If you came here expecting me to praise Rihanna or to slam her, you came to the wrong place. I’m not a big Rihanna fan, but again, to each his own and she probably doesn’t like to listen to long haired old men playing screaming guitars, either. No my complaint about the show is with the NFL, because to me they are playing the oldest scam in the artistic book.
“We’ll pay you in exposure.”
I did a little research, because I had heard the artists don’t get paid for the show. And that is untrue. While the NFL doesn’t pay the artist an “appearance fee,” they do get union scale for the appearance. Well that sounds better. Actually that amounts to about $1000. Now it was reported that the artists do get tremendous sales bumps, from appearing on the show, so I guess for them the exposure works, but let’s face it, none of these folks really needs the exposure. It just feels really hollow.
Now don’t get me wrong, If someone told me they’d pay me a thousand dollars and my ministry would be seen by millions of people all over the world, I’d jump at the chance, even though I hate the “pay in exposure” model, but I’m an unknown, and I minister the Gospel, so the opportunity to have the eyes and ears of that many would be hard to pass up on. Still the NFL receives $6-$7 million dollars per commercial. Surely they could afford to do a little more.
When someone says “I’ll pay you in exposure,” search your heart, and pray and discern whether or not the opportunity is from God, because unless it is, the exposure probably isn’t worth it. Sometimes it’s okay and even good to give your work away for free, and if you feel led to serve someone in that way, by all means do it, but when a person with means tells you they’ll pay you in exposure, it might just mean they don’t value you or your work enough to pay for it.
AMOKArts 