Re: Putting your whole act online - why not?

Posted by fak, 2012-04-16 23:08 BST

I would like to start by saying that I am not a professional juggler/circus performer so personally have no horse in this particular race. I do nominally make my living from my own intellectual property, however, so am approaching from that side of the fence.

I don't think the public have any right to any free content from people who earn their living through live performances. This could be through acting, singing, playing music, playing sports, juggling/circus arts, dancing, doing comedy, magic or any other form of live performance. Any free content that is made available should be considered a bonus by the public, something nice that the performer provides for reasons of marketing/goodwill/whathaveyou.

I can't think of any other live performance where a video of the full unedited performance would be made available by its owner for free (people infringing others' intellectual property is a whole other ballgame, don't get me started on that). CDs and DVDs (and their digital download equivalents) are frequently available to purchase of live performances (most commonly of live musical performances) but I can't remember seeing any distributed for free. Even when these are shown on TV, money is paid for the broadcast rights by the broadcaster and money is paid for the TV service by the consumer.

When TV and film came along it pretty much killed off music hall/variety (at least in the UK). People no longer paid to go to the theatre to watch live acts and the broadcasters/filmmakers were able to pay a performer once and show their act as many times as they liked (much more cost effective for them, not so much for the performers).

The bottom line is that live performers, in whatever genre, earn their money from those live performances. In the juggling/circus world there is little to no market in related merchandising (no CD or DVD sales outside of large productions such as Cirque du Soleil, no T-shirts, no posters, very little in the way of sponsorship). A showreel (something edited together to showcase a performer's variety of skills), is valuable both in getting them booked for live performances and in getting people interested in going to see their live performances. This sort of free content can generate income for a live performer. Posting the entire live performance does not. Professional performers have to go with what will pay their bills and they don't owe anyone else anything other than their performance in their live shows that they are being paid for.

Short answer - you can die of exposure.