Why do so many artists struggle financially despite working hard?

The root of the starving artist problem is building a business on third parties that pay you very little and can disappear at any moment. Most artists are never taught to build a direct business—they’re told by friends, galleries, or the industry to rely on third parties. This indirect strategy is a dead end. You spend years investing time, energy, and money into channels you don’t control, and you end up with no customer list, no sustainable income, and nothing you own. You must flip that: invest in direct sales where you own the customer relationship and keep the profits.

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Asked by artists struggling to make a living from their work · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2020-06-24