Drop.Dead.Drawing🌸team bloom🌸

This post inspired me and I'm gonna say something possibly controversial yet brave, but I genuinely think 99% of content creators and VTubers don't make nearly enough money from merch to justify the commercial use fees most artists charge for commissions. And before anyone comes for my throat, I COMPLETELY understand that artists need to make that bag!! Especially if someone else is profiting from their work. Artists deserve to be compensated fairly, and I'm not arguing otherwise. BUT. Here's where I struggle with the current standard. Let's say I commission artwork for a desk mat, and the artist charges an additional $200 for merchandise rights. The original art probably cost at least $100 on its own, so let's say $300 total. Realistically, I'm probably making $1 in profit per desk mat sale, MAYBE. And unless you're a pretty big VTuber, that desk mat might sell once every few months. So now I'm making a couple of dollars every few months on something I paid an extra $200 to license for merchandise. I might not even make $20 from that product in an entire YEAR, let alone enough to cover the merchandise licensing fee. And yet, commercial fees of 100-200% or more have become pretty standard. I understand the argument that the creator COULD blow up and suddenly sell thousands of units. Sure! That's possible! But statistically, the overwhelming majority of creators aren't going to experience that kind of growth or sales volume. So what ends up happening is that smaller creators are paying merchandise licensing fees based on the POSSIBILITY of making money they'll realistically never see. And I don't know, that just doesn't sit right with me. I think what frustrates me most is that these fees have become so normalized in an industry that's largely made up of individuals commissioning other individuals. If a massive corporation wants to license your artwork for a product they're going to sell thousands of? ABSOLUTELY charge them accordingly. Get that bag. PLEASE. But when we're talking about a tiny VTuber who might sell five mouse pads in an entire year, charging them an additional 200% for merchandise rights feels a little excessive to me. I don't think merchandise licensing itself is unreasonable. I just wish there were more conversations about what reasonable merchandise licensing looks like for small creators versus established businesses. Because there's a pretty massive difference between someone making $20 a year from a piece of merch and a company making $20,000. And having seen the backend of merch sales across a few different areas of VTubing and gaming, I think people would be genuinely surprised by how little most creators actually make from individual products. Again, artists deserve fair compensation. FULL STOP. I'm not arguing against paying for commercial rights, and I'm certainly not saying artists should give away merchandise rights for free. I just don't necessarily think the current one-size-fits-all approach to merchandise licensing fees makes sense for an industry where the overwhelming majority of people are barely making money from their content at all. Anyway, that's my potentially controversial two cents, please don't come for me lmao