Does Crowdfunding Destroy Art? | Philosophy Tube
With the economy changing a lot of artists and creators are relying on crowdfunding to pay the bills – so what philosophical issues does that throw up about the value of art, creativity, and Marxism? And the ethics of economic systems that increase medical and legal costs?
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Recommended Reading:
Keith Spencer, “Against the Crowdfunding Economy,” – https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/05/crowdfunding-kickstarter-gofundme-charity-taxes/
Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”
Michael Sandel, What Money Can’t Buy
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@HapleaaaRPG
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
6:00
@greenwaybikexploring
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
I see this has been a number of years, but as I also use Patreon to publish my own content, I'm glad for its existence as a platform and the effort to make it a good platform for the purpose. I'm not making money from it at this time, and I have made rather little money off it over the years that I have been publishing. But, I get to make my content, self-publish, and feel the esteem of accomplishment over time as I develop my content and mature as a creator. I'm totally able to make what I want to create and publish it without concern for marketability in the largest measure due to a full-time career as a networking technology consultant, so it is a superb gap between my hobbyist content as an amateur creative writer and the professional content of full-time artists, performers, musicians, and all the other creators using Patreon. But, in addition to the concerns of crowdfunding for artists, the fact that concerns were described for healthcare, legal services, adoption, or other pro-social purposes is a valuable portion of the conversation. If the idea proliferates that personal wealth should not contribute to community good except by personal choice, I cannot imagine the prolonged existence of a functional government. That's not a claim that most existing governments are especially high-functioning now, but it is something worth contrasting.
@LittleBitVic
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
It's so painful to feel forced into crowdfunding to afford vital spine surgery, already feeling tortured and drained by my own body while unregulated capitalist systems did the same to my financial independence, and it hurts even more knowing that it probably won't be the last time despite applying for and still awaiting responses from social healthcare programs for three years straight.
It's telling that no entities with such power over the ill and disabled won't directly comment on the injustices of their profiting off of our unprotected right to live.
@allibababoo
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
Crowdfunding is a solution within capitalism. It's there to both support and leech off of creativity. As a moral alternative to what exists in our society currently it feels like an improvement, and it's worth noting that I anecdotally see very original and niche content, possibly suggesting the constrains on making things people "want to see" might be more than offset by the platform it offers to connect to a wider audience.
@embersworkshop
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
Maybe the only time I've heard a critical YouTube video say "we approached X" and instead of following up with "they declined to comment" actually they did answer?? Wow.
@cartoonhippie6610
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
As an artist, I would define art as "anything which is intentionally designed", so I don't buy the argument that art and content are different.
@thomasfplm
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
Most renaissance paintings and sculptures were made as a paid job.
If this kind of thing is and impediment for something beings art, it means that we should remove a lot of things from that classification, including, as an example, the Sistine Chapel paintings.
And with crowd founding, an artist can get funds from people who are not rich.
Normal funding means that few people have to give a good deal of money to keep the artist creating.
Crowd funding opens a greater variety of sources of funding.
And no funding means that the artist cannot do it full time.
Also, another thing, if working inside a capitalist system like that stopped criticism, there would be no anti-capitalist youtubers, and there are various.
@phantomblot6072
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
Patreon only took 5 percent? That's a pretty good deal. I assume it's much higher today.
@dinninfreeman2014
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
Creativity is improved by constraints not hampered by it, as such Spencer's argument about creativity isn't iron clad.
@XaurielZ
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
If this guy thinks Patreon will influence artists to make marketable content instead of true art, he's gonna go wild when he hears about the art market
@jakers141
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
@title: yup. everyone knows that undertale was BAD and EMOTIONALLY BORING
@smartITworks4me
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
Well. I quite agree. When you belong to a sector or industry, you can't openly criticize it because it will certainly bounce back. That is why the "catalyst of change" can only work from within to create a change for the better. Finger-pointing does NO HELP to provide a lasting and efficient solution to social problems. Being a part of any institution is enough challenge to bear because you can either be part of its ROT or be the PEST-killer to clean up the ROT.
@VileVanGogh
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
It's a funny thought, the irony of a good capitalist recognizing opportunities when anti-capitalist art is marketable.
@samleheny1429
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
All Ollie needs to do now is mention Gavin Dunne and we'll have the full set!
@321womble
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
Haven’t artists always been supported by Patrons, although admittedly there probably wasn’t a middle man taking a cut but I’m sure some patrons got a cut of a sale. I think the crux of the matter is how much profit. Excessive profit is the problem. I value the service that Patreon provides because it allows me an easy way to support the creators I like. And the word creator to me equates with artist. I might not consider you an artist but to just label you as providing content doesn’t seem fair or accurate. Therefore you get Creator with a capital C but without The as God and stuff.
@comradeeyebot
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
Very good points!
I'd like to suggest, in a Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism, one would not have to worry of financial constraints and focus a large portion of time to "art". Maybe see better/faster advancement in many fields?
The World May Never Know, Who-Whooooo
@dinondlovu9268
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
Your new videos are content fam
@NelsonStJames
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
I have to give Patreon kudos for even responding at all.
@Skag_Sisyphus
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
How is crowdfunding any different from the artist's plight throughout history? Fuck, in the European Enlightenment , a lot of the work we still know and love and that we see as beautiful was paid for by the rich patrons. It's the same on broadway. A lot of the plays pretend to be a little edgy, but they have to walk a line where they don't upset the wealthy patrons who pay for their existence. This is a problem that has been there for a very long time.
@laurentoulson7763
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
Hey, loved your video, some really thought provoking ideas! I just checked out the further reading you recommended, as I'm writing an essay for my degree on this at the moment – this is a brand new topic for me and I'm struggling to find any more academic sources on crowdfunding specifically on its impact on the art content produced, do you have any more recommended sources on the subject? Would be so greatful for any suggestions! 🙂
@stuartsmith4369
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
As long as we are in a capitalist system, crowd funding is at worst a necessary evil. I don't think it's a great exaggeration to say that left wing YouTube exists because of it. No one is critiquing capitalism or the status quo in a useful way on ad revenues. But something can be useful without being good. If a murderer is stalking me and i find a gun, I would certainly use it, but that wouldn't mean guns were good, just that bad systems sometimes require us to choose between principle and pragmatism. As long as you can critique crowd funding on a crowd funded platform, I don't think there is any question as to it being a good thing in aggregate.
@MirdjanHyle
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
If art is produced by the help of finance in a capitalistic social frame it can be difficult to use art to criticise capitalism, exactly as if it was produced with the help of labour in a socialist (or even communist) system, it can be difficult to use it to be critical of such a system (I would argue more so).
If art is produced with the help of my cousin, it can be difficult to use it to criticise my cousin.
the difference is that I know as a fact that art that criticises capitalism is produced in overwhelming amounts inside a capitalist framework. Even this video, for instance. Not only that, but I know as a fact that works of art that are extremely critical of the capitalistic framework have been a massive financial success. So we can argue that, somehow, in a capitalistic society art which is critical of capitalism is not only possible but even encouraged. I am not sure I can say the same under a communist system. Or about my cousin.
@NextPlayAdventure
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
instant reaction in the first few seconds, u look particularly cute in this video
@SebastianSeanCrow
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
1:21 in my experience, Patreon is for those who want to give money directly to a creator they like and whose content or art they already like. They’re giving money to something already there or that they enjoy. They know what they’re getting. Kickstarter is like a preorder service where you give money in order to fund a project and that project in turn will give you products related to the project that you think you will like.
@JustRutland
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
South Park has a great episode on this topic – Go Fund Yourself.
@eidechsebernstein954
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
Absolutely brilliant video. Thanks! What really struck me though, was not the part about art becoming content, but the part about crowdfunding sites profiting off of the capitalistic structure of society. It reminded me a bit about your discussion of the trolley problem, that we don't look beyond it and wonder what made us have to choose either of the bad things. (My English is far from perfect, I'm sorry xD)
@Post-ModernCzechoslovakianWar
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
Back when Christianity was taken more seriously in the U.S. churches used to support people more with personal charity. Families used to take care of their old people by letting them live with the family in their golden years, and not sending them off to nursing homes.
Capitalism is wonderful economic system, when utilized by a populace with a strong Judeo-Christian Worldview. Ironically now, I'd argue that the U.S. has slowly become more socialistic economically, and people are complaining more about the lack of charity even though public funding has been increasing. I know it goes back and forth, and Trump is more capitalistically inclined than Obama. But still as a whole over the last hundred years we have moved a lot closer to socialism.
Still an interesting video, even though I don't agree with all your criticisms on capitalism. Have a good day! 😉
Blessings!
@sankimalu
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
Can you do a video on why it hurts when people don’t say ‘Thank You’ even though you know that you should not always expect gratitude.
@Hannahdabeast
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
Well, let's be honest–most of the people donating on Patreon and gofundme are probably working-class themselves. Working-class people donate a larger percentage of their income to charity, and when they do, it's to things like cancer treatments or soup kitchens. When the ultra-wealthy donate money, they build parks and museums and name them after themselves.
@DanAI17
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
I think that that's a typically Liberal response (in the British sense of the word liberal), he's arguing that patreon is trying to improve things within the confines of the existing system (neoliberalism) as opposed to arguing for a different system which may negate these harms.
@richi12345678910
August 28, 2025 at 6:57 am
The more I see these videos, the more I see how morally divided I am. I don't think I know anything. The world is not at all black and white. Thanks man. Ignorance is indeed a bliss 🙂
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