangle the makers of one of our country's few remaining exports?

We all enjoy the work of creatives daily, but with public funding for the arts being squeezed dry and with local authority arts budgets evaporating, we need change. This would provide an essential source of income for the creative workforce. 

Foxes are intelligent, adaptable animals built to survive. Isn’t it time we adapt the legal frameworks of the UK so our creatives can have a chance to survive this increasingly difficult and unpredictable landscape? 

Adele Morse is an artist.
 adelemorse.com | dacs.org.uk/
@AdelemorseHQ | @DACSforArtists