In a January 5 posting on The Museum of the Future entitled, “Are people willing to pay for Art and Culture Online,” Jasper Visser discusses common motivations people have for paying to access art and culture on the web and the likelihood of audiences to pay for things such as online music.
With the booming popularity of online music, movies and television, it’s clear that people are willing to pay for access to certain forms of culture on the internet. In applying this to nonprofit art organizations the question isn’t, are people willing to pay for art and culture online, but rather, is there enough of an audience to make an online endeavor worthwhile to an organization’s bottom line (whatever that bottom line may be for the venture). As the internet, social media and technology expand, they manipulate the way we receive information forcing the art and culture spheres to adapt. More aspects of our lives are being handled online and people are more trusting of the internet. Ecommerce is common and widespread with companies making the process as simple as a few clicks.
Will the public pay to attend a concert or show online because they cannot attend in person? Will someone pay to download a guided virtual tour of a gallery or museum?The answer is yes, because the public is growing more comfortable doing so and access is so easy. However, online art and culture won’t sell if goods and services are outrageously priced or if it’s something the buyer already readily has access to.Today’s audience is much more sophisticated than they were just last year, they want bigger, better and flashier and expect online art and culture of high quality.
If organizations begin charging fees for things that the public think should be free, it could cause a backlash. That is to say, mainstreaming the idea that you have to pay for once free forms of online art and culture might not be a simple or short process.
There will always be some segment of the public willing to pay for online access to art and culture, and that audience is only going to grow as the internet, ecommerce and technology simplify, innovate and expand. Arts organizations must always keep in mind that the audience must be large enough to make what its doing worthwhile, worth its effort and worth its time, otherwise its resources might be better spent spreading its mission in some other manner.
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